Some may be confused by news that IN Lt Gov Micah Beckwith will “seek reelection.” A person who runs for office or seeks reelection is the person on the ballot. No one says, “I’m running for Vice President”: too many variables, most obvious being lead on the ticket, not voters, 1/13

picks the “running mate.” There are good reasons for Hoosiers to cringe when told Beckwith has two years left in his term of office. Beckwith makes people hope Gov Braun, vile though he is, stays in adequate health. [FN1] As a former student of Purdue’s Theatre Dept said: 2/13

“I love it when a plan comes together.” [FN2] To Beckwith-proof the Lt Gov on the 2028 party ticket, a plan helps. The first step: identify the name of the corporate entity as registered w/the Indiana Sec’y of State. Is your answer Indiana Republican Party? Wrong! 3/13

That’s a d/b/a of the Indiana Republican State Committee, a not-for-profit entity incorporated under the laws of the State of Indiana. [FN3] Election cases are fraught w/technicalities. Counsel for the major parties play technicalities well. Terre Haute attorney James Bopp, Jr., 4/13

signed those Articles of Incorporation. Mr. Bopp was lead counsel at U.S. District Court in Citizens United v. FEC. [FN4] Yes, THE Citizens United that lifted many campaign spending constraints on corporations. Mr Bopp also has been counsel for, or affiliated with, 5/13

National Right to Life Committee, the Traditional Values Coalition, the Alliance Defense Fund (anti-choice & anti-LGBTQ rights) group), and the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund (anti-choice). [FN5] These are important facts to know as you recruit. After all, 6/13

Beckwith began recruiting the 908 delegates necessary for a majority a year before the June 2024 State gop convention. [FN6] And that’s where the rules begin to deprive Hoosiers voters of their, well, right to vote. To be a delegate, a person has to live in that precinct (makes sense) 7/13

and be a Qualified Primary Republican, defined as “a voter who cast a Republican Party ballot at the two (2) most recent primary elections in Indiana in which the voter voted, and who is a Republican in Good-Standing.” [FN7] This has the effect of disqualifying 80% 8/13

of Indiana voters. [FN8] Tonight, on Schisms and Rainbows (FB 6 pm EST/5pm CST), John Rust, who litigated that restriction to the Indiana Supreme Court as he tried to get on the gop ballot for U.S. Senate, will be our guest and discuss these restrictions. 9/13

Footnotes:
FN1. Removal of Beckwith as Lt Gov is on the wish list of many and will be addressed, in this blog, soon. Because Beckwith’s announcement that he’s seeking for reelection is recent, how to derail his realizing that objective is more timely. 10/13

FN2. George Peppard played “Hannibal” Smith in “The A Team,” from 1983 to 1987. And, yes, his framed photograph hung on the wall of the department in Stewart Center last time I checked in 1983.
FN3. See, Indiana Republican State Committee, Indiana Secretary of State business division, 10/24/05. 11/13

FN4. 588 U.S. 310 (2010).
FN5. As a member of the RNC, Bopp “fought for a resolution requiring candidates to pledge support for at least” 8 of 10 policy positions “including being “pro-gun rights [and] pro-Defense of Marriage Act.” Novak, “Citizen Bopp,” The American Prospect, 01/02/2012. 12/13

FN6. FN10. “22,450 Hoosiers died from the virus after the date [Micah Beckwith] he made that video, including 616 residents in his home of Hamilton County.” Nathan Gotsch, Fort Wayne Politics, 6/10/24.
FN7. Republican State Rule 1-24.
FN8. See, Morales v Rust, 23S-PL-371 (3/9/24) at p. 9. 13/13