The Marion County Republican Central Committee, made up of the county’s precinct committeemen, is scheduled to caucus at 6:30 Tuesday night to select their candidate for sheriff on the November ballot. The caucus comes with lot of questions about events leading up to it.
WJBD/WSIQ went to Marion County Clerk Steve Fox with those questions. He says the Republican Party Chair Ben Stratemeyer has done nothing that isn’t allowed by law.
Questions raised include recent appointees to open precinct committee persons, in some cases by those who don’t live in the precinct. Fox says under statute, appointees don’t have to reside in the precinct they represent. He also confirmed Stratemeyer has appointed four precinct committee persons since it became known a caucus would be held to replace sheriff Kevin Cripps on the ballot after he decided to pull his name for re-election. Fox says a party chairman can appoint people to open seats at any time. The rest of this year’s appointees were made in April after the party’s convention, which Fox described as normal procedure.
Fox says there is a requirement that each precinct committee member cast ballots based on the number of Republican voters in the last election, so different precinct committeemen will have different weighting to their votes.
Stratemeyer earlier indicated the vote would be by written ballot. He has not been available for comment on the newer developments.
Marion County Board Chair Steve Whritenour is also upset with Cripps’ timing in pulling out of the election, claiming the sheriff knew he would be out of the country for his son’s wedding based on a prior discussion between the two. Whritenour said if it wasn’t for that timing, he would have been a candidate for the open sheriff’s position. Cripps said in a news release Tuesday he did not know at the time of his announcement that Whritenour was on vacation.
In announcing his retirement, Cripps endorsed his chief deputy, Anthony Decker, to take his place, while Whritenour says that, because of the circumstances, he is supporting Cody Rose as a candidate for change. He believes Stratemeyer is supporting Decker and selecting new precinct committeemen who are supporting Decker.
The meeting will be held at the Iron Saddle and is open to the public to observe.
