AG Race: More on the Indianapolis Way

You never know what you can find associated with the Governor and his people when you go looking at what they have put up on Facebook. Things like the logo here show up in their Facebook profiles.

*ahem*

On Thursday night, I blogged about Tom John's firing of Dave Miller, a Marion County GOP township chairman that was quoted in the Howey Report as complaining about John's strong-arming of delegates and demand for a pro-Costas loyalty oath for appointed delegates.

Readers will note that all of these reports have since been corroborated by recent editions of Indiana Legislative Insight and the Howey report.

After further inquiry, rumor has it (and Hoosierpundit sources have also told me) that Tom John's efforts to pack the GOP state convention and rig the vote for Jon Costas, the Governor's man, are much more extensive than previously indicated.

According to Hoosierpundit sources, Tom John held a meeting of the Marion County township chairs about a week and a half ago. The meeting was called on very short notice, so not all of the townships were able to attend; those that were not present were apparently notified of the meeting's happenings via other means.

Present at this meeting, sources say, were Jay Cahill (Costas' campaign manager), Tom John (Marion County GOP chair), Andy Harris (Wayne township chair), David Holt (Pike township chair), Lincoln Plowman (Franklin township vice / assistant chair), Kay Spear (Perry township vice / assistant chair), Helmut Brugman (Washington township vice / assistant chair), and Rob Green (the executive director of the Marion County GOP), among others.

The meeting took place on very short notice, and not all of the townships were able to have representatives present.

Sources say that it was at this meeting that Tom John laid down the law to his township party officials with regard to the appointment of delegates to the state convention. There were to be no delegate appointments without the person that wanted to be a delegate first signing a form indicating that they would vote at the convention for Jon Costas.

I am told that they had difficulty getting people to sign the required loyalty oath, and soon substituted it for requiring them to sign a card from the Costas campaign saying that they were endorsing or volunteering for Jon Costas. However, this too was met with resistance from those interested in being delegates, and very few party regulars that normally populate the ranks of the Marion County GOP convention delegation were willing to go along with it. Most of these individuals were accordingly not appointed as delegates.

Sources say that, following the demand for a loyalty oath, Mr. Cahill addressed the meeting. He informed them in no uncertain terms that Jon Costas was the Governor's choice for attorney general. Cahill then told the meeting that Mitch Daniels said that "any county or delegate who did not cooperate would be punished."

Tom John nodded approvingly as Cahill said this.

Regardless, the quotation shows the extent to which Tom John, the Costas campaign, and the Governor are increasingly willing to go in order to ensure that the GOP state convention rubber stamps Mitch Daniels' hand-picked nominee for attorney general. They are now relying upon Indianapolis and Tom John to force their chosen one through the convention.

With the intervention of the likes of Carl Brizzi, and more recently John McGoff, on the side of Zoeller, lining up the delegates from the various townships is apparently proving difficult. I also suspect that the township party officials did not react well to being given such blunt and authoritarian orders.

Sources say that the loyalty oath did not go over well, and word of it leaked quickly from potential delegates to blogs such as this one (and later to Howey and Legislative Insight). Potential delegates resisted it, and Tom John soon had to look to new places to be able to fill Marion County's delegate slate.

Unable to find sufficient party regulars willing to sign a draconian loyalty oath as demanded by the Indianapolis establishment, sources say that John began appointing members of the Daniels administration, staffers for the Governor's campaign, and their spouses (!!!) in order to fill the delegate slate.

Of Marion County's 103 appointed delegates, I am told by sources that somewhere between a majority and two-thirds of those open slots were filled by individuals from these categories.

Hoosierpundit sources in Marion County indicate, for example, that Eric Holcomb (Mitch's campaign manager) is on the list of delegate appointees, along with Janet Amos (Holcomb's girlfriend). Jason and Sharon Barclay, former My Man Mitch employees (the former now being with Barnes & Thornburg), were also appointed as delegates.

Sources say that other appointments include Bill Bock (the treasurer of the Costas campaign), Betsy Burdick (the Governor's deputy chief of staff), Danielle Chrysler (a Daniels staffer) and her husband Mike, Katherine Densborn (the head of the Hoosier Lottery) and her husband Donald, Justin Garrett (an employee of the state committee), Bob Grand (the chief of Barnes & Thornburg, where Costas used to work), Doug Huntsinger (an employee of the governor), Mark Massa (the Governor's general counsel), Cam Savage (the communications flunky for the Governor's campaign), Matt Tusing (Rokita's chief of staff) and his wife Kristin, and Ellen Whitt (a staffer in the Governor's office) and her husband Bob (also a Daniels staffer).

The list of appointees is apparently chock full of current and former "Mitchies", whether for his office or for his campaign. All of these individuals are beholden to the Governor. For that reason alone, their votes can be brought in line far better than a mere loyalty oath.

It wasn't enough for Tom John, it seems, to demand that his county's appointed delegates sign a loyalty oath. He filled his appointment list with Mitch loyalists guaranteed to to the Governor's bidding no matter what (lest they join the various county chairs and other delegates in being "punished").

This is the Indianapolis Way.

It's now also the Mitch Way.