Two have filed

Two candidates have filed to run for the District 33 seat in the Indiana House of Representatives recently vacated by Bill Davis.
Randolph County residents Greg Beumer of Modoc and Claudia Thornburg of Winchester have filed to run for the seat, which will be filled at a caucus scheduled for Nov. 18. Davis announced his resignation last month and became executive director of the Indiana Officer of Community and Rural Affairs on Monday.
Tim Berry, chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, has scheduled the caucus to select a new representative to fill out Davis’ term for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 18. It will be held in the commissioners’ room on the third floor of Randolph County Courthouse, 100 S. Washington St., Winchester.
District 33 includes all of Jay and Randolph counties and part of Delaware County.
Beumer runs the Winchester consulting firm Beumer Consulting, which offers services for grant administration, grant writing and economic and community development. He has served two stints as the executive director of Randolph Economic Development Corporation.
Thornburg is a first deputy to Randolph County Clerk Laura Martin in charge of voter registration and elections. She served as Randolph County Clerk from 2006 through ’12 and is also the chair for the Republican Party in Randolph County.
At the caucus, candidates for the position will be given an opportunity to speak to the group of about 45 precinct representatives about why they should be selected. A secret ballot will follow, with a majority vote necessary for victory.
If there are more than two candidates for the position and no one receives the 51 percent necessary, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be dropped from the ballot. The voting process will continue until a candidate receives at least 51 percent of the vote.
In order to be considered to fill the District 33 seat, candidates must fill an Economic Interest Statement with the Indiana Clerk of the House of Representatives and then file a declaration of candidacy form with the secretary of the Indiana Republic Party.
The deadline to file is 5 p.m. Nov. 15.
The new representative, who will be sworn in on the Indiana General Assembly’s Organization Day on Nov. 19, will serve the remaining 13 months of the term Davis was elected for in November of 2012.
Davis, a Portland resident, announced his resignation from the District 33 seat Oct. 25 in order to take the job leading OCRA. His last official day as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives was Sunday.
Davis was first elected in 2004, when he won a hotly-contested race against Democratic incumbent Ron Liggett. He won re-election four times — twice over Liggett and twice over Andy Schemenaur.
The next election for the District 33 seat will be Nov. 4, 2014.
Shon Byrum, a Democrat from Winchester who teaches at Burris in Muncie, has already announced his candidacy.[[In-content Ad]]