GOP official: Party rules more important than votes for 3 who were banned

EVANSVILLE — Republican voters who supported former Libertarian mayoral candidate Michael Daugherty for party offices last month probably didn't understand state GOP rules, said one of the four party leaders who banned Daugherty and two others Monday night from seeking office as Republicans until 2030.

Linda Painter, Knox County-based treasurer of the 8th District Republican Congressional Committee, spoke to the Courier & Press the day after the committee banned Daugherty, Ken Colbert and Cheryl Batteiger-Smith at the behest of Vanderburgh County GOP Chairman Mike Duckworth.

Painter's remarks illustrate the breadth and width of the divisions tearing at one of Indiana's largest political organizations.

More: Daugherty, Colbert and Batteiger-Smith forbidden to seek office as Republicans until 2030

Party rules mattered little to the 50 or so protesters outside local Republican headquarters as the 8th District committee conducted closed hearings Monday night. They spoke of other Republicans, apparently in favor with Duckworth, who had violated the same rules without being disciplined. An angry question buzzed through their ranks.

Shouldn't the committee stand down, set aside Duckworth's complaints and respect the will of Republican voters who just 27 days earlier had elected Daugherty, Colbert and Batteiger-Smith to party offices? Daugherty had beaten another Republican for a precinct committee slot with 73% of the vote. He received 1,260 votes to finish fourth in a field of 24 Republicans seeking 10 seats at the June 15 state GOP convention. Colbert and Batteiger-Smith were elected as "PCs" without opposition.

But Painter insisted Tuesday that voters' support for Daugherty in last month's GOP primary election is trumped by rules stating a "Republican in good standing" cannot have openly opposed a GOP nominee for elected office in the past. Daugherty did that when he opposed Republican mayoral nominee Natalie Rascher last year.

According to Daugherty, Rascher testified in Monday's closed hearing that his mayoral candidacy was the primary cause of her defeat. Rascher wouldn't comment afterward. Daugherty called it the misdirected complaining of a sore loser.

"I didn’t cause the City Council (Republicans) to lose all the seats," Daugherty said of the local GOP's top-to-bottom defeats in city elections. "That was Michael Duckworth."

More: Unified Vanderburgh County Democrats don't have what awaits Republicans Monday

Painter is the only one of the four 8th District committee members who has been willing to entertain questions about the dispute in Vanderburgh County. She had a succinct reply when asked about the concerns raised by protesters that the 8th District committee was disregarding the will of Republican voters.

"What do you feel? Ignore the state party rules?" she said.

Voters "probably are very unfamiliar with those (rules)," Painter said. "Unless you’re very involved in the Republican Party, you probably wouldn’t know the rules."

Daugherty said he is "dumbfounded" by Painter's remarks. They illustrate just how far GOP leaders have drifted out of touch with rank-and-file Republicans, he said.

"Your vote is your vote, whether (voters) know state party rules or not," he said. "They vote for who they want to win."

'He voted to allow it'

Painter declared that the Vanderburgh County Election Board also should have deferred to the state GOP's rules instead of allowing Daugherty to seek office as a Republican during its Feb. 28 meeting. Duckworth and a GOP attorney did cite the party rules while challenging Daugherty's eligibility, but Painter said they were "ignored."

Painter chastised Evansville attorney Joe Harrison, then the election board's chairman, whom she said "knew the rules" as a former Vanderburgh County GOP chairman himself. Harrison should have known better, she said.

"He voted to allow it," Painter said. "He was promptly replaced by Duckworth, with just cause."

More: Civil war in Vanderburgh GOP ignites with chairman's move against critics

But Harrison and election board member David Shaw, also an attorney, were less interested in Republican Party rules than in the question of whether Daugherty complied with Indiana's "two-primaries law." The statute requires that a candidate's two most recent votes in Indiana primary elections must have been cast in primaries held by the party he or she seeks to represent.

After a legal argument, they decided that Daugherty did qualify. Duckworth's attorney had argued he didn't.

The election board's attorney, Doug Briody, told the Courier & Press Tuesday it was a sound decision.

"I indicated that I didn't think that the intraparty rules were controlling on that issue, that the statute was," Briody said. "I'm not aware of any controlling Indiana law that indicates that those intraparty rules come into play in making the determination whether (Daugherty) was statutorily qualified."

But Painter said that was the moment the whole dispute in Vanderburgh County could have been headed off at the pass.

Daugherty, Batteiger-Smith and Colbert "should never have been allowed to run in the election," Painter declared.

More: What's a loyal Republican or Democrat? Vanderburgh election hopefuls kicked off ballot

"The election board being presented with the facts that Mike Duckworth presented them with, should have known that those were not Republicans in good standing," she said.

Duckworth, however, did not challenge Colbert and Batteiger-Smith's candidacies then, even though Batteiger-Smith had run against Republican State Rep. Wendy McNamara in 2022 as an independent. Batteiger-Smith said she challenged McNamara because the race needed a strong opponent of abortion — an issue that aligns her with most conservatives.

"Accusations that I am not a Republican in good standing are absolutely ridiculous," Batteiger-Smith said in a statement read to supporters Monday. "My front yard looks like Trump headquarters."

What rules did the three banned Republicans violate?

According to Painter, the 8th District board's members voted 4-0 to ban Daugherty, Batteiger-Smith and Colbert.

Supporters of the trio have asked how they can be disciplined by the GOP after they are elected for actions they took before they were elected.

In a series of emailed announcements sent to media Tuesday afternoon, the Vanderburgh County GOP stated there was evidence Daugherty had violated the rule against opposing Republican nominees and a rule forbidding "gross misconduct affecting the party organization." Same deal with Batteiger-Smith and Colbert, although Colbert swears he has never supported another candidate against a Republican nominee.

"The Vanderburgh County Republican Party is committed to ensuring that the Rules of the Indiana Republican State Committee are upheld," said a written statement bearing Duckworth's name. Duckworth wrote that he "will not discuss specific details regarding the substance of the hearing," given that it was closed.

Colbert told the Courier & Press Sunday night that he had been notified that day of 17 complaints lodged against him for social media posts apparently critical of prominent Republicans. In one, he said, he accused Sen. Vaneta Becker of lying about a Senate bill, a charge Becker denied.

But neither Colbert nor the 8th District committee would provide any further information on the 17 social media posts.

How far back into a Republican's past can the 8th District GOP go to identify instances of criticizing or opposing another Republican? A statute of limitations is not mentioned in state GOP rules, and Painter said there is none.

"As long as the chair brings the complaint forward, we have to listen to it," she said. "If it’s proven that they did commit the rule violations, there’s no statute of limitations on it and nothing to do with being elected.

"And, trust me, we were in contact with the state election board. We were in contact with lawyers for the state Republican Party."

The local GOP was represented at Monday night's hearing by Indianapolis attorney Ali Bartlett, who is active in state Republican politics. Afterward, Bartlett would not say whether she had been engaged to do so by Duckworth or by someone else.

Painter was not impressed by the 50 or so protesters who showed up outside GOP headquarters as the 8th District committee conducted its closed hearings Monday.

"It was (Daugherty, Battieger-Smith and Colbert's) family and friends," she said. "They’re the ones making the hullabaloo."

Painter also didn't think the trio would get far appealing their disciplinary actions to the state GOP's committee. The state's nine congressional districts are each represented on that committee by the chair and vice chair of their district organizations.

"If they accept the complaint and give a hearing, then two of the ones that voted for this (Monday's actions against Daugherty, Battieger-Smith and Colbert) will be sitting on that committee too," Painter said.

But Colbert vowed the story isn't over. The state GOP rules say a party officer can be ousted if two-thirds of precinct committee members vote for it.

Even with the removal of three of Duckworth's critics, Colbert said, there are enough votes on the precinct committee to unseat the party chair.

"It's going to happen," he said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: GOP official: Party rules more important than votes for 3 who were banned