Independent Dennis Layman runs for commissioner on asking questions and answering to taxpayers

Dennis Layman wants a seat at the table he has spoken to for years.

Layman is running as an independent for Blackford County Commissioner, District 2. He faces Republican nominee Shane Smith on Nov. 3. Layman is a lifelong county resident. He regularly attends commissioner, council and drainage board meetings and often speaks during public comment.

His campaign runs through voters’ front doors. Layman is not on social media. He is going door to door, and he says that is where candidates should be answering questions.

“They’re the ones that have the questions out here,” he said. “You’re answering to the voters, the taxpayers that you’re supposed to be representing.”

That approach carries into the final weeks of the race. The Ledger is offering every county-level candidate an interview about their campaign. Layman declined a new one and pointed to the conversations he had with the Ledger this summer. “I believe I gave you enough information,” he said. Smith later proposed a public debate and nominated the Ledger as a neutral moderator. Layman said he does not want to take part. He said meeting people face to face is his campaign.

Asking questions

Layman said he is tired of speaking from the audience.

“I brought up things years ago. Years ago. About things and nothing’s ever been done,” he said. “If you’re not sitting up there behind the bench and you’re standing on the outside doing a little speech for three minutes, it doesn’t matter to them.”

His central promise is to ask questions before votes are cast.

“When somebody comes to the podium in front of the commissioners and asks for something, they hand them some paperwork and everybody votes yes,” he said. “If you watch meetings, how many questions are asked?”

He said residents deserve to see that someone is doing that work. “The public needs to know that there’s somebody asking questions,” he said.

He is proud of his reputation for it. “I am a thorn in their side, and they know it,” Layman said. “I only speak about things that I have the facts.”

Working for taxpayers

Layman returns often to one idea: elected officials work for the people who elected them.

He opposes nondisclosure agreements in county business. “You work for the public. You don’t work for a salesman,” he said. “NDAs are wrong.”

He also questions the role of the Blackford County Economic Development Corporation (BCEDC) in shaping land-use rules. He said zoning decisions belong with the county’s planning bodies. “That’s why we have an APC. That’s why we have a BZA. That’s what they’re for,” he said.

Energy projects, data centers and abatements

Layman opposes data centers in Blackford County. “That’s not what we need around here,” he said. “We need other things besides that.”

In November 2025, commissioners passed resolutions pausing battery storage and data center projects until the county writes ordinances for them. At the commissioners’ Nov. 17, 2025, meeting, Layman asked that those ordinances state plainly: no battery storage and no data centers.

He also has a view on tax abatements. At a Feb. 4, 2026, County Council meeting, he said companies should earn incentives after they prove themselves. “Why are we rewarding companies before they even come in?” he asked.

Layman draws a line on deal-making. He said some proposals call for a simple answer. “It’s either yes or no,” he said. “Sometimes we sit back and look at the whole scope of it. Is it really worth it?”

Spending and planning

Layman said the county needs to watch its spending. “Our taxes are high. Our income tax is high,” he said.

He wants more planning before the county takes on projects, especially those funded by grants. He pointed to the county’s internet towers as an example. He believes the project did not fully account for homes without a clear line of sight to a tower.

“We go grab grant money, and the next thing you know, we bought a cart and no horse,” he said. “They call it free money, and I didn’t know anything was free.”

He applies the same caution to calls for the public to buy struggling businesses. When some residents asked local government to step in on the Hartford City golf course, Layman spoke against it. “It is not a government taxpayer deal to buy a golf course,” he told the Ledger he said at the meeting.

What he would do in office

In June, he told the Ledger he had ideas of what he would try to accomplish as commissioner and would share them later in the campaign. “I can bring a lot of things to the table that I know, but I’m not going to right now,” he said. The interview he declined this month would have covered those plans.

Asked whether he would replace the BCEDC or end its contract with the county, Layman did not say. “I’m not going to go down that road yet,” he said.

He said he once brought an idea to a local mayor and got nowhere. “I might as well just went out and talked to a tree,” he said. He did not name the mayor or describe the idea.

He did name one step. In a later conversation about the BCEDC’s contract with commissioners, Layman said he would make a motion not to sign it. He said Warren Brown, the BCEDC’s director, is paid with public money. “So he works for the public,” Layman said. “The same as everybody else.”

Bringing the county back

Layman remembers when Hartford City and Montpelier were full of local stores. He traces their decline to shoppers leaving for malls and, later, online retail.

His own children graduated from Blackford and moved away. He said he once asked whether they would move back. Their answer stayed with him: what opportunities are in the county?

“We have forgotten the people of the county,” Layman said. “It’s hard to bring something back to life once it’s struggling like this.”

He sees cleanup as a first step. “If we want to try to bring this county back, we need to clean it up,” he said. Businesses, he said, take note of blight.

On the doorstep

Layman drove a tractor carrying his campaign sign in the Blackford County Fair parade this summer.

He said the conversations at people’s doors have been the best part of the race. He has talked with farmers and town residents about their problems, about local history and about the old schools. Along the way, he has found relatives he did not know he had.

“Your great-great-grandma was a sister to my great-great-grandma,” he said, recalling one visit. “That’s pretty good stuff.”

As an independent, he has a direct pitch to voters. “If the people want to keep doing what they’re doing, let’s just keep pushing the one button,” he said. “Things won’t change.”

This is Layman’s second run for county office. In 2024, he ran as an independent for one of three at-large County Council seats. He drew 1,413 votes and finished fourth in a four-way race.

The competition

Smith won the May 5 Republican primary over incumbent Commissioner Laura Coons and Eddie Cansler. No Democrat filed for the seat. Layman is Smith’s only opponent on the November ballot. Early voting began Oct. 6.

Click here to view the Ledger profiles for Dennis Layman and Shane Smith.