Arnold wins state Senate seat easily

Timothy O'Connor
For The News-Dispatch

LA PORTE - State Senate 8 incumbent Democrat Jim Arnold won his race in a landslide Tuesday.

"I wasn't really expecting it to be that high," he said of his vote total.

Arnold secured 35,822 votes from across the district, which includes La Porte and St. Joseph counties.

Opponents Allen Stevens, a Republican, and Gregory Kelver, a Libertarian, received 13,893 and 2,185 votes respectively in La Porte County.

Arnold added that the support was encouraging.

"Politics is a funny thing," he said, attributing his victory to his accessibility and visibility.

"I have never seen any one of my opponents at a function," Arnold said. "If [the other candidates] are not willing to put themselves out in public, they shouldn't have run."

Arnold was appointed to the state legislature in 2007 by a Democratic party caucus after State Sen. Anita Bowser's death. This is his first election to the senate.

He said he was heading to Indianapolis this afternoon to continue his work. "I'm going right back to work, but I like it that way," Arnold said.

Stevens and Kelver could not be reached for comment.



Reporter Joe Malan contributed to this report.