The Indianapolis mayoral election of 2007 took place on November 6, 2007. Voters elected the Mayor of Indianapolis, members of the Indianapolis City-County Council, as well as several other local officials. Incumbent Democrat Bart Peterson was seeking a third term. Republicans nominated former Marine Greg Ballard to run against Peterson. In what was called "the biggest upset in Indiana political history", Ballard defeated Peterson 51% to 47%.[1]
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| Turnout | 26.2% | ||||||||||||||||
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 Voting by party by neighborhood. The darkest blue shade represents more than 60% of votes were for Peterson, the lighter blue shade represents more than 50% for Peterson. The darkest red shade represents more than 60% of votes were for Ballard, the lighter red shade represents more than 50% for Ballard. | |||||||||||||||||
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The Indianapolis City-County elections took place alongside the mayoral election.[2]
Candidates
- Democrat Bart Peterson, incumbent Mayor, ran for a third term.
- Republican Greg Ballard
- Libertarian Fred Peterson
Campaign
Peterson was vastly considered a lock to win the election by political experts.[3] The incumbent Peterson had nearly 30 times as much campaign money as the challenger. Peterson, who started with considerable fundraising advantages, raised nearly $1.5 million since April and had $1.5 million left in late October.[4] In contrast, Ballard raised nearly $225,000 since April and had just over $51,000 left in his campaign fund in late October. Peterson spent nearly $1.5 million on TV and radio ads and $113,000 on polling and research. Two weeks before election day, Ballard had still not put up any TV ads.[3]
Issues
The two major issues in the mayoral campaign were crime and taxes.[5] Residents felt property taxes were most important due to the spike in the tax. Rising crime was another major issue in the election.[6]
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Greg Ballard | 83,238 | 50.4 | ||
| Democratic | Bart Peterson (incumbent) | 77,926 | 47.2 | ||
| Libertarian | Fred Peterson | 3,787 | 2.3 | ||
| No party | Write-Ins | 51 | 0.1 | ||
| Turnout | 165,002 | 26.2 | |||
| Majority | 5,312 | 3.2 | |||
| Republican gain from Democratic | Swing | ||||
References
| Preceded by 2003 | Indianapolis mayoral election 2007 | Succeeded by 2011 |