1967 Indianapolis mayoral election
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The Indianapolis mayoral election of 1967 took place on November 7, 1967.[1] Richard Lugar defeated incumbent Democratic mayor John J. Barton, becoming the first Republican to be elected mayor of Indianapolis in nearly two-decades.[1][2] Democrats had long dominated mayoral elections before 1967, having won ten of the thirteen mayoral elections since 1930.[1] No Democrat would subsequently recapture the mayoralty until 1999, largely due to the city-county merger that created the Unigov in 1970 adding the votes of suburban Marion County, which shifted the composition the electorate towards the Republicans.[3]
Democratic primary
Barton was unsuccessfully challenged by Marion County Democratic Party chairman James W. Beatty.[4] Beatty's challenge to Barton was seen as an act of retribution for Barton seeking to unseat Beatty as chairman the previous year.[4]
Republican primary
A former member of the Indianapolis School Board,[4] earlier that year Lugar had unsuccessfully sought to become President of the but lost by a vote of four to three.[1] Lugar was also the former head of Community Action Against Poverty and an executive at Thomas I. Green & Co.[4] After this, he was convinced by L. Keith Bulen, the chair of the Marion County Republican Committee, to run for mayor.[1] Lugar was also supported by the Republican Action Committee, a group of young Republicans that had organized after the party's losses in the 1964 election cycle in order to challenge control of the party from the party establishment.[4]
In the primary, Lugar defeated former mayor Alex M. Clark.[4]