This is the WFHB Local News for Tuesday, March 24th, 2026.

In today’s newscast, we feature coverage of last night’s Monroe County Commissioners candidate forum produced by Dave Askins of the B Square Bulletin.

Also coming up in the next half hour, WFHB Correspondent Elena Bai looks at Senate Enrolled Act 76, a new law passed by the Indiana General Assembly, requiring local entities to cooperate with ICE.

Point of contention for Monroe County commissioner candidates: Listening versus results

Top: Trent Deckard. Bottom: David Henry. (Dave Askins, March 23, 2026)

At a forum hosted Monday night (March 23) by the League of Women voters, Trent Deckard and David Henry fielded questions on topics ranging from how they’ve handled bipartisan work on elections and vote centers, to their plans for a new jail and criminal justice reform, affordable housing and economic development, cooperation with ICE and protection of civil rights, and public trust in county government.

The two are candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Monroe County commissioner, District 1. The pair of Democrats currently serve together on the seven-member county council, as at-large representatives.

The forum took place at Tri-North Middle School in Bloomington.

The county council is the fiscal body of the county government, while the three commissioners make up a combined legislative and executive branch.

The two were most recently elected to serve on the county council in 2024. Henry’s election that year was his first. It was Deckard’s second, after winning election in 2020, having been selected in a Democratic Party caucus in 2019 to fill the vacancy left by Lee Jones, after she won election in 2018 to the District 1 county commissioner seat. That is now the seat that Deckard and Henry are looking to win. Jones is not seeking reelection.

Even though candidates for the District 1 commissioner seat have to live in the geography of District 1, which is a western slice of Monroe County, all voters in the county will see Deckard and Henry on their ballots in the May 5 primary.

After an event hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America about a month ago, and again on Monday night, one big contrast between the two candidates, which has come into clear focus, is their idea of what it means to serve as elected official.

Deckard focuses on the idea of collaboration and listening; Henry focuses on the idea of bringing ideas to the table and getting results.

Responding to a question about the planned new jail, Deckard said:

And then also, we have partners that are also in government—the city of Bloomington. We heard from their council. They want to weigh in on this. We also heard from residents that they want to weigh in. So again, I go back to collaboration. Friends, we’ve got to be very wary of “my way or the highway approaches” on how these things work, because that has put us in some of the messes that we’re in.

Or in responding to a question about affordable housing, Deckard said:

We need elected officials that can get people to the table to have the tough conversations. And when I say people at the table, I mean residents, business leaders, concerned parties, who can come to the table and then say: How do we do this and take care of your concerns? How do we do this and move forward, versus what we’ve had, friends, and that is “my way or the highway” that leads to stalemate.

Henry responded explicitly to Deckard’s attempt to paint Henry’s approach as “my way or the highway”:

I believe in listening, and as your county councilor, I’ve done it on the jail. I listened to residents to make sure we weren’t pursuing a facility that was too expensive. … When frontline nurses sounded the alarm at the closing of our family planning clinic, I was there in paper, and demanding results and demanding accountability for why we closed that clinic in times of crisis. I’ve worked with townships to make sure we don’t forget about those less fortunate when the tornado strikes and the news has moved on, but people are still trying to get a tarp off their roof and get their houses repaired. That’s not a “my way or the highway” approach to county government.

In support of the idea that candidates for office are supposed to have proposals for solving problems, not merely pledge to listen, Henry invoked the late Charlotte Zietlow, who in her long period of public service also served in the office he and Deckard are now seeking. The allusion Henry made depends on a bit of local knowledge: Zietlow was also known for her collection of hats.

Because elections are really about ideas. We do the listening before we file for office—at least that’s the way I’ve always run campaigns since I was 16 years old, running people for judge back in Ohio. We run on ideas. This is the League of Women Voters. You know, Charlotte Zietlow didn’t run as a hat. She ran on issues. You bring your issues to the table and you put them before the public, and we vote on them to get results in our community.

If you want to read the whole article, you can visit the B Square Bulletin. 

Featured Segments:

Up next, we rebroadcast a feature report by WFHB Correspondent Elena Bai. Bai looks at Senate Enrolled Act 76, a new law passed by the Indiana General Assembly, requiring local entities to cooperate with federal immigration detainer requests. For more on the expansion of ICE infrastructure in Indiana, we turn to Elena Bai.

Now it’s time for Lil Bub’s Lil Show – a co-production between WFHB and Lil Bub’s Big Fund. That’s coming up next on WFHB.

Up next, it’s Art Walk on WFHB, where Youth Radio members attend local galleries and events to talk with artists and art lovers. In episode 29, Youth Radio speaks to future art teacher Tommie, a student at Indiana University who enjoys 2D and 3D art. Their favorite mediums include charcoal drawing and ceramics. Tommie believes art is a way to express yourself and that expression is valuable for mental health and well-being. This episode of Art Walk was recorded at the Eskenazi School of Art and Design on March 9th, 2026, in Bloomington, Indiana.

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