Starke County Commissioner, District 2

What this office does

In 91 of Indiana's 92 counties, a three-member board of commissioners is the county executive and conducts the county's business in the board's name ^{[1, 2]}. Commissioners administer county government affairs that state law does not assign to a separately elected officer, while the county council, a separate elected body, controls budgets, tax rates and salaries ^{[2, 3, 4]}. Marion County is the exception: under the consolidated Indianapolis–Marion County government (Unigov), the mayor holds most executive power, and the elected county assessor, auditor and treasurer serve as the county commissioners, with duties that mostly concern county finances ^{[5, 2, 6]}.

The job in full — the duties the Indiana Code puts in it, the term, what it pays and who sets that, and what to ask a candidate.

Term

4 years, starting January 1 after the election; seats are staggered, so one or two of the three seats are filled at each general election ^[7]

Elected

On the partisan general-election ballot; each commissioner represents a district and must live in it, but in every county except Lake and St. Joseph the whole county votes on every commissioner seat; in Lake and St. Joseph counties only the district's voters choose ^{[8, 9]}

Term limit

None stated; the statute that sets the four-year term does not limit how many terms a commissioner may serve ^[7]

Qualifications

Must have lived in the county at least one year and in the commissioner district at least six months before the election, and be registered to vote in the election district; a county employee who is elected must leave that county job on taking office ^{[10, 9]}

Pay

Set locally: the county council fixes the compensation of county officers in its annual salary ordinance ^{[4, 11]}

On the 2026 ballot

94 races; 41 contested ^[12]

What has changed in this job lately

Changes in the law the next officeholder will work under, most distant first.

1. 2023

   Under Senate Enrolled Act 4, the Health First Indiana public health fund required counties to opt in; Huntington County's commissioners, for example, voted to opt in in June 2023, and 86 counties covering about 96% of Hoosiers received funding while Whitley, Wells, Fountain, Johnson, Crawford and Harrison counties did not opt in ^{[17, 18]}.

2. 2023

   State law gave counties with 185,000 to 300,000 residents until September 1, 2023, to opt in to electing commissioners from three single-member districts with a nine-member council elected entirely by district ^{[15, 8, 19, 16]}.

3. 2025

   Commissioners in several counties faced data center rezoning requests; in Kosciusko County, commissioners did not approve a rezoning for a proposed Prologis data center after opposition from residents, and the Indianapolis Business Journal reported that a 2019 state law offers qualified data center operators tax breaks of up to 50 years ^[14].

4. April 15, 2025

   Gov. Mike Braun signed Senate Enrolled Act 1, a property tax law he called historic tax relief; Rep. Greg Porter (D-Indianapolis) said it would cost local governments and schools up to $1.8 billion over three years, and the law also gives local governments new income tax tools ^[20].

5. March 12, 2026

   House Enrolled Act 1210 delayed SEA 1's local income tax overhaul by one year, so current county income tax ordinances now expire January 1, 2029, and it lets counties create a Municipal Unit Strategic Taskforce of county and city representatives to negotiate how income tax revenue is shared ^{[21, 22]}.

Starke County's numbers for this office

Legal Insights county office research (Oct. 13, 2026): Indiana Gateway budgets 2019-2026 and the indicator sources linked on each line.

• In most counties this department also holds countywide costs such as group and liability insurance, contracts and some capital projects. It is the department total, not the cost of the board of commissioners.

Also on the record for this office

• SEA 1 estimated county-unit revenue change in 2028 vs prior law: $-524,650 (LSA)
• MUST taskforce (LIT distribution talks): none found
• wheel tax: discussed
• fiscal consultant named in records: Baker Tilly

Measured, for this county

A position compares this county with counties of similar size. It is not a grade: for most measures a higher or lower number is neither good nor bad on its own.

About this race

• Starke County (county seat: Knox) has a three-member board of commissioners. In 2026 its members are Mike VanDeMark (president), Charles Chesak (vice president) and Don Binkley ^[23]. The commissioner race is decided countywide: the District 2 contest drew 2,441 Republican primary votes in 2026 and 5,488 general-election votes in 2022, far more than the District 2 council race on the same ballots ^{[25, 24]}.
• Open seat: Binkley filed for re-election in January 2026 but lost the May 5 Republican primary to Leinbach, 1,381 (56.58%) to 1,060 (43.42%). No Democrat filed for the seat ^{[36, 25, 26]}.
• The November ballot pairs Republican E. Todd Leinbach, a sitting at-large county council member, with independent Bryan Harold Cavender, who held the District 2 commissioner seat after winning it in 2018 and lost it to Binkley by one vote in the 2022 Republican primary ^{[12, 37, 23, 27, 28]}.
• Budget pressure from the 2025 property-tax law (SEA 1): in March 2026, Council Vice President Dave Pearman reported projected levy reductions of $354,000 for 2026, $422,000 for 2027 and $524,000 for 2028. The council debated a public-safety or EMS local income tax, 6% to 7% department cuts, or using solar and CEDIT money ^[38]. At an August 2026 budget hearing, the council discussed a projected loss of $623,000 to about $1 million ^[39]. The council had not adopted a 2027 budget by the end of September 2026 because of disputes over budget figures and salary increases; adoption was moved to October 19 ^[40].
• Energy and land use: commissioners kept moratoriums on commercial solar and battery storage in place into 2026, adopted a reworked solar ordinance, battery-storage rules with 2,000-foot setbacks and a 12-month carbon-capture moratorium ^{[33, 35]}. The county has spent months negotiating road repairs with the Mammoth Solar project and reviewing a NextEra/NIPSCO solar economic development agreement and abatement ^{[30, 41]}. In October 2025, a council member reported that a data center was looking at 300 acres in the county ^[42].
• Other recurring issues: replacing EMS cardiac monitors and ambulances, Jail CEDIT spending, a reconciliation of the treasurer's accounts required by the State Board of Accounts, and transparency in the county-funded Starke County Economic Development Foundation ^{[42, 43, 44, 39]}.
• No candidate forums or debates for this race were found in sources reviewed.

Who holds this seat now

Don Binkley (Republican) — not on this ballot.

Republican Don Binkley holds the District 2 seat on the three-member Starke County Board of Commissioners. He won the seat in 2022 and is not on the November ballot: he lost the May 5, 2026 Republican primary to County Council member E. Todd Leinbach, 1,381 votes (56.58%) to 1,060 (43.42%), so the seat is open ^{[23, 24, 25, 26]}.

Binkley's record in the job

• 2018: As the Democratic nominee, lost the District 2 general election to Republican Bryan Harold Cavender, 4,369 votes (58.25%) to 3,132 (41.75%) ^[27].
• May 2022: Won the Republican primary for District 2 over then-commissioner Cavender, 933 votes to 932, on the county's primary summary report; he was unopposed in the November 2022 general election (5,488 votes) ^{[28, 24]}.
• January 6, 2025: Cast the lone 'no' votes when the board voted 2-1 to remove exclusions from the county's solar moratorium (except projects already permitted) and to place a moratorium on battery storage ^[29].
• April 28, 2025: In a joint meeting on repairing roads used by the Mammoth Solar project, said he wanted Mammoth to pay for county labor, a $49,522.50 shortfall and a culvert, which the minutes put at about $155,000 ^[30].
• January 5, 2026: The board assigned him continued oversight of the county jail, EMS and emergency services for 2026 ^[31].
• January 20, 2026: Moved to renew the county's economic development contract at $110,000 a year for two years; it passed 2-1, with Commissioner Mike VanDeMark opposed. Binkley said it is hard to budget for one year ^[32].
• February 17, 2026: Seconded the motion extending the county's moratoriums on battery energy storage and commercial solar to July 25, 2026 (passed unanimously) ^[33].
• March 27, 2026: Moved approval of a second amendment to the Starke County Memorial Hospital lease, shortening the term from 10 to 5 years with a 25% rent increase; it passed 3-0 ^[34].
• June 1, 2026: Moved adoption of a reworked 60-page commercial solar ordinance effective July 25, 2026, and seconded a 12-month moratorium on carbon capture and sequestration applications; both passed 3-0 ^[35].

Candidates on the ballot

Key points

• Budget pressure from the 2025 property-tax law (SEA 1): in March 2026, Council Vice President Dave Pearman reported projected levy reductions of $354,000 for 2026, $422,000 for 2027 and $524,000 for 2028. (Starke County Council)
• A council officer said in Aug 2025 the state is pushing counties to add a wheel tax; Starke was not on the June 2026 BMV list. CCMG awards were $2,325,075 (2024), $601,343 (2025) and $750,190 (2026), and the 2026 highway budget is $5.14M for 672 road miles. (starke.in.gov)

  Worth asking: Starke has not adopted a wheel tax, and its Community Crossings grants fell from $2.3 million in 2024 to about $600,000 in 2025 and $750,000 in 2026. Would you support a wheel tax for roads, and if not, what funding would you use?

• Starke County government adopted a $16.4 million budget for 2026, about $701 per resident; that is -12.3% compared with 2023. (Indiana Gateway for Government Units)

Sources