Plot to oust Vanderburgh GOP's Duckworth takes a new turn

EVANSVILLE — The much-ballyhooed plot to oust Vanderburgh County Republican Chairman Mike Duckworth before his term expires in March may be losing steam.

Immediately after Duckworth engineered the removal of the three ringleaders from elected positions on the GOP's precinct committee in June, other newly elected members of the party's governing body were braying for his ouster.

But one of those ringleaders now says some of the anti-Duckworth "PCs" seem to have lost their appetite for a protracted struggle with him. Another who had promised Duckworth's removal now offers qualified statements instead.

If it were simply a matter of having the numbers to do it, they might be able to pull it off. The margins are tight, making the loss of any supporters potentially fatal to the effort.

More: Duckworth speaks: I wasn't targeting anyone in GOP

State GOP rules say a party officer can be ousted if two-thirds of precinct committee members vote for it. On a body that can have no more than 135 members, that means anti-Duckworth forces need 90 votes. Organizers Michael Daugherty, Ken Colbert and Cheryl Batteiger-Smith — the trio Duckworth had removed as PCs — say they recruited 81 of the PCs who were elected in May's Republican primary election.

They could get to 90 by adding nine or 10 of the 14 PCs who voted for Colbert in a May 15 GOP caucus to choose a temporary successor to County Clerk Carla Hayden, who will leave office August 29. It's tricky, because Duckworth scheduled that caucus for two days before the newly elected PCs could take office so the previous iteration of PCs — a group far more friendly to him — could do the voting. Anti-Duckworth forces estimate nine or 10 of Colbert's 14 supporters are still in place.

But a trio of obstacles apparently have dampened the fire of some who want Duckworth gone.

• Indiana Republican State Committee rules lay out a row of hoops that anyone seeking to remove a local party chairman would have to jump through, requiring patience and persistence.
• According to Daugherty and Colbert, some of the anti-Duckworth PCs fear he would try to have them removed from the precinct committee if they stood publicly against him and the effort failed.
• Duckworth's four-year term will expire in March anyway.

"We have some saying, 'What's another seven months or eight months?' That's the debate that we have now," Daugherty said.

"It's not as enthusiastic as it was after they removed (Daugherty, Colbert and Batteiger-Smith) because there's a threat there. There are a few PCs who are fearing retaliation by Duckworth if they vote against him and it doesn't happen. It's requiring us to now explain things, whereas they were all gung ho."

The day after the four-member 8th District Republican Congressional Committee removed Daugherty, Colbert and Batteiger-Smith from the precinct committee at Duckworth's request and banned them from seeking office as Republicans until 2030, Colbert vowed Duckworth would be removed .

More: Ousted candidates say they're committed to removing Duckworth as GOP chair

"It's going to happen," he said then.

But on Tuesday, Colbert seemed less sure.

"The bottom line is, the leadership will be changing, whether or not it’s now," he said, noting that several Republicans have expressed interest in succeeding Duckworth after his term expires in March.

Will Duckworth be removed before then? the Courier & Press asked.

"That is the objective," Colbert replied. "We’re going to move in that direction."

Colbert said anti-Duckworth forces are being advised by a local attorney and an Indianapolis-based expert in state party rules. He wouldn't name them.

"If we’re not successful, at least we’re still exposing about what’s happening here in Vanderburgh County," Colbert said. "And then in March of 2025, the new leadership will be selected."

Duckworth did not acknowledge text and phone messages seeking his comment about the shift in intraparty opposition to him.

'You don’t walk into General Motors and become the CEO'

Duckworth is at war with party conservatives enflamed by his use of Indiana's "two-primaries" law to remove their candidates for PC positions from the May 7 GOP primary ballot while giving waivers to violators of the law who he does support. It's all legal, but Duckworth's critics believe the GOP was needlessly divided by the chairman's decision to waiver in an otherwise ineligible challenger for longtime Republican County Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave.

Duckworth's move against Daugherty, Colbert and Batteiger-Smith less than a month after GOP voters elected them to PC positions also rankled their supporters, who pointed out that he didn't act against other PCs who had violated the same party rules. Those PCs hadn't been vocally anti-Duckworth.

More: GOP official: Party rules more important than votes for 3 who were banned

Duckworth does have supporters who point to his decades of involvement in the local GOP.

In a June 25 Facebook post, Marsha Abell Barnhart — the veteran Republican officeholder who defeated Colbert in the May 15 caucus to succeed Hayden as county clerk — lamented that, "some people we never heard from before have decided they want to take over."

"You don’t walk into General Motors and become the CEO," Barnhart wrote. "You have to prove yourself and work your way to the top."

GOP officials didn't disclose the margin by which Barnhart defeated Colbert in the caucus of the previous group of PCs, but Barnhart said it was 63 to 14.

More: New Vanderburgh elections chief picked in temporary GOP ceasefire

Barnhart charged that Colbert and his supporters "claim to be such good Republicans, but never help the party."

"They have never worked at the 4-H fair (Republican Party) tent, worked at the (GOP's) fall festival booth, knocked on doors for candidates, other than themselves, put out campaign signs, stuffed envelopes, cleaned up after breakfast, made phone calls, etc.," she wrote. "... Not to mention failing to attend any fundraisers until this year or give any money to the party for campaign expenses."

Colbert fired back that he would have defeated Barnhart if Duckworth had allowed the current group of PCs to vote on the clerk vacancy.

The 81 new PCs who he and the others recruited were among a total of 99 they recruited to run for the positions, Colbert said. Most of them had not been involved in the Republican Party before, he said. Has Barnhart ever recruited 99 people to join the GOP? Colbert asked.

Colbert and the other conservatives aligned against Duckworth have said fealty to conservative principles is a more valuable and important qualification to be a Republican than past involvement in party affairs.

Nevertheless, Colbert produced a photo of himself working the local party's Fall Festival booth last year. He said he worked with party vice chair Dottie Thomas. Colbert had wanted to be a poll worker for the GOP in the May 7 primary, he said, but he produced a text he received from Thomas saying it wasn't a good idea since his "harassment" over election-related issues was one of the reasons Hayden is departing office.

Thomas did not return messages seeking comment on Colbert's assertions.

Duckworth 'does a good job'

Barnhart wrote that Duckworth "really did not want" to become GOP chairman in 2021 and had to be talked into it by her and others "because no one else wanted to take on such a heavy load without compensation."

There was someone else who wanted the job.

Duckworth faced spirited opposition for the chairmanship from conservative pastor Steve Ary , who he defeated in a caucus of GOP precinct committee members by a vote of 47-40. The caucus brought out such party luminaries as Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, a Vanderburgh County resident, then-Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and former Mayor Russ Lloyd Jr.

It wasn't the first time Duckworth had expressed interest in being the local GOP's chairman, either.

In 2010, a little more than a week before party workers chose Wayne Parke to lead them for what would ultimately be an 11-year run, Duckworth said he was considering running for the unpaid position.

"I'm not out yet, let's put it that way," he told the Courier & Press.

But Duckworth did bow out in the end, and Parke defeated Holli Sullivan for the chairmanship.

Connie Carrier, another former chair of the local GOP, said Duckworth "does a good job" in a role that is thankless and unpaid. Carrier, who is also a PC, survived a challenge to her position in the primary by a candidate she says Colbert recruited.

Finding candidates, raising money — there's a lot that goes into being party chairman, Carrier said.

"I just think (Duckworth) does a good job with what he deals with," Carrier said.

But Colbert said the local GOP's old guard would rather rule a smaller party than accept the party conservatives who now are a significant majority — if not two-thirds — of the precinct committee. Conservatives have recruited scores of new party members, he said, but the old guard doesn't want them.

"It’s the establishment people at the country club, and now the party has grown exponentially and now we have true conservatism," he said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Plot to oust Vanderburgh GOP's Duckworth takes a new turn