EVANSVILLE — There is no upside for Cheryl Schultz in commenting on the civil war being waged within the Vanderburgh County Republican Party right now.
Schultz, after all, is the local Democratic Party's chair. Whatever she would say could be weaponized by one side or the other in the GOP's conflict, ruin her relationship with her current counterparts on the other side or poison the waters with the new crowd should they vanquish the old.
"My hope is that whoever succeeds (GOP Chairman Mike Duckworth) in his role will be amenable to working with the Democrats as has been the custom, with elections, in years past," Schultz said.
Shane Ritz isn't so diplomatic.
Ritz, the Democratic party organization's communications director, blasted Ken Colbert — one of the three Republicans who are attempting to remake the local GOP — as "a completely unhinged bigot and anti-Semite."
It is the sort of attack one rarely sees in local politics, where top leadership ranks in both major parties are often filled with people who went to school together, who work together and see each other in supermarkets. Some are attorneys or realtors with client lists to worry about. Some are associates at local companies with business careers to nurture.
A certain comity prevails that insulates local politicians from the kind of harshly worded attacks frequently seen on national cable television networks catering to the unpersuadable types on both left and right.
But then, potential Republican kingmaker Colbert is different.
Ritz pointed to Colbert's very active Telegram feed, which contains messages Ritz said are virulently, hatefully antisemitic.
"Jesus literally told you 2k years ago that jews are the problem," says one entry. The words appear above Colbert's name and below an artist's conception that appears to depict the Biblical story of an angry Jesus overturning the tables of money changers in the temple in Jerusalem.
Another entry on Colbert's Telegram feed states just over his name:
"Jews started the NAACP in 1909. They created the Civil Rights Act which destroyed black communities. It was written by Theodore Hesburg who is a Jew/Zionist. Jews own all music genres created by black people yet they make more money off it than the performer. Also they owned 95% of slaves."
Local politics could change tone fast
If this is going to be how it is if Colbert and his supporters assume control of the Vanderburgh County GOP, Ritz said, local politics could quickly become as polarizing and nasty as national politics.
"If the Republican Party gets taken over by people like Ken Colbert, he's the type of person who thinks every Democrat is a pedophile or something," the Democratic communications director said.
Ritz said he had thought Colbert's social media would be "run-of-the-mill, far-right conservative rhetoric, more like stuff (Republican former President Donald) Trump would say."
"But this is way beyond anything that even Trump would say," he said.
Looking at the Telegram messages alongside a Courier & Press reporter recently, Colbert said he doesn't recognize them as his.
"I find a lot of things that I put out there to cause discussion," he said. "I don’t necessarily agree with a lot of things that I put out there, just because — like, I take pictures with people, and I don’t necessarily agree with them. I do a lot of research. All kinds of things."
The Democratic Party — including local Democrats — are the ones who are too extreme, Colbert charged. Local Republicans would call it out if his faction seizes control of the GOP, he said.
"If the opposing candidate is doing things counter to conservatism, it needs to be exposed," Colbert said.
The Courier & Press asked Colbert if he agrees with the antisemitic posts on his feed.
"I have no idea. Again, I’m not familiar with it at all," he said. "But you know, it's interesting, because I put a lot of comments out there, and some people don’t like it. Then they start trolling you and saying you’re harassing them. It’s like, really? I could put things out there about the existence of God. You’re going to have people that are saying, 'Well, I’m offended because I’m an atheist.'"
The Courier & Press asked Colbert point blank: Is he antisemitic?
"No, not at all," he said. "I embrace everybody. That’s what it is. Am I going to express myself sometimes? Yes, I have a right to do that."
Rs and Ds have worked together
Democratic chair Schultz has worked closely with Republican Vice Chair Dottie Thomas for several years as each set out about the task of finding poll workers to represent the parties for elections. The two women often sit next to each other at meetings of the Vanderburgh County Election Board, chatting during breaks.
Local Republicans and Democrats even lend each other poll workers, Schultz said.
"If we get down to crunch time before election night — if somebody calls and has a sick poll worker — we’ll check with each other to see if they have an extra sub because our goal is just to make sure we have enough people to run the election," she said.
"It’s always nice to know that you’ve got somebody you can call and say, ‘Oh my gosh.' It was especially helpful during COVID."
Workers at polling places are supposed to be completely nonpartisan in their comportment anyway, Schultz said.
Schultz goes way back with Duckworth, her Republican counterpart.
The two know each other from the time, nearly two decades ago, when Schultz worked in Human Resources at the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Duckworth was a member of the EVSC school board.
"We all observe what goes on, and there’s never any accusations of anybody doing anything untoward," Schultz said of the relationship between local Republicans and Democrats. "It should be one of the things that reassures people when they go to vote."
Voters are the ultimate arbiters
Colbert isn't the only Republican who has helped spearhead a new conservative, pro-Trump majority in the local GOP's precinct committee, and he wouldn't be the only one helping to shape the party's message.
Cheryl Batteiger-Smith, a former Posey County Republican vice chair and now a Vanderburgh County resident, also has been a key organizer.
Batteiger-Smith ran against Republican State Rep. Wendy McNamara as a self-described "independent conservative" in 2022.
"I gave my life to Christ and became a child of God, and he is first in my life," Batteiger-Smith told 8th District GOP leaders in June before they banned her from seeking office as a Republican until 2030. "I began to have a heartfelt passion for the unborn and became a huge supporter of the Right to Life (anti-abortion) movement. I believe every baby deserves to live and to have a chance at life."
Also part of the conservative faction's leadership team: Michael Daugherty, a former Republican who ran for mayor of Evansville last year as a Libertarian and rejoined the GOP afterward. Daugherty calls himself a staunch conservative who is nonetheless willing to support more moderate Republican candidates if they win nominations for elected office.
Daugherty is also a vociferous critic of Duckworth, saying the GOP chairman has torn the party apart and must be ousted if unity is to be restored.
Matthew J. Hanka, a political scientist at the University of Southern Indiana, said voters have the most important role to play in determining how much either party's dysfunction affects local politics.
"I think you could see the Republicans following trends where they’re going to nationalize local political races more," Hanka said. "But I think voters have a responsibility to frame the debate too, and not be totally dependent on what party machines tell you."
Republican inertia — the GOP's dominance in federal, statewide and countywide elections in Vanderburgh County since 2010 — is so strong that intraparty infighting likely won't hurt its candidates this year in the same way Democratic infighting in 2011 hurt that party in city elections, Hanka said.
But the veteran political scientist said the rise of the local GOP's most fervently conservative faction to take control of the party's precinct committee this year could have one curious effect: Trump, who consistently ran behind local Republican candidates in the 2020 election, could run a few percentage points ahead of them this year.
"It would not be a surprise," Hanka said.
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