On Nov. 7, Gary residents will head to the polls to elect a new mayor, city clerk, city judge and city council. Nine of the 12 races are all but decided, with no Republican names on the ballot. In the other three races, Republican candidates face long odds in the Democrat-dominated city. Mayoral candidate Andrew Delano would be the city’s first Republican mayor in eighty years. Ernst Schaible, .
Mark Spencer, a teacher and the director of the West Side Theatre Guild, is set to fill the Gary Common Council’s vacant at-large seat after a Democratic Party caucus that will be held on Saturday. Spencer, who unseated former council president William Godwin in the at-large Democratic primary in May, was the only candidate to file to run, Lake County Democratic Party Chair Jim Wieser .