Muncie’s City Hall is going red. Republican Dan Ridenour will soon take over the mayor’s office from current Democratic Mayor Dennis Tyler.
Ridenour defeated Democratic candidate Terry Whitt Bailey in Tuesday’s election. Ridenour received 61 percent of the vote, while Bailey finished with 37 percent. Libertarian Steve Smith earned the other two percent of the vote.
Ridenour says, as mayor, he wants to be able to take everybody’s information into account before decisions are made.
“It’s going to take everybody, every citizen in Muncie, whether they’re Republican or Democrat or an Independent or Libertarian or Green Party. We had four parties running for offices this year. Everybody has to have a voice in what’s going on.”
Ridenour will be joined in that by a number of new Republican city council members.
As for Bailey, she says post-election she’s going to continue doing the best that she can for the community.
“I think that we had a great run. We had a great team, we had a great campaign, we did all that we said that we were going to do, and we said we were going to celebrate no matter what, win or lose, we were going to celebrate. And that’s what we did.”
Ridenour is set to take office January 1.