City council candidate missing

May 2nd, 2011 Sienna Muriel Leave a comment Go to comments

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A candidate who won a nomination for Fort Wayne city council has perplexed his party, the Allen County election board, and voters who are trying to find him.

Tommy A. Schrader ran for one of the three Fort Wayne city council at-large seats as a Democrat in Tuesday’s primary. He’s one of the party’s three nominees headed for the general election in November.

But no one seems to know where he is, or who he is. His party has never seen or spoke to him before.

“We don’t know who this guy is. We don’t know where he’s at. Or what’s happened to him,” said Kevin Knuth, spokesman for the Allen County Democratic party.

NewsChannel 15 tried to track him down, Thursday, by calling the phone number listed on his declaration of candidacy. His number was disconnected.

Someone else is living in the home listed as his permanent address.

“He comes and goes,” said John Etzcorn, Schrader’s landlord. He told NewsChannel 15 the missing candidate isn’t missing at all. He said Schrader is on vacation in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “He got tired of living in Fort Wayne even though he’s running for election.”

Etzcorn added that he informed Schrader of the results earlier in the week. “He’s looking forward to coming back and running a strong campaign.”

Etzcorn said the disappearing act is part of Schrader’s winning strategy that garnered more than 2,000 votes from people who likely knew nothing about him.

“That’s his secret of campaiging. His stealth candidate. No one knows who he is.”

It might remain that way if Schrader doesn’t come back to town soon. The Democratic party is planning to challenge his residency in court on Monday if Schrader cannot prove he lives in Fort Wayne.

If the court finds Schrader can’t run for office, the party gets to decide who will. It’s already eyeing George Guido, who placed after Schrader in the primary.

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