When Will Republicans Say Enough of Diego's BS?

Okay. So let's go back in time, shall we, to November of 2024. That was the election season when Trump was elected president. And during that election season, according to the Indianapolis star, Diego Morales went to the Marion County election center. Most of you know this, most of you are Indiana people, for those who don't, that's Indianapolis. He went to the Marion County election center as the chief elections officer for the state of Indiana, which is our secretary of state is. And while he was there acting in his official capacity as the chief elections officer for the state of Indiana, he had his staff, his state staff film him participating with election workers in Marion County touring the facility, et cetera. Fast forward to May of 2025 and in May of 2025, Diego Morales announces that he is running for reelection, announces his campaign for reelection. He's running to once again become the Secretary of State of the State of Indiana. In that video announcement, he posts footage from the clips that he took while he was acting as Indiana Secretary of State in the Marion County election center with the Marion County election workers. And while doing this, the Marion County Election Board got wind of this. They saw the video. They said, "Hey, would you please take that down? Would you please remove the footage of our workers with you?" These are people that are working on behalf of the state of Indiana. They're working on behalf of Marion County. They don't want to be in a political ad. They're not trying to be political. We don't want our election center featured in this. You cannot use state resources to campaign. That's a very clear rule. It's made very clear to people, whether you're a statewide office holder or a state employee, you cannot use state resources to campaign. They send a letter. They don't get a response. So again, the timeframe on this matters because, and just to reset this, November of 2024 is when he takes the video. May of 2025 is when he makes his announcement he's running for reelection using the video footage that he took allegedly with state employees, his state employees of other government workers. Alright. So Marion County Election Board, they send a letter, election system sends a letter. It says, Hey, take the, take the stuff down. We don't want our election workers featured. They don't want to be featured. They're not campaigning there. They're not, it's not for you or against you. They just want to do their jobs. They don't get a response. According to the Indy star, they send multiple requests to Diego Morales to take down the videos and again, they don't get a response. So the Marion County Election Board launches an investigation into this issue. They said, if you're not going to respond to us, if you're not going to do what we ask, then we're going to launch an investigation. The board, then after their investigation is wrapped up, which was revealed on Friday, forwarded what they found to the Inspector General, the state of Indiana, as well as the state ethics board. Morales then finally responds. Now get this. Morales then finally responds: Well, we did respond to you guys. We sent an email and the Marion County elections board, now this is according to Abdul, by the way, Abdul did a, did a deep dive on his cheat sheet about this. So Diego then finally says something and says, well, we sent an email. Diego's people, we sent an email. Marion County Elections Board says, we've checked our spam folder. We've checked every folder. We see no sign that an email was sent to us. And by the way, if you were sending an email of something of this magnitude, you would correspond and go, Hey, we responded to you guys want to make sure you got it. Can you confirm you got it? That's something any, with any level of professionalism you would do. They knew the seriousness of the issue. They knew the Marion County Election Board was moving forward with this investigation. All of that stuff had played out in public. It was not like it was some secret. They didn't do any of that. So the Marion County Election Board said, we didn't get your email. We have no correspondence from you. We've checked all of our folders. Diego's office that allegedly produces the letter that they sent, but there's no timestamp on it. According to Abdul's reporting, there's nothing that shows, Hey, here's the sent box. Here's where it was. None of that. It's just a letter. We'll come back to why that matters in just a second. So let's get to what Diego's excuse is, because if he is allowed to get away with this, you are opening Pandora's box in the state of Indiana in regards to being able, elected officials being able to use government resources to campaign. Here was Diego's excuse: Diego is trying to claim it's okay that he used to, keep in mind, he used his employees to take the video. He used his employees to take the video of government workers doing official government business, something you and I could not do. We don't have access. We weren't allowed to tour the facility. We don't have the resources that Diego does. He's using state resources. Diego's excuse is that, well, the video that we posted was posted to a state website, so anyone could have used it. So it's totally fair game for anyone to use it. Who in their right mind would want video of Diego Morales touring the Marion County Election Center hanging out with Marion County election workers other than Diego Morales? The answer is no one. And so if this excuse is allowed to stand by the Inspector General of the state of Indiana, then any elected official, local, county, state, federal, could simply use state resources to do whatever campaigning they want to do. And as long as they post it to some sort of state website, then they're in the clear. This is a very, very serious issue. If he is allowed to get away with this, based on the excuse, well, I posted it to a state website. He was clearly, he was clear, it appears very clear that the intent of taking that video was to use it in a future campaign ad, which he did. And it is very clear laid out by the state of Indiana, you cannot use state resources for campaign purposes. And if the state Inspector General allows this ridiculous, I mean, it's ridiculous on its face, it's ridiculous on the merits. But if the state Inspector General allows that excuse to stand, that elected officials all over Indiana will be using state resources to campaign your money to campaign for themselves. And as long as they put it on some sort of public or government server, they'll be able to get away with it. The question everyone should be asking is when does the almost daily BS that comes from Indiana Secretary of State, Diego Morales, when does someone put a stop to it? No matter what this guy does, no one in that State House will step up and do something about it. Whether it's the 10 day trip to India, where he won't tell you who paid for it, then bizarrely start shouting that he paid for it, but won't show any proof that he paid for it or who he paid back or receipts that show what he was paying it back for. Whether it's the $90,000 car SUV, whether it's hiring family members, whether it's giving no bid contracts to people who give lots of money to his campaign, whether it's now this, the list is endless of the crap this guy has pulled and no one will say a word. Greg Ballard wants to run as an independent and the Republicans make him public enemy number one. I have not seen a single elected Republican in that Statehouse speak up against Diego Morales on this latest issue, which is far more serious or damaging potentially to the trust in government to our institutions than Greg Ballard running as an independent for Secretary of State. For some reason, and you have to ask yourself why, because everybody in that Statehouse knows what he is. The Republican party keeps standing behind Diego Morales, including some of the most powerful people in our state. I just saw where our Senator Jim Banks endorsed him the other day. Why is this behavior acceptable? Why is this behavior okay? Why is Diego Morales continually allowed to get away with this? Now, I do have some optimism on this. The Inspector General recently went very hard in their investigation on Jennifer Ruth Green, former public safety director for Mike Braun, ultimately resulting in her resignation and her paying, I believe was the largest fine ever issued in state history. We do have a track record at least of this Inspector General taking these allegations seriously, looking into them, and there being punishment for people who do not follow the laws and the rules of the state of Indiana. One of the things that's so frustrating about this is the rules are so broad and elected officials get around them all the time. It puts the arrogance and elitist attitude of Diego Morales on full display that he pulls something like this that potentially gets himself in hot water. Elected officials get around this stuff all the time. They call it Frank Mail, where they send these letters to you. They send these letters to your house that are campaign propaganda, but because they involve state business, I got one from Jim Baird. Jim Baird, US Representative, is the king of these. I bet I get one of these a month, it seems like, from him. It's propaganda. It's campaign propaganda that we pay for as taxpayers. You see these guys on billboards that look like campaign ads that qualify. Now, those are federal elected officials, but our state senators do it. Our state reps do it. I'm sure you've gotten those very nicely printed mailers, big ones, spare no expense, right? The usage alone, much less the printing, costs a fortune, and that's okay. The rules are so broad, you have to almost try to get in trouble. You have to totally flaunt any sense of decency to find yourself in hot water, any sense of remote obligation to the taxpayers to get yourself in hot water. And yet Diego Morales has found a way to do it, just like Jennifer Ruth Green did. When are the Republicans going to say, "Enough is enough with Diego Morales"? When are the Republicans going to pull the plug on this guy? And are the Republican delegates at the convention this spring in Fort Wayne going to risk putting this guy on the ballot as their nominee, with Greg Ballard probably running, and a very well-funded at least likely nominee in Beau Bayh? Surely the Republicans will do the right thing and pull the plug on Diego Morales.