The president, the governor and their sycophantic minions may have broken the Indiana Republican Party into pieces.
That could be the big story behind former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s decision to run for Indiana secretary of state as the standard-bearer for the newly formed Lincoln Party. Ballard served two terms as a Republican mayor of Indianapolis.
People who don’t pay close attention to politics and political maneuvering may struggle to understand why the secretary of state’s office matters much. Its functions are largely clerical and far from sexy.
More than 30 years ago, when the late William Hudnut—himself a Republican Indianapolis mayor—sought the secretary of state’s office, he made jokes about the post in his stump speech, dismissing it as Indiana’s most prominent “notary public” position. That dismissal may have had something to do with Hudnut’s surprising defeat at the hands of Democrat Joe Hogsett, who now is the Indianapolis mayor.
While the work of being secretary of state may not be intellectually or spiritually stimulating, the job does offer one specific benefit for mission-driven candidates.
Because it leads the ticket in this mid-term election when voter turnout likely will be lower than during a presidential election year, it offers a rare opportunity for a high-profile candidate such as Ballard to gain ongoing ballot status for a minor party. All Ballard will have to do in November is capture 2% of the vote and the newly founded Lincoln Party will appear on the ballot going forward.
There is legitimate debate about whether Ballard’s initial announcement that he was running as an independent with a small “i” when in fact he was working to establish a new party is either, at best, disingenuous or, at worst, deceitful, but don’t expect that to gain much traction.
In an era in which gross duplicities and mendacities emanate daily from the White House down to the many other MAGA-held offices across the land, most people won’t be that upset by Ballard’s sleight of hand.
What isn’t up for debate is that Ballard and his backers clearly saw an opportunity, a widening chasm in the political firmament that he and they could first occupy and then perhaps widen.
Trump, Braun, Beckwith, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales and other MAGA-inspired deep thinkers created that chasm. Possessed by a spectacular sort of hubris that had been seasoned with equal parts of arrogance and ignorance, this crew of geniuses forgot the most fundamental rule of politics.
Namely, that politics is about addition, not subtraction.
Instead of looking for ways to attract converts or independents to their cause, the Trump-led brain trust has focused on telling many people who have been Republicans since they were children that there now is no place for them in today’s GOP.
Given that Trump never won more than 49.85% of the popular vote himself, this was always a dubious approach, one more motivated by the president’s insecurity-driven impulses than any kind of strategy.
But it’s had an impact.
Braun’s public-approval numbers now hover at the 25% range, an incredible achievement in the annals of political ineptitude for a Republican governor in one of the most Republican states in America.
I’ve lost track of the number of committed Republicans who’ve told me they can’t stand what the Indiana GOP has become, but they can’t bring themselves to vote for a Democrat.
Enter Ballard and his new political party.
Calling it the “Lincoln Party” is far from subtle.
It tells all those disaffected Hoosier Republicans who once cast their ballots for Richard Lugar and Mitch Daniels that they don’t have to vote for an Indiana GOP that has made it clear it no longer wants them. Nor do they have to violate their ancient loyalties and vote for a Democrats.
Instead, they can vote for this new party that aims to restore Lincolnesque founding Republican principles.
There are many MAGA Republicans angry with Greg Ballard.
They say he’s busted the Indiana GOP into pieces.
They give him too much credit.
Trump, Braun, Beckwith and other MAGA minions did that bit of demolition.
Ballard and his backers just recognized that some of the discarded pieces could be used to build a new structure with familiar lines.
