Former IU student Sydney Zulich won the Democratic nomination for the Bloomington City Council District 6 race. Zulich is the youngest candidate to be nominated for a city council seat during this election cycle, according to Indiana Public Media.
Five Monroe County Democratic Party precinct chairs unanimously elected Zulich as the new nominee at a vacancy caucus Friday. The chairs voted and announced Zulich — who was uncontested — would be the party’s nominee to fill the vacancy in just 15 minutes.
Zulich received her undergraduate degree from IU this past spring and, if elected, will represent a student-dense area of Bloomington.
[Related: Monroe County Democratic Party holding caucus to fill ballot vacancy left by David Wolfe Bender]
Zulich plans to encourage student involvement in local democracy and share young voices in Bloomington, according to her campaign team’s press release. The press release also states Zulich wants to increase public access to government officials and processes and raise awareness of personal safety initiatives.
Zulich will fill the ballot vacancy left by David Wolfe Bender, the former Democratic nominee for the District 6 seat. In May, the Monroe County Election board investigated Bender’s residency after the publication of an IDS story that found the IU student did not live at the District 6 address he was registered at. Bender withdrew from the race after the board referred his case to Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Monroe County Prosecutor Erika Oliphant.
Prior to receiving the democratic nomination, Zulich filed paperwork to run as an independent candidate for the District 6 vacancy. While she had collected the required number of signatures, she did not officially declare her candidacy as an independent candidate.
Zulich must file her campaign finance forms by July 3 to appear on the November ballot.
Currently, there is no Republican nominee for the District 6 seat, however, the party has until July 3 to fill a ballot vacancy.
