Next year's election calendar should register as intense and flammable.

County voters will help elect a president, a governor, a U.S. representative and a clutch of state senators and representatives. They also will choose a county coroner, recorder, surveyor and two members of the county Board of Commissioners.

Incumbents thinking about re-election may look with dread at popular unrest over taxes and scandals involving county Surveyor George Van Til lending a county truck to his son and pumping public gas into his private vehicle.

Leon Simon, who was in a large crowd of protesters forcing the County Council to abandon a local income tax Friday, said, "Van Til has done mostly good work and then screwed up on a small thing with his truck.

"People are less worried about that. But if they tried to pass this tax again, I think you would see the same people, whites, blacks and Hispanics, out there again."

Candidate filing opens Jan. 23.

January likely will include a party caucus to replace County Councilman Will Smith Jr., who is resigning over his tax fraud conviction. Charles Hughes, president of the Gary Chamber of Commerce, Gary City Councilman Jerome Prince and Gary School Board member Alex Wheeler are mentioned as possible County Council candidates.

Gov. Mitch Daniels may be staking his re-election on a proposal to cap the unpopular property tax and proposals to reduce and consolidate local governments.

Northwest Indiana's legislative delegation must chose whether to follow the governor's lead and further press Lake County to impose an income tax. Most of that delegation also must decide whether to seek re-election.

Two of the county's three chief executives will be up for election.

Outgoing Commissioner Fran DuPey is retiring after 12 years. Possible candidates to replace her might include Hammond City Councilmen Dan Repay and Robert "Bob" Markovich and Richard Novak, director of East Chicago's boat marina and a member of the North Township board.

Commissioner Gerry Scheub said he is having second thoughts about running for a fourth four-year term, but has been talking and acting like a candidate for re-election by vetoing a county income tax, demanding local government budget cuts, and forcing county officials and employees to give up the keys to their take-home cars.

Clerk Thomas Philpot said he will decide early next year whether to run for county coroner. Philpot also fills up at the county pumps, but he said it's not an issue because he has authority from the County Council to do so.

Daniel Bade, a Highland dentist, said Friday he plans to run for county coroner. Coroner David Pastrick cannot run for re-election under Indiana's term limits.

Judge Julie Cantrell, of Lake Superior Court's County Division, is seeking re-election, too.