The race to replace Republican Porter County Councilman Andy Vasquez, who lost his primary bid for reelection to represent the Fourth District, pits two who have never held political office against each other – Vasquez’s primary challenger, Republican Craig Kenworthy, and Democrat Julia Kocal.
Kenworthy ran unsuccessfully in 2020 for an at-large seat on the council after retiring as a pipefitter from Local 597 that year. He’s served on the Plan Commission since January 2025 and served 12 years on the Porter County Park Board from 2010 to 2022.
“I know a lot of people in this area and I’ve been involved in a lot of things,” said Kenworthy, who now works as director of facility operations for East Porter County School Corporation. “I was very interested in running. It’s like anything else, you think about running, you talk to people and they convince you that you’d be a good candidate.”
On the topic of whether or not Porter County should raise its famously low 0.5% income tax, Kenworthy said as much as he hates to see it happen, an increase in the rate should probably come to fruition. He talked about the roughly .15% increase the Porter County Municipal Unit Strategic Taskforce (MUST) seems to favor and said “that’s not a terrible burden” for some, but “I’ve got custodians who work for me and they can’t hardly go to a fast-food restaurant and get something to eat because of what’s been going on” with rampant inflation.
While he’d love to see the Bears come to Indiana, “there’s too many budgetary issues in Porter County that I don’t think we should help,” Kenworthy said regarding the proposed 1% food and beverage tax to help pay for the move.
As a potential voting member of the Porter County Foundation, which manages the proceeds from the sale of Porter Memorial Hospital, Kenworthy would rather not draw on the principal for operating expenses. “I know why they tapped into it,” he said. “They had to. I think you need to be really careful about it.”
Every time money is withdrawn, it lowers the interest that can be made, he said, “but I do know the reality of life. You don’t want to throw a medical bill on a credit card, but sometimes you just have to do it.”
“I want to see our children taken care of,” he said. “I’m not even sure what that looks like. Our children are torn in so many different directions.”
Kocal, who has never run for office before, has lived in Porter County for 25 years. The clinical psychologist, now semi-retired, was the medical director for the behavioral health and developed integrated care program at Northwest Health.
She said the many skills she has from her career and that position would serve the council well. “I worked with multi-million dollar budgets,” she said as one example. “One of my strengths is being able to bridge differences working with people who have very different backgrounds.”
Kocal said one of her goals, should she be elected, is to serve as a unifying influence in a political landscape that is so divisive. She said 80 to 90% of the things folks want are the same. After the Aug. 11 derecho, “when neighborhoods were destroyed we didn’t ask, ‘Are you a Republican or a Democrat?’” she said.
We need to bring back civility, she added, as well as full transparency and the opportunity for the public to have a voice in how the county grows and develops. “Are we making sure that the voters’ voices are being heard? We’re accountable to the people that vote for us.”
Regarding the possibility of the Bears coming to Indiana and any attendant food and beverage tax, Kocal said, “I have no power on whether there is a tax or not,” so she feels it’s not part of the responsibility of the county council.
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On where the county should land with its final LIT percentage, Kocal wants to know more about how the county is prioritizing the budget and what everyone can agree on. Personally, she feels the focus should be on safety, fire, police, roads, bridges and waste management.
“I think we’re going to have a shortfall,” she said. How much it will be is still to be determined.
She’s heard about the MUST meetings, but is skeptical they’ll benefit all. “It feels very GOP-generated and slanted,” she said. “I think the Republican Party seems to be very involved in that in terms of it being very partisan and not reflecting District 4’s needs.”
For her part, Kocal has four priorities in serving the county: transparency and accountability, fiscal responsibility, responsible growth, and representing all of the district regardless of constituents’ political affiliation.
She feels there are intersecting factors that influence whether or not the Foundation principal should be drawn from, such as how LIT is raised based upon goals and priorities. “Then we can carefully decide do we need to touch that principle or not,” she said, adding officals should be asking, “Have we ruled out everything else?” such as grants.
Kocal would also like to see the county put an emphasis on affordability by bringing more attainable housing in, such as cluster homes, townhomes, and duplexes. Many people have told her they can’t afford to live here.
She said younger, working families want to live here. “We want firefighters, police officers and teachers to live in our community,” she said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.