John Price
HANCOCK COUNTY — Four seats in three separate town council races have been trimmed down after the Tuesday, May 2 primary election, and we now know who will be running in this fall’s general election.
In McCordsville, it was Republicans Chad Gooding and Peter Murphy vying for the District 1 seat, and Republicans Larry Longman and John Price in the running for the District 3 seat. In Fortville, Republicans Sean Simmons and Libby Wyatt were going for the District 2 seat, and in Cumberland, Republicans Bob Carrell and Breck Terheide were competing for the District 4 seat.
Gooding was the McCordsville District 1 winner with 55.38% of the votes while Price grabbed the District 3 seat with 52.88% of votes.
In the District 3 race, it was current vice president Larry Longman vying to retain his seat against a newcomer. Longman has served on the town council since 2012, and was the council’s president from 2016-2019. Along with that, he is a Republican M-1 precinct committeeman, was a member of the McCordsville Redevelopment Commission from 2003-2007, and was on the McCordsville Board of Zoning Appeals from 2010-2012.
In the end, the voters chose to go with the new face, narrowly, with Price getting 101 votes to Longman’s 90.
“I’d like to thank the voters of District 3 for putting their faith in my abilities to serve them, and I’m looking forward to serving them. I’d also like to thank Larry for his 12 years of service to the town of McCordsville,” Price said. “It’s always difficult to get a feel for what the results could be. With Larry’s experience and detailed knowledge, I knew it would be an uphill battle, but we worked really hard. I talked to a bunch of neighborhood HOAs and members of the town about their wants and demands, and I implemented that into my goals.”
In the District 1 race, the newcomer came up just short. Gooding was a member of the town council in 2022 after the Republican Party caucus chose him to fill the spot of Barry Wood, and has served on the McCordsville Plan Commission since 2020, while Murphy came into the race with no prior political experience. Gooding received 36 votes to Murphy’s 29.
In the lone contested seat on the Fortville town council, both Wyatt and Simmons had prior experience as a member of the council, and it was Wyatt beating out Simmons by just four votes, 89 to 85, for the district 2 seat.
“I’m pretty excited to possibly have the chance to serve another four years. I thought it would be close, and I’m even kind of surprised I won,” Wyatt said. “Fortville has a lot of issues going on with our construction right now, and I was the only one against it, so I knew people would probably go out and vote for the other side.”
For the District 4 seat in Cumberland, Terheide won over Carrell 181 to 101.
Terheide currently serves as vice president of the town council.
