Furgeson edges Weber in Shelbyville mayoral race

furgeson-edges-weber-in-shelbyville-mayoral-race

Former mayor Scott Furgeson will return to office in January as the next mayor of Shelbyville.

Furgeson (main photo), a Republican, narrowly defeated the Democratic candidate Nic Weber, 1,406 to 1,387, in Tuesday’s election.

Furgeson was a two-term Shelbyville mayor prior to current mayor Tom DeBaun, who is finishing his third and final term. Furgeson was a two-term city councilman prior to being elected mayor in 2003.

He returned to city government in 2020 when he was elected the Fourth Ward city councilman.

“This was a lot closer than I wanted, but I am glad I came out on top,” said Furgeson after the final voting numbers were announced. “I want to congratulate Nic on running a great race and to Denny Ramsey for kind of reinvigorating the Democratic Party. They did a nice job, are a class act and are good people. It was nice to be able to come out on top.”

Republicans swept the voting races Tuesday in Shelbyville. Along with Furgeson returning to office, Scott Asher will remain Clerk-Treasurer and the city council will add four new members – all Republicans.

Dennis Harrold and Chuck Reed were elected to the At-Large seats on the council, defeating Democrats Cristi Brant and Joanne Bowen.

Bowen is the current First Ward representative on the council. Kassy Wilson will assume that position in January. She defeated the Democratic challenger Susan Pouder, who was not able to maintain Bowen’s seat on the council.

Betsy Means-Davis will continue as the Second Ward representative. She was unopposed in the election.

Mike Johnson remains as Third Ward representative. He defeated Democrat Patrick Addis.

Linda Sanders takes over Ferguson’s seat as Fourth Ward representative. She was unopposed Tuesday.

Thurman Adams maintained his role as Fifth Ward representative, defeating challenger Linda West.

“There are a lot of new council members. I am looking forward to it,” said Ferguson. “More females than we’ve had on the city council too. I think that is good for the city. There will be a lot of thoughtfulness and good people working for us.”

The council now consists of four women and three men and none have more than one term of service to the council.

Weber, who entered the mayoral race with no city government experience, made the race close.

“Honestly, it is frustrating to lose,” said Weber. “You don’t set out to do something like this to lose. I am proud of the fact that we were within 19 votes of winning the mayorship in this town.

“I had zero political experience going into this but I had a great team of people, a great team of friends and family and lots of support. It is a very exciting time for us. I had a great time. This isn’t it. There is more work to be done. This was just my first opportunity to have a shot at something like this and I really appreciate everyone’s support.”

Weber owns a local plumbing business and is a full-time firefighter/paramedic with the Shelbyville Fire Department. He faced a steep learning curve as soon as he announced his candidacy and feels he will be better prepared should he choose to run for office in the future.

“The truth is it is hard to say what four years down the road will bring,” said Weber. “I certainly have discovered a lot of things that need attention in our city and our county. There are things people are concerned about.

“I’ve learned an unbelievable amount about everything in this campaign. It’s been very eye-opening to me. I’m just a worker and I have been very flattered by all the support that came to this campaign. I am still as committed as I’ve ever been to being a public servant in Shelbyville and Shelby County.”

Furgeson has been away from the mayor’s office for 16 years and that has provided him with a different perspective as he embarks on his second turn as mayor.

“Twenty years since I first took office, its maturity and a different outlook. The older you get in life, you look at everything differently,” said Furgeson. “As I said during the election process, we need to work on ourselves. We need to do better. We need to make sure we take care of our people.

“We really need to move forward in that aspect and still try and grow at the same time, but take care of ourselves and take care of our people in our community.”

According to the election summary report, 3,103 people voted or 18.99% of registered voters (16,337).

There were 1,162 walk-in or absentee votes; 97 paper absentee votes. A total of 1,844 people voted Tuesday.

There were 698 straight-party Republican votes and 226 straight-party Democrat votes.

Here is the summary (winners in bold):

Mayor

(R) Scott Furgeson -- 1,406 votes

(D) Nic Weber -- 1,387 votes

Shelbyville Clerk-Treasurer

(R) Scott Asher -- 1,941 votes

Shelbyville Council At-Large

(R) Dennis Harrold -- 1,546 votes

(R) Chuck Reed -- 1,229 votes

(D) Cristi Brant -- 958 votes

(D) Joanne Bowen -- 936 votes

Council First Ward

(R) Kassy Wilson -- 296 votes

(D) Susan Pouder -- 210 votes

Council Second Ward

(R) Betsy Means-Davis -- 286 votes

Council Third Ward

(R) Mike Johnson -- 552 votes

(D) Patrick Addis -- 298 votes

Council Fourth Ward

(R) Linda Sanders -- 475 votes

Council Fifth Ward

(R) Thurman Adams -- 269 votes

(D) Linda West -- 206 votes

Morristown Clerk-Treasurer

(R) Morgan Stratton -- 104 votes

(D) Donald Roberts -- 91 votes

Morristown Town Council

(R) David Benefiel -- 126 votes

(R) Tamera Davis -- 124 votes

Edinburgh Town Clerk-Treasurer

(Ind.) Scott Finley -- 37 votes

Edinburgh Town Council At-Large

(R) Sherri Sweet -- 36 votes

(R) Miriam Rooks -- 34 votes

(Ind.) Michael Bryant -- 24 votes

(R) Jeff Simpson -- 15 votes

St. Paul Clerk-Treasurer

(Ind.) Alyssa Hall -- 17 votes

(R) Cassandra Jenkins -- 5 votes

St. Paul Town Council At-Large

(Ind.) Joshua Sangl -- 19 votes

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