Judge weighing whether Election Commission must take up complaints before Election Day

An attorney for the state argued Friday that the Indiana Election Commission has no obligation to consider campaign misconduct allegations ahead of Election Day.

A judge said she would rule Monday on a motion filed by Lincoln Party secretary of state candidate Greg Ballard seeking an order forcing the commission to convene a public meeting to take up campaign finance complaints against Republican Max Engling and Democrat Beau Bayh.

Ballard’s lawyer said during Friday’s hearing on the lawsuit filed last week against the commission that it “has completely abdicated its statutory duty to enforce campaign finance law” by not meeting about those complaints.

Deputy Attorney General Marie Queen, however, maintained that state law does not set a time frame for the commission to review campaign finance complaints.

“This is ultimately an attempt by a political candidate to use the commission to influence voters before Election Day and that is an entirely and wholly inappropriate use of the process,” Queen told Marion County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Harrison.

Complaints awaiting commission review

The most prominent of the pending complaints was filed in July alleging that Engling’s campaign improperly accepted $60,000 from Hoosier Leadership for America, a dark money political group associated with Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.

Engling’s campaign has reported it refunded the money a week before the complaint was filed by Knox County Clerk David Shelton, who finished second to Engling in seeking the Republican nomination during June’s state party convention.

Other pending complaints allege:

• That Engling’s campaign finance filings didn’t identify who paid for a hospitality suite the night before the GOP state convention.
• That Bayh attended several hosted events where he was a featured speaker but reported no in-kind donations from the host groups.
• That Bayh attended several events sponsored by county Democratic parties but reported no in-kind donations from those groups.

State law gives Election Commission Chair Beth Boyce, who is also the Johnson County Republican chair, authority over calling meetings of the panel. 

The commission — made up of two Republicans and two Democrats — is next scheduled to meet on Nov. 20, which is 17 days after Election Day.

Ballard attorney Michelle Harter argued Friday that the commission’s inaction was depriving voters of information about the actions of the secretary of state candidates.

“He’s not asking for a specific outcome or to control the manner in which the commission performs its duties, but they have to meet prior to the election and decide if investigation into those campaign finance violations is warranted,” Harter said. “Otherwise they are not executing their duties in a meaningful manner.”

Ballard, the former Republican mayor of Indianapolis, said after the hearing that he saw little value in the commission possibly considering the complaints on Nov. 20, saying “they’ll just gloss over it.”

“There’s an unfairness to all this about two parties staying in power, and they’re writing laws to stay in power, and they’re having policies to stay in power, and to not let anybody else get into the voting system,” Ballard told reporters.

Shelton brushes off Republican criticism

Shelton, who is also the Knox County Republican chair, faces animosity from some Republicans over recent actions that include filing a legal brief in support of Ballard’s lawsuit.

Bayh also announced this week that Shelton had agreed to assist with an independent audit of spending by current Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales if Bayh wins the election.

Shelton attended Friday’s court hearing and said afterward that he wasn’t involved with either the Bayh or Ballard campaign and considered himself “a one-man watchdog looking after the taxpayers of Indiana, just trying to give them as much information as possible.”

Some Republicans consider Shelton’s actions disloyal, such as Vanderburgh County GOP Chair Kyhle Moers posting on social media that Shelton should be removed as a county chair and “blocked from further association with the party.”

“Shelton clearly has an axe to grind, because as a typical politician (even though he tells you he isn’t) he feels like he was OWED the Secretary of State seat and because that didn’t happen 2 state conventions in a row he’s willing to stoop so low as to align himself with 2 candidates that would have otherwise been opponents,” Moers posted this week.

Shelton, who received nearly 40% of the Republican convention vote for secretary of state, said he had not talked with Engling since the June party convention. 

When asked by the Capital Chronicle whether he was supporting Engling’s election, Shelton responded: “I’m supporting my local candidates in Knox County. We have a lot of contested races there in Knox County, a lot of candidates, but I have not had any contact or communication with the Max Engling campaign at all.”