About Us

Meet Our Team

STEVE SCHOETTMER

CHAIR

Steve spent 35 years as an officer of the American Postal workers Union. He held positions of local President, State President and National Arbitration Advocate for the Union.
He retired in 2015 and was recruited by Dennis Baute to become a precinct chair.

Steve has been active in the local Democratic Party since 2017 and ran for office in 2018 against Jim Lucas for Indiana House district 69.

Steve became active on the GOTV team in 2019 when we were able to take over city council for the first time in 38 years.
In January of 2020, when there became a vacancy for county Chair, he stepped up to take over the position by a vote of the local precinct chairs at the February precinct meeting.

Steve enjoys fishing and camping, and being a goat farmer.

MICHELLE CARR

VICE CHAIR

Michelle Carr is a lifelong resident of Bartholomew county. She began volunteering with the local Democratic Party in early 2017. A few months later, she became our Social Media Director. There she not only helped with canvassing and events but also recorded them to share with our community. Due to her efforts, our Social Media engagement and following has more than doubled and been used several times as an example by the state party. In 2018, Michelle was appointed to Precinct Chair of her area. She then began to expand her efforts toward helping to design our parade floats, which have now won two awards and gave us higher visibility within our communities. Since 2020, she has chaired the committee to plan our participation at the Bartholomew County 4H Fairs. This led her to hosting a Virtual Fair in 2020 from her own home. Michelle was elected as our Vice Chair in April of 2022, when Kathy Thompson stepped down due to life changes.

Michelle was accepted into Hoosier Women Forward in 2022 to join their Class 5. She volunteers wherever she can help within the community and state in varying leadership roles. She currently serves as a delegate to the Hoosier Chapter Sierra Club Executive Committee, Winding Waters Group Executive Committee as their Communication Chair, on the board of Energy Matters Community Coalition, and is a Climate Reality Leader.

DENNIS BAUTE

TREASURER

Dennis Baute is the current treasurer of BCDP. He holds an ancient BS degree from Ball State University with a major in business administration and a minor in political science. Though born and raised in Bartholomew County, he lived in the greater St. Louis Missouri area for 26 years before returning to Columbus in 2007. He is on various boards and commissions around Columbus and is especially interested in environmental and energy conservation issues and politics. He enjoys cycling, camping, friends, and life in general.