The Republican ticket is set for the November race. Gary “Doc” Dillon, Indiana District 17 Representative, is stepping down at the end of his term. This led to a race for his seat by three men, Tom Wall ( Huntington County Commissioner), Jim Banks ( Columbia City Council), and Ron Fusselman (Coffee D'Vine owner). Mr. Fusselman would later pull out to challenge for another position. This left Mr. Wall and Mr. Banks to go head to head for the seat in the Indiana House.
 

Mr. Wall carried his home county but failed to gain support in the other counties (Whitley and parts of Allen, Grant, Wabash, Kosciusko) in the district. By 7:30 pm, Mr. Banks was ahead in Grant County at 75 percent and Whitley County at 80 percent while Mr. Wall had 58 percent in Huntington County. But by the end of the counting, Mr. Wall couldn't get enough to beat his opponent.
 

Mr. Wall stated, “I anticipated that he would win in his home county like he thought I would win in mine. That's why we worked so hard in the other townships.”
 

Mr. Banks said he was excited and now was putting his energy into the November race. He went on to say that Mr. wall was a hard opponent but ran a gentleman's race.
 

The unofficial results by county are:
Jim Banks: Whitley 79.92%, Huntington 43.31%, Wabash 67%, Grant 75.4%
Tom Wall: Whitley 20.08%, Huntington 56.69%, Wabash 33%, Grant 24.6%
Kosciusko totals were not readily available.