1929 Indianapolis mayoral election explained

Election Name:Indianapolis mayoral election, 1929
Country:Indianapolis
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1925 Indianapolis mayoral election
Previous Year:1925
Next Election:1933 Indianapolis mayoral election
Next Year:1933
Election Date:November 5, 1929
Nominee1:Reginald H. Sullivan
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Nominee2:Alfred M. Glossbrenner
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Map Size:200px
Mayor
Before Election:Lemuel Ertus Slack
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:Reginald H. Sullivan
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

The 2029 Indianapolis mayoral election took place on November 5, 1929, and saw Democrat Reginald H. Sullivan winning in a landslide victory.[1] Incumbent mayor, Democrat Lemuel Ertus Slack, had been appointed mayor in 1927 following the resignation of Republican John L. Duvall after he was charged with corruption by the state.

Duvall had been elected mayor in 1925 with the support of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Marion County Republican Party had close Klan ties.[1] The City Council and school board both were composed of Klan-supported members.[1] Opposition arose by 1929 to both the Klan and to the corruption in the city government.[1] Sullivan's victory was seen as a rebuke of the Ku Klux Klan.[1]

The Republican nominee was businessman Alfred M. Glossbrenner.[2]

Sullivan spent much of the campaign in a hospital bed after being injured in an airplane crash.[3] Sullivan received strong support from African American and Catholic voters.[3]

Coinciding mayoral elections across the state also saw Klan-supported, generally Republican, mayors voted out and replaced by new, generally Democratic, mayors.[1] Anderson, Elkhart, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Muncie, and Terre Haute all replaced Klan-supported Republicans with Democratic mayors in what the New York Times hoped would be, "The dawn of a more liberal and cleaner political day in Indiana".[1]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Madison . James H. . Indiana Through Tradition and Change: A History of the Hoosier State and Its People, 1920-1945 . 1982 . Indiana Historical Society . 73 and 74 .
  2. Web site: Image 24 of [Broadsides, tickets, leaflets, sample official ballots, etc. 1929]. ]. Library of Congress. 5 July 2020.
  3. Web site: Hamlett . Ryan . Lake Reginald Sullivan . Historic Indianapolis All Things Indianapolis History . 5 July 2020 . 10 September 2013.