By Brian M. Boyce
TERRE HAUTE — A caucus of Vigo County Democratic Party officials will have nine candidates from whom to choose a new commissioner Thursday afternoon.
Party chairman Joseph Etling announced Monday six additional candidates registered before a 5 p.m. deadline for the District 1 county commissioner seat vacated by David Decker.
Decker, formerly president of the board of commissioners, agreed to plead guilty in federal court to distributing methamphetamine. Part of his plea agreement was to resign from his position, according to court documents admitted into the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana.
The candidate roster now includes Curtis DeBaun IV, John R. Prather, Robert G. Love, James M. Helton, Rev. C. Dwayne Malone, Robert Morland, Cindy Wallace-Andrews, Michael Ciolli and Larry Bryan Kelsheimer.
The candidates vary in political and professional experience.
Prather, 65, is a West Vigo High School graduate who attended Indiana State University prior to working 36 years at Bemis Co. Inc. He ran unsuccessfully last year for county council.
DeBaun, 27, is a 2001 West Vigo High School graduate with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history from Indiana State University. He is employed in his family’s mortuary business, Callahan-DeBaun, in the areas of marketing and community relations.
Malone is a 1986 graduate of Terre Haute North Vigo High School and attended Ball State University from 1986 to 1988 and Indiana State University in 1989. An associate minister at Second Missionary Baptist Church, Malone was formerly a director at the Charles T. Hyte Center. He ran unsuccessfuly in 2008 for county recorder.
Wallace-Andrews, 58, currently works in the Harrison Township Assessor’s office. She is a former Terre Haute street commissioner, serving under former Mayor Judy Anderson, and also is a former superintendent of the Vigo County Highway Department. A veteran of local government for more than three decades, she also worked in the county prosecutor’s office.
Ciolli, 56, is retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, in which he worked from 1976 to 2003. He served as associate warden of the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute from 1992 to 1994 and his last position before retirement was as warden at the Federal Correctional Institute in Pekin, Ill.
Ciolli then worked as the Vigo County jail commander from 2003 until October 2007. He now does contract work, performing audits on jails.
Kelsheimer, 40, merged his own advertising company last June with another direct advertising company and now works for Great Deals Savings Magazine. Previously, he was with the Morris Plan, where he sought the collection of delinquent loans.
Love, Helton, and Morland were unavailable for comment Monday evening.
A caucus of Democratic precinct committee members will be conducted at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Vigo County Annex, at First and Oak streets.
The vacated position of commissioner requires candidates to live in District 1, which covers the eastern third of Vigo County, roughly divided along 19th Street through the city of Terre Haute.
Reporter Howard Greninger contributed to this story.
Brian M. Boyce can be reached at (812) 231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
