Incumbents Doug Duncan and Scott Wells lost their primary bids, while Republicans Randy May, Leasa Siscoe Farkas and Andy Dodds and Democrats Sophia Travis, Warren Henegar and Michael Woods took their parties' nominations.

The six were chosen in Tuesday's primary from nine Republicans and four Democrats.

"It feels great," said May, a former member of the county council who received 3,904 votes Tuesday. "Now I'd love to see a Republican sweep this fall."

Farkas, who received 3,305 votes, said she was initially surprised to see such a large number of Republicans vying for the three spots, but said she was impressed with her fellow candidates.

Now, she said, her goals include further unification of the party and, if elected in the fall, to work together with Democrats to accomplish county business.

Dodds, who received 3,432 votes, said he was pleased with his nomination, adding, "I think we've got a real good shot in the fall."

Duncan, a Republican who has served the past four years in the council, said that, while it's not easy to lose, he believes his party's candidates will do well in the fall. Duncan received 2,600 votes.

"They're all great people," he said. "And it's refreshing to get new blood and new views and new approaches to problems."

Travis led the Democrats with 4,062 votes, followed by Henegar's 3,439 votes and Woods with 3,351.

Henegar, standing in the middle of a crowded Democratic headquarters, pointed across the room at Indiana University first-year law student Woods and said, "That's the lead story, from the Democrats, right there. Here is a man who has lived in Bloomington for nine months — but Mike is very, very impressive young guy."

Woods acknowledged that an IU student winning any sort of election in Bloomington is unusual, if not unprecedented, but said he tried hard to go beyond where previous student candidates had gone.

"Really paying attention to the county, to what the office is, to how we can effect positive change within the capacity of that office — perhaps voters haven't always seen that from student candidates," Woods said.

Woods credited all four of the Democratic county council candidates.

"Usually in politics, anymore, people feel like they're choosing the lesser of two evils," Woods said. "Here it was trying to pick the greatest of four goods."

More people picked Travis on the Democratic side. She was easily the leading vote-getter.

"I think I had a great deal of support among women," Travis said. "I intuitively feel that, and I know I got tremendous support from the Democratic Women's Caucus, which is a fantastic group of women."

Travis praised incumbent Wells, who fell short by 74 votes.

"I want to especially thank Scott Wells," she said, "who is an extremely important person who inspired me from way back."

Wells was, naturally, not overly inspired by the results.

"I'm disappointed," Wells acknowledged. "What can you say? Life goes on. Time to recover, regroup, reload and refire. But I look at these numbers and, frankly, I'm blown away by them. Doug Duncan got beat, too.

"I feel I've put forth good effort, and gotten some major legislation enacted. I've been outspoken, but I thought that's what people wanted from me. I tried to fight hard for them."

Wells figured the publicity from his controversial arrest and eventual conviction last November on disorderly conduct and driving while intoxicated without endangerment charges had to hurt him.

"Maybe some people questioned my viability (as a winning candidate) because of the court cases," Wells said. "There are three lawsuits on-going right now. Perhaps that was all too much for some people."

Asked if he thought any Republican cross-over voting might have affected the results, Wells demurred:

"There was so much polarization between Pat Jeffries and Marty Hawk (in the auditor's race), I figure pretty much all the Republicans wanted to vote on their side of the primary."

Reporter Bethany Swaby can be reached at 331-4373 or by e-mail at bswaby@heraldt.com.

Reporter Andy Graham can be reached at 331-4346 or by e-mail at graham@heraldt.com.