‘We did everything we could’

Shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, David Sabbagh announced that he conceded the mayoral election to incumbent Mayor Mark Kruzan in a room full of Monroe County Republicans at their headquarters in the Fountain Square \nMall ballroom.\n“We did everything we could,” he said. “I don’t know what we could do differently.”\nSabbagh told the crowd of Republicans they must continue to run strong campaigns against the Democrats. He thanked those who helped him throughout his campaign, including his supporters and his wife, Linda.\n“We have to have a viable opposition. We absolutely cannot be a one-party town,” Sabbagh said, triggering applause from the crowd. “Then we’ve given up on Bloomington, and we can’t do that.”\nVolunteer coordinator for Sabbagh’s campaign Ana Ivey said when she went to the polls she saw low voter turnout, which she said is a bad sign for Bloomington politics.\n“Politics in Monroe County have been taken for granted,” Ivey said. “A lot of Republicans have given up on \nthe city.”\nShe said the Republicans in Monroe County are going to have to keep trying to correct the misperception of what a Republican is.\n“They think the city is a Democratic bastion, no matter what we do,” she said.\nRepublican Mike Trotzke said he knows some Democrats that are weary of a dominating party in Bloomington politics.\n“Even if you are a staunch Democrat, there’s a logical concern to one party having complete autonomy,” \nTrotzke said.\nSabbagh said that although he isn’t going to Disney World, he’s going to take some \ntime off.\n“My last political ambition was to be mayor of Bloomington, and obviously that’s not going to happen,” \nhe said.\nSabbagh said the campaign was intense and took a lot out of him.\n“It’s not like anything else I’ve ever done,” he said. “It takes all your life.”