#749 | Monday, October 12, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

The big news of the day is Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour, in an attempt to always make sure that the political spotlight is right, always released it officially today.

It's official today.

Dan Ridenour is announcing and has announced that as of Friday, December 31st, 2027, he will retire and not seek re-election for mayor of Muncie.

This decision to retire at the end of next year is not an easy one for him, apparently, and it's been influenced by several factors over the last year.

Those factors are, one, thoughtful prayer.

He and his wife, his family, have pondered, prayed, they've sought guidance from others, and originally, and now this is interesting to me, originally he wanted to announce this decision immediately upon his return from his medical leave in July, so a couple months ago.

In the end, however, He, we, they were encouraged to get through the 2027 budget process before announcing the retirement.

Keep that in your mind because we're going to come back to that in just a little bit.

Point number two, his health issues.

He says his recent cancer diagnosis provided a clear realization that regardless of what each of us may desire, none of us are guaranteed by God to have time on this earth.

Very true.

I don't fault him for that.

Number three, goal of a stable and growing Muncie.

Now, this is...

This is interesting because this is where he's politicking a little bit, and there are going to be people that maybe disagree with what's being said here.

I maybe disagree with it more than likely I do.

Kind of interesting here.

He says another factor that he pondered considerably – During his recovery in June and July is that he has achieved nearly everything that he wanted to accomplish when he was first elected in 2020.

He wasn't elected in 2020.

He was elected in 2019.

He started his term in 2020.

So let's start out there.

Let's not have this, you know.

It's, you know, whatever.

OK, I guess I guess details don't matter.