So not 3 months into his 4-year term Mayor of Fort Wayne Tom Henry died yesterday. Based on Indiana state law, all the precinct committeemen the Democrats have inside Fort Wayne will pick the replacement mayor in the next month that will be unelected and run the city for the next 3 years, 8 months.
I was kind of annoyed because in 2023 I did not see any reason why Henry ran for reelection from a "here's my plans for the next 4 years if I win" point of view. He had no announced plans for anything, his wife was battling her own cancer and died 2 months ago, he had a DUI in 2023, and he had years of health problems including emergency heart surgery in late 2016. That he ran for reelection I said prior to the election was a sign he either wanted to die in office or have the managed transition of resign midterm so the next Democratic Mayor of the city does not have to go through an election campaign. He won the general election narrowly, 52-48. And that's what we're going to get, he's deceased and not even Democratic voters in the city get to pick their next leader. (Really it's a complete match the Biden suspicions some people have federally looking forward until 2028, although in theory we elect the Vice President but not really.)
Friend of mine met with his campaign manager the past couple weeks and it appears Henry's cancer diagnosis if Henry knew about it was kept from them as well, at least that's what the campaign manager claims.
Yeah, his age, his health, his wife's health, his DUI all were big concerns when he ran again. But Democrats don't exactly have a deep bench in Fort Wayne. My guess is he knew that he wouldn't make it through his term but wanted the next Mayor to be a Democrat and have incumbency advantage.
