James Mueller rolls to victory in South Bend mayoral primary

SOUTH BEND — James Mueller, the hand-picked choice of Pete Buttigieg, beat out a large field of candidates to claim the Democratic primary in the race for South Bend mayor.

With all precincts counted Tuesday night, unofficial results showed Mueller with a comfortable margin of victory, netting more than 4,400 votes, or 37% of the total. The second-place finisher, Jason Critchlow, the former head of the St. Joseph County Democratic Party, finished with nearly 3,100 votes.

About 12,000 people voted citywide, up slightly from the nearly 11,000 who voted in the last mayoral primary in May 2015, but that race only featured two candidates, Buttigieg and Henry Davis Jr.

Mueller, making his first run for public office, advances to face Republican candidate Sean Haas in the November general election, where he will be the heavy favorite in a city that hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since Lloyd Allen in 1964.

Supporters of Mueller, gathered at Corby’s Irish Pub, began hugging and congratulating him at about 7 p.m., when it became clear he had secured the win. About 30 minutes later, Buttigieg walked into the pub to congratulate Mueller.

After they hugged, Buttigieg told Mueller, “Now comes the fun part.”

In the corner of the packed bar, standing atop a stage made of two stacked cornhole boards, Buttigieg recalled the moment he first asked Mueller to run for mayor.

Buttigieg said Mueller “answered the call when it was not the most comfortable or obvious thing to do. It’s why, even though he’s not the cigar-chomping, back-slapping politician that some people might expect, and neither am I, he is exactly the right person.”

Mueller then took the mic and gave a nod to his improbable role as a politician.

“I thank all of you for believing in me,” Mueller said, “and I specifically thank the people who were on the ground floor, when it was really rough and they were like, ‘Is this guy actually going to get there and make it?’ ”

Buttigieg, who is in his eighth and last year as mayor and is in the midst of a run for president, formally endorsed Mueller in February and appeared in a television ad with him. The mayor’s image was also used in campaign literature for Mueller.

Mueller also raised the most campaign money. He tallied nearly $245,000 between Jan. 1 and April 12, according to campaign finance records, well ahead of the rest of the field. About $50,000 came from “Pete for South Bend,” a holdover from Buttigieg’s mayoral and Democratic National Committee chair campaigns.

Mueller, a South Bend native and University of Notre Dame graduate, was working as research director at George Washington University’s Solar Institute when he received a call four years ago from Buttigieg, his St. Joseph High School classmate.

Mueller agreed to return to South Bend to serve as Buttigieg’s chief of staff, and Buttigieg later elevated him to executive director of the city’s Department of Community Investment.

During his mayoral run, Mueller vowed to build on the successes of the Buttigieg administration but to also focus more on neighborhoods and the city schools.

In addition to Critchlow, Mueller beat former police officer Lynn Coleman, who had won the endorsement of Buttigieg’s predecessor, Mayor Steve Luecke (Coleman had served as Luecke’s special assistant), and two members of the Common Council, Oliver Davis and Regina Williams-Preston.

Critchlow called Mueller to congratulate him Tuesday night.

“We knew what we were up against,” Critchlow said, noting he was running against a candidate endorsed by a sitting mayor who happens to be near the top of some polls for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“I called (Mueller) and told him I would do what I can to move the city forward,” he said. “But we were in it to win it.”

Coleman finished third with 23% of the vote, Williams-Preston took 7%, while Davis won 6% of the vote.

Coleman said he was proud of the issues his campaign pushed, such as improving the school system and addressing economic inequality. But he was disappointed in the turnout.

“We have to find a way to engage our community in processes like this,” Coleman said. “There are 75,000 eligible voters in this town and we found out tonight that about 12 or 13,000 voted. And that’s it. We have to make sure that we engage more people than that.”