Acting Hamilton Co. GOP Chairman Cries Foul As Outgoing Chairman Appointed More Than 70 PCs Prior To Resignation

A battle for control of the Hamilton Co. Republican Party was set in motion late last year when Pete Emigh informed party leadership of his plan to resign as the county chairman. Nobody was more surprised than the party's vice chairman, Laura Campbell, who automatically succeeded Emigh as acting county chairman upon the tendering of his resignation to state and local party officials. Campbell was even more surprised at Emigh's desire to hastily convene a party caucus to elect a new chairman to fill out the remainder of his term. Emigh desired to hold the caucus election on the first day of the legislative session. Campbell, who was interested in running for chairman, also learned from Emigh that the party's treasurer, Pete Peterson, desired to succeed him as chairman and that the two of them should talk.

Things got more interesting days later when Campbell learned from a party source while attending a political function that Emigh had recently appointed many PCs shortly before he resigned. Campbell sought a list of the PCs from Emigh and, much to her surprise, discovered he had appointed as many as 71 PCs on November 29, 2015, including his daughter, his mortgage broker who co-signed on his family home, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, vendors who do business with the City of Fishers, a number of Fishers city employees and other persons clearly disposed to casting votes in favor of Peterson. According to Campbell, most of the newly-appointed PCs have had little or no past involvement with the Hamilton Co. Republican Party organization.

As acting chairman, Campbell knew state party rules required her to convene a caucus to elect a new chairman within 30 days of Emigh's resignation. Campbell also knew that party rules allowed her to remove from their positions any PCs or vice PCs appointed by Emigh. As it turned out, Emigh had not notified either the state party or the Hamilton Co. GOP's secretary of the 71 appointments he made on November 29. Under state party rules, appointed PCs serve at the pleasure of the county chairman. Campbell exercised her authority under state party rules and terminated the appointment of the 71 PCs appointed by Emigh.

Peterson's camp rushed to radio talk show host Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, who quickly broadcast the termination of the appointments as "firings" and reported that Mayor Fadness had filed a formal complaint with the state party, claiming Campbell lacked authority to terminate the appointment of him and 70 other pro-Peterson persons as PCs. The Indiana State Republican Party is meeting in an emergency rules committee meeting today to rule on the matter.

Campbell maintains that state party rules require PCs to have been a PC or a vice PC at least 30 days prior to a vacancy in order to participate in a caucus election and the persons must be a PC or vice PC at the time the caucus election is held. Campbell claims some of the 71 appointed by Emigh had no idea they had even been appointed as a PC or vice PC. In a letter to Indiana Republican State Party Chairman Jeff Cardwell, Campbell claims that the last-minute maneuver by Emigh was intended to dilute the vote of the elected PCs and their vice PCs in order to stack the deck in the county chairman's race for Peterson. Stay tuned. This could get interesting.