ClaraMary Winebrenner (DeKalb County Commissioner Board Central District, Indiana, candidate 2024)

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ClaraMary Winebrenner

Independent

Candidate, DeKalb County Commissioner Board Central District

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Carleton College, 1986

Personal

Birthplace

Auburn, IN

Religion

Christian: Methodist

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Campaign Facebook

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ClaraMary Winebrenner (independent) ran for election to the DeKalb County Commissioner Board Central District in Indiana. She was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.^[source]

Winebrenner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

ClaraMary Winebrenner provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 18, 2024:

• Birth date: September 24, 1963
• Birth place: Auburn, Indiana
• High school: DeKalb High School
• Bachelor's: Carleton College, 1986
• J.D.: Northwestern University School of Law (Now Pritzker), 1989
• Gender: Female
• Religion: Christian: Methodist
• Profession: Attorney
• Prior offices held:
  • Prosecutor of DeKalb County (2006-2022)
• Incumbent officeholder: No
• Campaign slogan: We believe in DeKalb!
• Campaign Facebook
• Campaign Instagram
• Campaign X

Elections

General election

General election for DeKalb County Commissioner Board Central District

Kellen R. Dooley and ClaraMary Winebrenner ran in the general election for DeKalb County Commissioner Board Central District on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Kellen R. Dooley (R)
		ClaraMary Winebrenner (Independent)

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	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for DeKalb County Commissioner Board Central District

Kellen R. Dooley and Michael Watson ran in the Republican primary for DeKalb County Commissioner Board Central District on May 7, 2024.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Kellen R. Dooley
	Submit photo	Michael Watson

---

	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Winebrenner in this election.

Campaign themes

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

ClaraMary Winebrenner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Winebrenner's responses.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I served as the Prosecutor of DeKalb County from 2006-2022, where I was the head law enforcement officer of DeKalb County, as well as running the child support office. That experience taught me both how to manage two offices consisting of 18 employees, but also, how to work with many other government offices to get the job done. During my tenure, I started monthly meetings of all the police chiefs to coordinate activities. The County also had good collaborative meetings of the justice involved offices (Prosecutor, Sheriff, Courts, Probation, Public Defender, & Commissioners) to coordinate our new Community Corrections Program and build our new Work Release facility. Working with other departments--learning what they could and could not do--allowed us to coordinate for better government. I also learned from submitting 17 annual budgets to the County Council that money is tight. If we want to start any new projects like the Poka-Bache Trail, or build the new jail we've been talking about since 2009, we're going to have to find new funding sources. That would be growth. We're going to have to encourage responsible growth to pay for a better quality of life.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• DeKalb's future is bright, and we need to embrace growth. Growth pays the bills for the things that make our community great, from schools and public safety, to the new Poka-Bache Trail if we can raise the funds or get grants. Change is inevitable because time doesn't stand still. Positive change is growth. Let's use growth to pay for those good changes, as well as our current public services and facilities.
• We knew we needed a new jail in 2009 --that's 15 years ago!

  First, we built a Community Corrections Program because we could get State funding and because it would offer decent options to reduce the jail population but not risk safety. Second, we built a new Work-Release Center because the State would generally pay for our employees, and work-release is a great option for some defendants to remain productive while doing their time.

  Now we need to build that jail we've been avoiding. In 2028, our funding options will clear up, and we need to be ready to go. The road back to CR 40 can be built in advance, and the old 2021 architectural plans will either need to be update or replaced starting in 2026.
• Better planning and cooperation would go a long way to improving county government. Whether it's putting together a 3-year plan of roads to fix, or a 10-20 year plan for zoning growth, we need to make a list. As with all plans, they have to be flexible, but failing to plan is planning to fail. We also need to work on better cooperation. That starts with checking in with all county departments and municipalities to coordinate programs and needs. It includes working respectfully with the public and asking for respect in return. We're all friends and neighbors here. We can disagree about policy, even loudly, but we have to get back to working together for the good of our community.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'm passionate about making things work better. I like fixing problems. If we gather more information, and check with more people, we can often find solutions that were not immediately apparent.

We also can plan and coordinate over time to make work flow efficiently from one task to the next. Work smarter, not harder.

I'm also passionate about rights and rules: 1. The right to debate with respect for each other's ideas; 2. The right to control one's own property within broad limits; and 3. The responsibility of officeholders to refrain from conflicts of interest and insider deals.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, because he had integrity when it hurt him, which is what counts.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

No. As an Independent Candidate for Commissioner, I have rejected both parties (or embraced both of them) because there is nothing particularly partisan about running the county. There is not Republican or Democrat way to fix a road or build the new jail; we just need to get it done! Further, if we dispense with the labels, maybe we'll fight less and produce more.

Managing the County is like taking care of our homes-- with a couple extra zeros in the budget.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

We take an oath to uphold the law, and we are not above it. Elected officials cannot simply do what they want; they must follow the law.

We work for the people. That does NOT mean we do whatever a group of our constituents request, but it does mean we hear them out. The request could be illegal or outside of our authority. It could be contrary to other citizens' interests. But, we are there to serve the public with our best ability to make the best decisions to take care of our community during our term in office.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The three county commissioners must work together as the executive of the county. They should attend reasonable training to perform their jobs and to network with the State and other counties where they can learn valuable information.

The Commissioners control the work environment of county employees, and in some cases, like County Highway, HR, and Information Services Departments, they are under the supervision of the Commissioners.

All of the county property is the responsibility of the Commissioners. That includes the Courthouse, the Annex, the Jail, the Work Release Center, Sunny Meadows County Home and the new County Highway Department, among others. It also includes all of the county roads and bridges. The Commissioners are responsible for maintaining and building county facilities.

The zoning code and all ordinances are enacted by the Commissioners, and they appoint board members to a number of boards in the county.

Drainage is an important but often overlooked responsibility of the Commissioners.

The Commissioners also have a role in managing or supporting the Airport, the County Home, public safety like fire, EMS and Central Communications.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked in my dad and grandfather's law office (VanHorne & VanHorne) organizing the closed files in the basement, and running papers to the courthouse to file starting when I was 12. I worked for him off and on through high school, college and law school with my job responsibilities growing over the years, until I was hired as an associate attorney and finally made partner.

As an attorney, I had a general practice consisting of a little bit of everything. I worked on insurance defense litigation and bill collection. I did a lot of domestic relations work, some employment law and environmental law, a little criminal defense work and drafted wills. Occasionally, I covered Board of Zoning Appeals meetings in Steuben County and closed some real estate deals.

After practicing law with my dad and his partners (my partners at the end) for 12 years, I stopped working with or for my dad when I had my children.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

They are an important part of government service. The citizens have the right to know how their money is being spent, and that it is not being paid to a favored business or for unqualified friends to get government jobs.

Livestreaming meetings has been a great improvement on this issue, because the public can easily see for themselves what happened.

It's also important that Commissioners be available to meet informally with members of the community to discuss facts and issues. Nothing better than a good discussion to work through issues. That said, fights on Facebook are unproductive and harmful because they are more performative than constructive. We need to fight ideas--not people.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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