IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE OF THE LEADERSHIP IN THE LOCAL GOP
by City-County Observer Staff
JUNE 20, 2024
On the surface, it might look like a clash of egos, but to understand what is happening in the once-powerful GOP, of Vanderburgh County we need to look at the root causes.
There is friction in the Indiana State and Local Republican Party with warring factions of MAGA Republicans and Rinos. In Indiana, conservatives flexed their political partisan muscles two years ago by electing new convention delegates and replacing Holi Sullivan with Diego Moralis as Secretary of State.
At the end of 2023, Indiana GOP conservatives recruited like-minded people to run for precinct Committeemen and convention delegates. Record numbers of people filed to run for those party positions throughout the state, causing alarm among establishment Republican leaders.
The surge in filings was seen as a threat to the status quo, and County GOP Chairs scoured the list of candidates to use the state’s two primary laws to disqualify people who filed. At the same time, many party bosses were signing waivers for friends who did not vote Republican in their last two primaries.
Locally, one such waiver issued by Vanderburgh County Chairperson Mike Duckworth, allowed Amy Canterbury to run for County Commissioner and go on to defeat long-term incumbent County Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave in the Republican primary.
It is no secret that Duckworth has been unhappy with Musgrave since 2018 when Duckworth lost to Democrat Jeff Hartfield in his run for a seat on the Vanderburgh County Commission.
Right after Commissioner Musgrave announced her plans to run for Mayor Winneeke’s seat it immediately caused his inner circle to recruit a Republican to run against County Commissioner Musgrave.
It was widely known that members of the Mayor’s inner circle approached numerous people to run for Mayor of Evansville against Vanderburgh County Commissioner Musgrave. After many people declined to run against Musgrave, after an exhausting search Mayor Winnecke, his wife Carol, and members of his political inner circle selected Natalie Rascher to run against Musgrave for Mayor.
Duckworth did not support Musgrave in the Republican Mayoral primary, instead, he supported the candidate recruited by then-Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. and his wife Carol.
After the Mayoral election, one of the people who had his filing for PC and delegate status challenged by Chairman Duckworth was Libertarian Mayoral candidate Michael Daugherty. In the hearing that heard over a dozen challenges, Duckworth prevailed in winning all but Michael Dauhrty’s complaint.
After the Election Board meeting, Duckworth abruptly removed the well-respected Republican lawyer and President of the Election Board Joe Harrison who rightly sided with Daugherty at the election board hearing.
Daugherty publicly joined County Commissioner Musgrave in calling for Duckworth’s resignation and stated that he would run for chair. Ken Colbert and Cheryl Batteiger-Smith also criticized Duckworth and called for his resignation.
After the election and vote certification by the Vanderburgh County election board, everyone in the local GOP breathed a sigh of relief that they were duly elected. But Duckworth had one more trick up his sleeve. He filed complaints to the 8th Congressional District Republican Committee to remove Daugherty, Colbert, and Batteiger-Smith from their elected positions as PCs. The hearings resulted in an unprecedented ban on all three delegates from the party until 2030.
The charges against Daugherty focused on his run for mayor as a libertarian. The witness against Daugherty was none other than Natalie Rascher, the former hand-picked mayoral candidate. Rascher told the hearing committee members that Michael Daugherty was the reason she was defeated for Mayor..
It’s a well-known fact that outgoing Mayor Winnecke hurt Rascher’s election chances because he controlled Ms. Rashner’s campaign message which in turn caused her problems during the campaign. The voters wanted to hear what Natalie stood for and not Winnecke. We like Natalie. She’s smart, friendly and hardworking. We hope the next time she runs for public office she and Zach will run her campaign.
We wonder how the local GOP leadership could believe that Mr. Daugherty was the reason Natalie Rashner lost the Mayoral election. The Republicans lost all but one City Council seat in the last city election. Rascher had a huge war chest of over $1 million compared to the $40,000 spent by the Daugherty campaign. Oh, Rascher also had the full support of a mayor who has served for 12 years and the full backing of the Vanderburgh County GOP.
Could the real reason for the losses by the local Republican Party in the city elections be because the voters were not excited by the candidates? Could the loss be because Republicans failed to get the voters to the polls? Should the GOP leadership have spent less time politicking at the Country Club and more time campaigning with the common folks in city neighborhoods? Could Rascher have received bad advice from her main backers?
The bottom line is that it would have been better if the local GOP had invested in local resources and built a team to run in the city elections.
In less than a year, Mike Duckworth has led his party to a humiliating loss in the city elections, alienated new volunteers, dished out outrageous punishments to members of his party,
We hope that the local Republican Party can survive until March 2025 when Duckworth’s term ends. or maybe Mr. Duckworth will man up and decide to start putting out the olive branch of peace and start rebuilding the party
FOOTNOTE: “The City-County Observer does not promote or condone discrimination of any kind including preference based on race, gender identity, or political preference”.
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Can we PLEASE stop referring to Trump/MAGA supporters as:
a. Conservatives
b. Republicans
This idea that these people, ackowledging they have an (R) and a GOP next to their name…are fiscally conservative, pro-business, strong-US-National Defense Republicans? IS PREPOSTEROUS!
Shame on you for not acknowledging this!
This column, and other columns at the CCO, refer to these people as conservatives….SHAME ON YOU!
They are not.
Duckworth…..and the Trump/MAGA folks are about getting power.
They’ll use DEBT.
They’ll use RUSSIA, and PUTIN.
They’ll use ANTI-BUSINESS practices.
…….to get power, and their political stances PROVE they are NOT actual Republicans.
Get a grip!
Start acknowledging this.
(…….let’s be clear. They are also LOSERS too. Trump hasn’t won anything since 2016. He has LOST, LOST, LOST. He is STILL LOSING. He is a gift to the Democrats.
Same for DUCKWORTH! LOSER. LOSING. A gift to the Democrats.
Get a GRIP! These people are NOT REPUBLICANS.)
Several years ago, I had a conversation with a few folks about their desire to remove Wayne Parke as chair. I never had much of an issue with Wayne. I know that he put in a lot of time and money in our local party. So I didn’t necessarily believe that he should be ousted. I tend to get along with people from all of the different cliques in our local party. I consider both, Cheryl Musgrave & Lloyd Winnecke, as friends. Neither have ever done anything to me and I don’t get involved in other people’s beefs. I say all that to say that I have always believed that we should work together as individuals, who shared the same core beliefs, in a party that needs all hands on deck. I hoped that the past conflicts wouldn’t spill out into the public eye and put a black eye on the local party, but here we are now. Infighting has become public and ugly. Different groups fighting for power within, while we’ve lost almost all of the local seats that we held just a few years ago.
To be clear, I have not spoken directly to Mike Duckworth about all of this drama. However, I don’t like what I’m seeing from the outside looking in. I believe that the GOP should be a big tent party. There is not a purity test. Most of us believe in fiscal conservation and limited governmental control of our pursuits of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I cannot understand why any county chairman would try to limit the participation of people in supporting their party. If you don’t agree with everything that the other supports, find the things that you do agree upon and work toward building a partnership based on that. Everyone needs to put their egos and feelings aside and work towards the same common goal of getting our government back under control of the people.
PHILLIP
Long time no hear. You always bee a voice of reason. I couldn’t agree with you anymore.
Let’s have lunch. one day. Peace out good buddy.
Editor
I’ll text you shortly to make plans.
I always enjoy seeing your insights.
Johnny, you were by my side the year that I worked with a local candidate who had ran for City Council as a Libertarian and got him to join our party because the platforms of the two parties have a lot of overlap. When I approached Wayne Parke about bringing this gentleman into our party, Wayne was all for it because he wanted to grow the party. Now, that same former Libertarian is still involved and friends with you and a lot of other great Republicans in our community.
Having one person or a group of people at the top deciding who is and isn’t worthy to be a Republican is detrimental to our party.
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