Cedar Lake Town Council member Colleen Schieben Wednesday said moving forward she is “walking away from politics 100%” in the aftermath of Tuesday’s election.
Schieben lost her 5th Ward town council seat to former three-term Councilman Gregory Parker, according to the unofficial results from the Lake County Board of Elections.
Parker ended up with 795 votes with all precincts reporting compared to Schieben’s 638. Democratic candidate Deborah Mandich-Nowland wound up with 431 votes. Totals are not official until 10 days after the election when provisional ballots are cured.
Parker, a registered Republican, did not run in the primary and instead opted to run in the general election as an independent, pulling votes from both the Republican and Democratic candidate.
“I don’t want anything more to do with it. I’m going to enjoy having my time back,” Schieben said.
She said the campaign became ugly and lies were spread.
“It got out of hand,” Schieben said. “If John Lotton fills (the town) with apartments, I don’t care. It’s over. I am fine with that.”
Schieben said prior to the vote totals coming in Tuesday she resigned her position with the Cedar Lake Hanover Republican Organization where she served as secretary.
“I’m completely done,” she said.
Randy Niemeyer, chairman of Lake County’s Republican Central Committee, said emotions are running high right now in the wake of the election. Niemeyer was a Cedar Lake Town Councilman, where he served as president. He vacated the seat Dec. 31 to take a seat as a Lake County Councilman.
Niemeyer said there were a couple communities where campaigning became nasty, especially on social media.
“There were a lot of difficult things said, bad things. I think there’s a lot of emotion. Once everybody settles down hopefully we can coalesce and work together,” Niemeyer said.
Schieben was among a string of incumbent town council members to lose their positions this election cycle.
Republican newcomer Richard Thiel and Democrat Mary Joan Dickson were the leading vote-getters in a four-way race for the two at-large council seats. Both Thiel and fellow Republican candidate Larry Nagy were new to the field after ousting the incumbent Republicans John Foreman and Richard Sharpe for the seats in the May primary. Jeff Biel also ran for a seat in the general as a Democrat.
Thiel secured 1,083 votes with all precincts reporting while Dickson nabbed the second seat with 866 votes. Nagy received 782 votes while Biel secured 465. Results are not final until provisional ballots are cured 10 days after the election.
Republican Chuck Becker, also a newcomer, was unchallenged Tuesday in his bid for the 4th Ward seat.
