Several complaints were aired about the how the Marion County Republican Party caucus for sheriff was conducted at the county board meeting Wednesday night.
Lisa Hourigan began the discussion by expressing her displeasure.
“I’m very disappointed in this behavior,” Hourigan said. “This is a high school act. Don’t hide your errors and make us all pay for it. It doesn’t work that way.”
Hourigan says she knows this is not an issue the Marion County Board can resolve, but she added several of the county board members were involved.
Two of the Republican Party precinct committeemen who were part of the caucus also expressed their unhappiness. Gavin Cass called the caucus very unorganized.
“I haven’t been a part of this a long time,” Cass said. “I am a precinct committeeman in Marion County. It felt like I was not doing the will of the people at all yesterday when we were told to go hide in a room. At least that’s what it felt like, we might not have been told to ‘hide,’ but that’s what it felt like. When I picture myself joining politics and joining these things… I envisioned myself working on behalf of the people, not working on behalf of the party.”
Omega Township precinct committeeman Traci Fisk was also concerned about the closed door vote.
“It was stated as open meeting,” Fisk said. “Nobody said anything about doing that. We’ve never done it in the meetings before, when we had the caucus to put in others, there were three other caucuses we had. Nothing was said, nobody was asking questions, and it was done right there in the room, big open room with everybody.”
But precinct committeeman Bill Smith says the caucus was done correctly and after Cody Rose withdrew and County Board Chair Steve Whritenour’s name was submitted after nominations were closed they voted for the only remaining candidate Anthony Decker.
The Democratic Party Chair Dana Reynolds also spoke defending the Republican caucus.
“It’s set by statute how caucuses run,” Reynolds said. “Only the precinct committeemen vote, and it has to be a closed vote at that point in time. I made sure that when we did our caucuses back in May, that ours were done properly under state law. I consulted with Steve Fox, and that’s how it’s done, period. If they haven’t done them like that in the past, they have done them wrong.
Reynolds confirmed, like the Republicans, the majority of their precinct committeemen have been appointed after nobody ran for positions.
After the discussion, Whritenour noted the caucus issues were not something the county board could address.
