The corrupt Marion County GOP's slating produced two winners for the title of slated candidate in Senate districts 32 and 35. City-County Councilor Aaron Freeman defeated State Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer for the battle to succeed long-time Sen. Pat Miller in District 32. Kirchhofer earlier said she would run for re-election to her House seat if she lost the slating battle. Jefferson Shreve, the Democrat businessman from Bloomington, defeated City-County Councilor Jack Sandlin in District 35 for the battle to succeed Sen. Brent Waltz, who is running for the 9th District Republican congressional nomination this year.
Sandlin has hinted that he will challenge Shreve in the May primary even without the party's backing since Shreve has never won an election. Shreve was appointed by a rigged caucus vote to replace Jeff Cardwell when he stepped down from his City-County Council seat to join the Pence administration. Shreve opted not to run for election to the council after he was thrown into the same district with Jeff Miller. Shreve was trounced in the only election on which his name has appeared on a ballot when he unsuccessfully ran for state convention delegate. Party leaders have been pushing the Democratic campaign contributor and long-time Bloomington resident on Republican voters in Marion County after he started buying them all off with large campaign contributions a few years ago.
Here's the complete list of slating results:
State Senate District 30 – John Ruckelshaus
State Senate District 32 – Aaron Freeman
State Senate District 35 – Michael Young
State Senate District 36 – Jefferson Shreve
State Representative District 86 – Scott DeVries
State Representative District 87 – Connie Eckert
State Representative District 88 – Brian Bosma
State Representative District 90 – Mike Speedy
State Representative District 91 – Robert Behning
State Representative District 92 – Bradford Moulton
State Representative District 93 – David Frizzell
State Representative District 98 – Gary Whitmore
County Treasurer - Danielle Coulter
County Surveyor - Chic Clark
Gary,
ReplyDeletePlease tell me why the Marion County GOP process is corrupt? Thank you.
Why is it corrupt. Let's start with slating. Who are they to dictate to us who our candidates are going to be? Why not leave that decision to Republican primary voters. It's pointless to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars putting on a primary election when the outcome of every race has been preordained by a small group of party insiders. Because very few people actually seek office as a PC because of their past frustrations with the party leadership, most PCs are appointed by the county chairman. Most of these appointed PCs don't even live in their precinct, and in some cases, don't even live in the county. The appointed PCs serve at the pleasure of the county chairman, and whenever there is a contested slating race, the county chairman makes sure there are a sufficient number of appointed PCs present to cast votes to control the outcome of that contested race according to the chairman's dictates. Anyone who goes up against the party-backed candidate cannot even get access to an accurate list of PCs eligible to cast votes at the caucus election with contact information so they can attempt to campaign for the slating endorsement. People who buck slating are threatened in every way possible by the party leadership. What more can I tell you?
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention the trick they pull to un-elect people who won election as state convention delegates who they don't want to attend the convention. Without proper notice, the county chairman tosses any elected convention delegates who fail to pay the state convention fee within days of the primary election. Only the people they want to have notice of this requirement receive it, or even worse, the party picks up their convention fee tab for them. The rest learn they aren't delegates despite winning on election day because they failed to pay a fee by a certain date that they had no notice had to be paid.
ReplyDeleteThe Empire strikes the little people.
ReplyDeleteWhy is the Marion County slating process corrupt? I can't believe that person is serious. It's like answering why water is wet.
ReplyDeleteThere are substances wetter than water and corruptions worse than Marion County Republicans....State Party Republicans come to mind.
ReplyDeleteHow much did MCRCC shake down Jack Sandlin for in order to go through slating? I would guess they "deemed" Shreve to have paid his through past contributions.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't mention this but for the most part if you lose a slating, the party charged you a fee and if you don't withdraw they use that money against you. IIRC, if you withdraw you get half your money back.
The GOP Marion County organization has an interesting history. The Chairmanship became a paid job in 1966 when Keith Bulen took the job. Bulen had been fired, it has been reported, as a Assistant Prosecutor for fixing a case involving a local gambling mobster. He is also credited for getting Lugar elected Mayor.
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ReplyDeleteWow. Just wow to Anon 3:12. My jaw hit my desk hard and fast when I read your question. Just, well, just wow. I cannot even believe you asked. Wow.
Gary, great job at giving 3:!2 a start on understanding "why". Thank you for the concise, accurate explanations.
But still, 3:12, wow.
I hope Sandlin does challenge "former" Democrat Jeffie Shreve and beats his a$$. And big time.
ReplyDeleteFiremen still hate Sandlin.
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ReplyDeleteAnon 8:16 (or Gary, if you care to weigh in) remind me "why" IFD holds a grudge against Sandlin. I am not saying you are incorrect as I do remember something having occurred, but what's the full scoop??
I know IFD members are a cohesive group having a bit of a lockstep mentality- not that that's "wrong"- but is that "group think" enough to cause Sandlin problems insofar as electability is concerned?
I'm not aware of any particular issue that has put Jack at odds with IFD. He formerly served as Perry Township Trustee and at that time had control over the Perry Township Fire Department. Jack was later defeated by Gary Coons, who had worked as an EMT/firefighter. Coons cut a deal with the Ballard administration to merge Perry Township's fire department into IFD in exchange for the job as director of homeland security.
ReplyDeleteGary left you a story on your office email.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that a way to improve slating and replacement conventions is to allow only elected PCs or -- at a minimum -- allow only PCs who physically reside in their precinct to vote. This would mot only decrease the Chairman's power but would increase the value of PC slots.
ReplyDelete"I've always thought that a way to improve slating and replacement conventions is to allow only elected PCs"
ReplyDeleteThis!! This will of course never happen. State Parties (BOTH OF THEM) and the General Assembly are too beholden to their respective County Chairs to even author such a requirement. But such a requirement would go quite a ways to cleaning house. Well that and banning slating.
"Banning slating" would be a violation of the First & Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution and Article 1, section 9 of the Indiana Constitution. At its core, slating is simply the internal process of selecting the organizational choice for candidacy for office.
DeleteJefferson was assured that he wouldn't have to lift a finger to win slating by Kay Spear and Jennifer Ping - and they were right! He got up and stated that he was fabulously wealthy (I am not making that up!) and that he was a life-long Republican. I'm pretty sure it's true about being wealthy, but not so much about being a life-long Republican.
ReplyDeleteI can assure LamLawIndy that there is no desire to "improve" the slating process. It works exactly like people like Ping and Spear want it to work...