Elkhart County residents will drop three old Indiana House districts in 2013 and pick up two new ones.

House Districts 21, 48 and 49 will continue to include Elkhart County, represented by Republicans Timothy Wesco, Tim Neese and Wes Culver, respectively. All three have filed for re-election, but only Culver is thus far unopposed in the primary and general elections.

Gone from our legislative pie will be House District 5, represented by Democrat Craig Fry of Mishawaka. The slivers of House Districts 23 and 18, represented by Republicans Bill Friend of Macy and Dave Wolkins of Winona Lake, are replaced by small portions of House Districts 22 and 82.

District 22

Republican Rebecca Kubacki represents District 22, which will include Nappanee and New Paris. She has filed for re-election.

Kubacki serves on the House Ways and Means, Small Business and Economic Development committees.

Job creation and education are her priorities in the Legislature, she said. “I will work tirelessly to do what I can legislatively to create a business-friendly environment and reduce the regulations that hinder business development,” Kubacki said.

“Education also plays an important role in my legislative-making decisions,” she said, noting that she is particularly interested in early childhood development. “Our financial investment should be at the very early stages of a child’s learning cycle. Preschool and elementary school is where the foundation for successful learning takes place. Often we wait until it is too late, which results in the increased dropout rates we are seeing.”

Kubacki was born in a migrant camp in Florida, the middle of seven children. Her parents, Raul and Christine Espinoza, moved to Indiana to work for a Kosciusko County tomato farmer. “My parents never expected others to take care of their family. It was a matter of pride. You don’t get from the migrant camp to the Statehouse without a solid work ethic,” Kubacki said.

The Syracuse resident is on the board of governors of the Riley Children’s Hospital Foundation and serves on the grants committee. She also serves on the Fort Wayne Board of United Hispanic Americans, the Governor’s Commission for Latino Affairs, the President’s Advisory Board for North Manchester College, Ivy Tech and the Indiana Historical Museum.

Kubacki is married and has two children and two grandchildren.

She is being challenged by Republican Jon Hare in the primary. He did not return a call for comment.

Democrat John Bonitati of Warsaw also filed for the office. He is unopposed in the primary.

District 82

House District 82 is a newly redrawn district that has no incumbent. Most of the rural district is in Noble County, but it also contains a small portion of Elkhart County.

There are four Republicans running for the open seat in the primary.

Denise Lemmon has lived in Noble County for 37 years. She and her husband Mike built a small family farm into an agribusiness.

Lemmon is executive director of LEAP of Noble County, a literacy program.

Education and the economy are two issues important to people in the district and throughout the state, she said. While Elkhart County has paced the state in unemployment, Noble County has been right behind, Lemmon said. The question is how to incentivize “business to park here and live here. Part of that is a great quality of life,” she said.

She said she isn’t running because she has a gripe. “I do not have an agenda,” she said, noting she wants to be a bridge between the people and state government.

Lemmon grew up in Indianapolis and graduated from Purdue University. She has been on the board and served as an officer of Parkview Health System, Parkview Noble Hospital and the Noble County Community Foundation. Lemmon also is part of the Noble County Economic Development Corp.

The mother of four has five grandchildren.

David Ober of Albion filed Jan. 11. His website, davidober.us, says that his campaign slogan is “Let’s get back to work.”

“In my conversations with voters, I’ve heard time and again that government doesn’t work for the people,” Ober’s website states. “My new slogan signifies my hopes of a new era of government that works hard for its citizens.”

Ober wants to lower the corporate tax rate, “remove burdensome regulations,” develop infrastructure, and provide students with a top-tier education. Ober’s website said he supports charter schools and vouchers. He said he will not support a state budget with tax increases.

Ober, 24, is a Central Noble graduate and a 2009 graduate of Purdue University. He is a web designer with JPC Media Group in Kendallville. Ober is a member and officer in the Albion Lions Club and serves on the Noble County Library board. Politically, Ober is chairman of the Noble County Young Republicans and 3rd District vice chairman for the Indiana Federation of Young Republicans.

Mike Caywood of Huntertown, an elementary school principal, has been an educator for 40 years. He said people need someone to represent them, as opposed to the party, in Indianapolis.

“I’m just real disappointed here recently in what I am seeing happen in state government in that there’s too much stuff going right along party lines without people really giving thought to what’s going on and really truly representing the people in the district,” Caywood said.

He is concerned about education funding and teacher and principal evaluations “just being railroaded through” at the Statehouse.

“I think it’s time that the little guy has his or her voice heard in Indianapolis,” which is totally against the power structure there, Caywood said.

He said he’d have an advantage in dealing with education funding issues.

Wesley Ortell of Wolcottville is a veteran of the U.S. Army, where he served in the Special Forces.

He’s served as a pilot, firefighter, a volunteer member and trainer on the Lake County Search and Recovery Team and on the LaGrange County Sheriff’s Department Reserves. Ortell is a heavy equipment operator, a member of Local 150 in Chicago.

He feels for those who lost their homes and are suffering because of the economy and wants to help them in the Legislature. “I’m here to help the regular person out, not the big company,” Ortell said.

He wants to make sure Indiana companies hiring Hoosiers work on state infrastructure projects. “It’s hard for the state to do a lot except keeping work going in this state,” he said.

Ortell, the father of one and grandfather of three, said he also is concerned about the education of children.

Democrat Mike Wilber of Laotto is running unopposed in the primary.

District 21

Wesco is being challenged by Randy Conner of Elkhart in the GOP primary.

Conner, a retired heavy equipment operator, said he’s running for the House seat because “no one should get a free ride in the primary.”

He is a 16-year member of the American Legion and has been married for 29 years.

Conner disagrees with the recently passed right-to-work law and believes unemployment should have been addressed “rather than picking on folks’ right-to-work or union affiliation.”

“I feel that the public was left completely out of it and actually had no input to the process whatsoever,” he said.

Conner said he wants to save most of his ideas for the campaign, but did say that all gas stations should be required to have attendants again, as they do in New Jersey. “If they all hired one employee, that would be a great thing. If they hired two, it would be better,” he said.

Wesco, a Penn Township firefighter and owner of Providence Real Estate, is serving his first term in the Legislature.

The winner of the primary will meet Democrat Andrew B. Jones of Elkhart in the fall election.

District 48

Neese is being challenged by Jerry Brewton of Elkhart and Randall Ty Weinley of Bristol.

Weinley is a lifelong area resident who works in Chicago five days a week, eight months of the year, but lives in Bristol.

“I’ve watched a lot of ups and downs in this community,” Weinley said, noting the recession and the housing crisis have affected many people, including himself.

That’s what he decided to run — he didn’t want to just sit around and talk about it. “Very few people take the step forward to try and do something,” Weinley said.

He wants to take the concerns of local residents to the Statehouse to be heard. “I’m not going to myself change the reality of things, but at least I am going to try, put forth he effort,” he said.

The 1984 Northridge High School graduate worked for an Elkhart County company for about 10 years and “overnight it was just gone.”

He said he was unsure what to do for about six to eight months and then got the job in Chicago about five years ago. “You do what you have to do to put food on the table ... it pays the bills,” he said.

Weinley has three children.

Brewton has owned Brewton Insurance since 1976 and served on the Concord school board for two terms.

Neese, director of the Solid Waste Management District of Elkhart County, is a five-term member of the General Assembly and previously served on the Elkhart City Council for four terms.

In 2012, District 48 will be entirely in Elkhart County. It currently stretches into St. Joseph County.

Indiana Senate

Elkhart County will maintain three state Senate districts in 2013. State Sen. Carlin Yoder, R-Middlebury (District 12), and State Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Bremen (District 9), are unopposed in both the primary.

Yoder will be challenged by Democrat Jim Ball of Middlebury in the fall election.

Joe Zakas,R-Granger (District 11), is not up for re-election.

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