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| Elections in Indiana |
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The Indianapolis mayoral election of 1967 took place on November 7, 1967.[1] Richard Lugar defeated incumbent Democratic mayor John J. Barton, becoming the first Republican to be elected mayor of Indianapolis in nearly two-decades.[1][2] Democrats had long dominated mayoral elections before 1967, having won ten of the thirteen mayoral elections since 1930.[1] No Democrat would subsequently recapture the mayoralty until 1999, largely due to the city-county merger that created the Unigov in 1970 adding the votes of suburban Marion County, which shifted the composition the electorate towards the Republicans.[3]
Nominations
Democratic primary
Barton was unsuccessfully challenged by Marion County Democratic Party chairman James W. Beatty.[4] Beatty's challenge to Barton was seen as an act of retribution for Barton seeking to unseat Beatty as chairman the previous year.[4]
Republican primary
A former member of the Indianapolis School Board,[4] earlier that year Lugar had unsuccessfully sought to become President of the but lost by a vote of four to three.[1] Lugar was also the former head of Community Action Against Poverty and an executive at Thomas I. Green & Co.[4] After this, he was convinced by L. Keith Bulen, the chair of the Marion County Republican Committee, to run for mayor.[1] Lugar was also supported by the Republican Action Committee, a group of young Republicans that had organized after the party's losses in the 1964 election cycle in order to challenge control of the party from the party establishment.[4]
In the primary, Lugar defeated former mayor Alex M. Clark.[4]
General election
Lugar made roughly 400 speeches over the course of his candidacy, discussing a wide variety of issues rather than focusing narrowly on a handful of issues.[4] Among effective criticisms he lodged against Barton was criticism of the practice of open-dump burning of refuse (including in wards that had historically been strongly Democratic).[4] He also spoke on issues such as the construction of the highway inner loop, minority demands, and a lack of adequate recreation space.[4]
Barton had been a fairly popular incumbent.[1] By the end of the election cycle, it had been widely anticipated that he would be reelected by a narrow margin.[4] Lugar's win was considered to be a political upset.[4]
Coinciding municipal elections were also swept by the Republican Party.[5] Republicans took the city council elections with a 6 to 3 majority of seats.[4]