The first Independent candidate to run in a Warsaw election in 8 years is filing today.
Chris Plack has been posting to his “Plack for Warsaw” Facebook page for months, but waited until after the Primary to announce what position he will be seeking this November.
“I will be entering the General Election as an Independent candidate for Warsaw Common Council District 2,” he tells News Now Warsaw.
The last time someone ran as an Independent for the City of Warsaw was Jerry Opperud, who pursued the role of mayor in 2003 and 2007 against Ernie Wiggins and again in 2011 against Joe Thallemer.
Before Plack’s filing, Republican Josh Finch was the only candidate for the District 2 seat. It is currently held by Ron Shoemaker who was selected via caucus in 2015 and ran for mayor in the Primary instead of running as an incumbent for Common Council.
Plack cites his family as a big inspiration in running for Council.
“When I look at my children…there just came this moment where I said, you know what? It’s time for me to stop telling my wife ‘one day I’m going to do this’ and I’m just going to do it, I’m going to run,” he tells News Now Warsaw. “I feel like we need people running for office in this town, and in this county even, who are not necessarily filling a party role. I’m not running as a Democrat, I’m not running as a Republican– I’m just an every day guy.”
Despite running as an Independent, Plack says he is a conservative.
“I am a registered Republican, I have voted Republican my entire life,” he says. “When inspiration struck, the filing deadline had already passed.”
Still, he says it is easy to get on the ballot as an Independent and he encourages others to get involved as well.
“We do need more people stepping up and doing this,” he tells News Now Warsaw. “I think the low [voter] turnout that we see happens from voter complacency because they feel like it’s taken care of. We’ve had party dominance in this town for so long, I mean how many times do people run unopposed for positions of great importance?”
Plack uses District 2 as an example.
“The people in my district, District 2, they’re going to get to make a choice. And this is a district that hasn’t elected somebody since 2011,” he explains. “The voters of District 2 are going to have the opportunity to make a choice.”
As his top issues, Chris Plack says infrastructure is number one. He says infrastructure includes not just roads, but also sewer issues, and working to build infrastructure to build working class homes.
Plack also hopes to address the opioid crisis if he gets into office.
“By the time you’re in the jail bookings…at that point we’re deep into the issue. What I want to do is go back and help at stage 1. Let’s let government empower these organizations to help children, to help families.”
Plack also says he wants to foster the relationships with the orthopedic companies and give small business owners the same advantages we give our bigger businesses in the city.
He says he hopes his pursuit of a Common Council seat will inspire others.
“It is my deepest desire that this begins a movement of young people getting involved in the process here in this town.”
