Why are the by-laws of the Indiana Republican Party not readily available to the public? There is no link to them on the website of either the Indiana Secretary of State, the Indiana Republican Party or the Indiana Republican State Committee, Inc.
As I wrote a while back, the Indiana Republican Party - I’ll refer to it as “the Party” - is a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of the State of Indiana, incorporated by Citizens United attorney James Bopp, Jr. Is listed as an “assumed business name” on the Secretary of State’s website.
Another nonprofit corporation is The Indiana Republican State Committee, Inc. - I’ll refer to it as “the Committee.” Both the Party and the Committee were incorporated on 10/24/05 with Mr. Bopp as the incorporator.
Articles of incorporation (“Articles”) are required to be filed for a corporate entity chartered by the Indiana Secretary of State. The articles of incorporation for the Party and the Committee are identical and “Articles of Incorporation of Indiana Republican State Committee, Inc.”
A link from each entity to “Download Certified Copies” results in the same document listed as filed 09/25/2006 - basically a space-holder: “During conversion from paper file the source documents were not available for this transaction.”
Given that all the other documents for Party and Committee seem to go the same direction, I believe it is reasonable to infer that the Party is an assumed name for the Committee - i.e., the Committee is “the real thing.” Oh, wait: the Party’s “rules state “State Committee is the supreme party authority in this state...” (State Rule 1-1.)
This is a political party, so anyone who wants to run for the Board of Directors, the supreme party authority, can do so, right? 5th Article: “The business of the corporation shall be carried on through its Board of Directors. The election or appointment of new directors shall be governed by the Bylaws of the corporation.”
There are no links to any “Bylaws” on the websites of the Secretary of State, the Committee or the Party.
As I previously wrote, were this a privately-held corporation doing business in farm supplies or toe nail clippers, these provisions would offer little cause for alarm - but this is a corporation that controls one of the two “major” political parties in Indiana.
Perhaps I missed a “link” to the Bylaws. If so, I would appreciate knowing what the link is. If I have not missed the link, and the Bylaws are not readily accessible - they should be.
I am qualified to be a candidate on the May ballot for the GOP nomination for the Fifth Congressional District. Our elections are supposed to be fair and open. If only candidates who receive the blessings of the Committee are given access to the Bylaws, the playing field is not even.
And I’m sure the GOP does not want to be viewed as a political party that manipulates rules to exclude people from elections. I’d hate to think that Mr. Bopp presides over a political party and is unaccountable to voters. That seems monarchical, and not at all what the Framers envisioned.