Indiana Republicans Push for Closed Primaries After Spencer Deery Race Sparks GOP Infighting

I have another column in the Indy Star coming out early next week. I’ve got to write it this weekend. And I’m going to talk about the referendums and the property tax stuff. And again, I can’t wait for me to write this extremely conservative pro low tax, pro reform, public education, pro hold the schools accountable article and then people will be like the liberal Indy Star. I can’t believe he sunk to writing for the liberal Indy Star. I’ll write a piece that is infinitely more conservative and more accountable to the taxpayers than any person in the General Assembly has ever written and the governor has ever written. And I’ll hear about it next week. You watch. He’s sunk into the liberal Star. You watch. It’s going to come. And then I’ll ask, did you read the article? He sunk to the liberal Star. You just watch. Just watch. It’s coming. All right, so the Republicans are up in arms over the fact that some Democrats might have voted in a Republican primary. Now, keep in mind I come back to the Republicans, make everyone pay for their primaries. The Republicans could totally pick who votes in anything for them in their primaries by paying for it themselves. Of course, they don’t want any part of that, because the Republicans in Indiana are all about taking as much from you as they possibly can and using it for whatever benefit they believe benefits them the most. That’s standard operating procedure.

Indiana GOP Reacts to Spencer Deery Election Fight With Push for Closed Primaries

I mean, again, that’s the laughable part of all of this. All the Republicans would have to do is say, we’re doing what the libertarians do. We’re closing off our primaries. We’re going to conventions. We’re nominating our candidates just like they’re already about to do for the secretary of state, treasurer and comptroller. It’s not like this is some far flung radical idea. It’s not like we’re asking them to do something that isn’t already being done. Libertarians already do this. But of course, this is about. The primaries are tens of millions of dollars in free media, subsidized media for the candidates for the Republicans. So they’re not going to do that, but they’re very mad that you have to pay for their primaries. And then you decide which party you want to vote for.

Critics Say Gerrymandered Districts Force Voters Into Opposing Party Primaries

And now their response is because, look, Spencer Deery, now there is a recount going on today in, I’m sorry, not recount, but they’re checking out the final two provisional ballots in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County today. Spencer Deery has a three vote lead over Paula Copenhaver. And so no matter what the result of those ballots are, Spencer Deery will close the initial count with a lead. Now, keep in mind, this is fascinating. And this is exactly what I wrote in the Star last week when I said, for all this victory lap about the elections being about redistricting in two of the three races that Trump and Turning Point USA wanted the most, which was Holdman, Deery and Good. Good won easily. Deery is going to close the count with the lead and they beat Holdman. So it was about redistricting. That’s pretty crappy results, right? Well, we lost two and we won one. Or as I said in the story, and I’ll just, look, I’ll just say whether Deery wins or loses, it was basically a tie. I mean, in terms of what impact, you know, like you win by five votes, you lose by five votes, somebody wins, somebody loses, somebody gets the office. I get it right. It’s Ricky Bobby. If you ain’t first, you’re last. But for all intents and purposes, it was a tie. So no matter who ends up winning on a recount, which will happen, by the way, Monday, we’re scheduled to have Samantha Dewester, who is Deery’s attorney, is scheduled to be with us. We’re going to do education. We’re going to do elections 101 on how does all of this work. It’s so complicated, and we’re going to try to simplify it for you and explain how these provisional ballots, how these recounts, how they all work. But really it was one, one, one of the three they wanted the most, the three most high profile races. They won one. They lost one. They won one big. They lost one big. One is basically a tie. Doesn’t seem like a resounding victory to me about if it was about redistricting, but it wasn’t about. It was a resounding victory for Trump and the Turning Point USA Bros, but not because of redistricting. They backed people and put a bunch of money behind people who were running as candidates, people that had enough of Buck, Walker, and we go through that on Statehouse Happenings with Jim Merritt, and we’ve gone through that here. But the Republicans are mad because they believe, without any evidence, but they believe, they’ve convinced themselves that they lost the Copenhaver race on the first count, at least because of Democrats who crossed over to vote. And now you’ve got like, it’s amazing how fast when we want to organize on something, when we want to do something about something, how quick we can move into action. Because now there’s already a group gathering signatures in protest of this to close the primaries. And what that means is right now, when you go vote, you show up and you say, I’d like a Republican ballot, please, or I’d like a Democrat ballot, please. And the clerk hands you that ballot and you go vote. Pretty novel concept, right? I pay for both parties to have these elections. I should be able to choose which one I vote in, and I should be able to make that decision when I show up to vote because I’m paying for it, I pay, I pay. But Republicans now want to close off the primaries to where basically in February, you’ve got to go do another step. Now, we already have one of the lowest voter participation rates in the country, if not the lowest. And this is the hypocrisy of these people. Diego and through that, because, of course, Diego runs his office as a 24 over seven campaign machine, runs these ads. You need to go vote. Voting is now available. Here’s how you register to vote, blah, blah, blah. And yet now they’re going to make it harder to vote. They’re going to create an extra layer. They already claim they don’t have enough people voting. They’re spending taxpayer money to beg people to vote. And now they’re going to say, let’s create another layer in which you’re going to have to register. You’re going to have to go tell the county, hey, I’m a Republican or I’m a Democrat. Or maybe the next time we have this, I’m a Lincoln Party candidate or a Lincoln Party member. And of course, what this is underscoring is a lot of people vote in primaries because the Republicans have so gerrymandered all the districts that the Republican or Democrat primary is the only way to get any say in who your elected official is. So, like, they’ve rigged the state House, the state Senate, the congressional districts to the point, you know, the Republican’s going to win. You know, if you want to have a say in who your county sheriff is going to be or your county council members are going to be or whoever, you have to vote in whatever that primary is, both on the Republican or Democrat side. I mean, you guys know the Marion County GOP is an embarrassment. It’s almost nonexistent. If you live in Marion County to have any say in who your local elected officials are, your city council, your sheriff, whoever, you have to vote in a Democrat primary. And by the way, we act like this is some big deal. Mike Braun told me years ago on the old radio show years ago when he was running for Senate. That’s how long ago this was. He told me, don’t hold me voting in all these Democrat primaries against me, because that was a huge deal. Rokita, Messer, his opponents were making a huge deal out of this. Look, this guy’s a lifelong Democrat who flipped a Republican to win elections. You know what he told me? No, no, no, no. Well, I remember this very clearly. We were sitting in that little side studio across from David Wood’s office. You remember? You remember the one I’m talking about. And I remember sitting there recording this interview with him. I’d never met the guy before. And he goes, no, no. And I asked him, I said, look, you vote in these Democratic primaries. Fair game. No, no, I only voted in those because back then my county was Democrat and me wouldn’t have had no say in who my sheriff was. Of course, we see the sort of sheriffs now in Dubois County that Mike Braun buddies up with, Tom Kleinhelter. But that’s what he told me. And you know what I said to him at the time? Hey, that seems kind of reasonable because it does. If Republicans are going to gerrymander districts to where one party has absolute dominance, and the only way to win an election is win in the primary, then we shouldn’t punish people for voting in that primary.

Debate Over Closed Primaries Expands Into Broader Fight About Control and Political Power

See, this is where I get enraged at big fraudsters like Andrew Ireland, state rep from Indianapolis, who don’t kid yourself. He sees himself with a political career. Everything Andrew Ireland’s doing right now is to garner attention for himself. Everything he does on social media to elevate. He has career politician written right across his forehead. That guy’s a total fraudster. When you look at his voting record versus the Billy Badass routine he plays on social media. I mean, this guy went to the White House and he’s bragging that I talked with him about closed primaries. Really? You have an audience, the White House, and there’s a gajillion things harming your constituents. You represent people in the biggest craphole in our state, Indianapolis, and you’re talking about closing primaries. That says a lot about him and what he is. But he was in this article. I think they took a snip off of his social media and him talking about, oh, here it is. Republican primaries are for Republicans, said Andrew Ireland, Republican, Indianapolis on X, period. Okay, let’s work off that. What is a Republican? I have no idea anymore. I’m a Republican and I was banned from my county Lincoln Day. I voted in every Republican primary since 2010, every Republican primary, but one in my entire life. I was an elected Republican. I was a delegate as a Republican. I come out every day and I talk about the Republican platform and how Republicans don’t live up to the Republican platform. And that got me banned from the Lincoln Day. Will I be banned from voting in the Republican primary? And if I’m not banned from the Republican primary voting, Andrew Ireland, then why was I banned from the Republican Lincoln Day? Are now Lincoln Days and voting for all Republicans? You see the hypocrisy in all of this because what Andrew wants and what Republicans want is to control exactly who can vote. Everything with these people is about changing the rules when it’s convenient for them to stop you. Anytime you peasants disrupt the plan, they change the rules. Andrew Ireland and the Republicans want to control exactly what you have the courage to say. That’s what this is about. They don’t want people speaking out when they pull bull crap. They want total control. It’s complete authoritarianism. That’s what they want. They want to dictate who’s a Republican, who’s not. No, you got to pay for it. Now, they’ll take your money. They’ll take as much of your money as they possibly can. But anyone who gets out of line, doesn’t toe the party line, anyone they can’t control, they want to eliminate you. I know, trust me. It’s very Soviet Union of them. And you know why people get in line? Because nobody other than me has the ability to create a platform out of thin air. Ha ha. He’s fired. He’s done. For most people, they would have been done. I never feared because I knew I could do this, but nobody else in the state can do this. And that’s what the Republicans do. It’s why a bunch of these broadcasters are big wusses. They’re gutless. It’s why they go on these shows and they throw them softballs because they’re scared to death of what happens if they show the least amount of courage. They’re petrified. It’s why these people who know what a human sleazebag Diego is won’t speak out. Or they’ll call me. And I keep saying the same thing to these people. What would you like me to do about it? I think I’ve called him every name I can legally get away with. What else would you like me to say? Would you like me to say it three more times? You guys are the problem because you know what he is and you won’t speak out about it. What Andrew Ireland and his buddies are doing is authoritarianism. They’re choking off free thought, free choice, free dissent. It’s very Soviet Union. They’re mad that Spencer Deery thought for himself. They’re mad that Spencer Deery, who is very conservative on everything else, had the audacity to say nope, nope. This isn’t right. You guys want to win elections? You go win the elections. I’m not rigging the maps for bad behavior. Andrew and his buddies, and Andrew does it because he believes it’ll elevate him politically, they’re mad they got beat at their own game. So now what do they do? They change the rules of the game.

Growing Republican Division Reflects Larger National Debate Over Trump-Era Politics and Dissent

The Republicans have a track record of this. They have a history of this. This is not new. One of the things I love is they keep pointing out, well, more people voted in the Deery and Copenhaver race than all the other races. So those were Democrats, huh? It’s almost like if you spend millions of dollars on a local election that nobody else pays attention to normally, right? It’s not like there’s ever a flood of people voting in our local elections. It’s almost like if you spend millions of dollars telling people to go vote on both sides in that election and painting one side as a saint, the other side is the boogeyman, the people will vote in that race and not vote in other races they don’t know anything about. Huh. But no, no, no, that can’t be it. That can’t be it. It can’t be that. We took one of the guys who actually does kind of an okay job in Deery, not on everything, but actually is very socially conservative, voted against the property tax bill. It’s almost like when you demonize him and make him out to be the boogeyman, and then he fights back, people are like, huh, I should probably go vote in that race, but I don’t know anything about the rest of these people. No, it can’t be. That has to be that the Democrats came over and decided the election. The Indy Star looks like in this exposé, they tried to find people who did it and I didn’t, I read the whole thing, didn’t see in that race, in the Deery race. Now others they did, apparently. They say they talked to people who did, but I didn’t see it in this article in the Deery race. And if they did, who cares? Who cares? If you’re going to rig districts where people have to vote in a primary to get to pick their sheriff, then you can’t be mad when people vote in that election. So here’s the deal I’ll make to Andrew Ireland fraud. Andrew. I’ll support closed primaries. And somebody alert Andrew to this because he doesn’t, he used to come on the show. He used to be my buddy. Remember that Andrew? See, this is the fraudster in Andrew. Andrew knows what’s right. And that’s what pisses me off. And he ran on doing what’s right. Andrew, remember, knew Diego’s such a clown. Remember? He went to Washington and he brought the receipts back. Remember? He went and met with the Trump White House. He goes, look, here’s all my receipts because he knew Diego’s a clown and he knows just like everybody else. When Diego’s I pay, I pay, but won’t show any receipts, Diego don’t pay. That used to be Andrew. He used to respond to me on Twitter, used to be my buddy, and then I started holding him to the same account I hold everyone else and now he won’t respond to me. So if you guys know Ireland, I don’t know, many of you in the chat do, tell Ireland about this. Direct him to this. Here’s my offer to Ireland, Billy Badass, Mr. Johnny Tough Guy. Let’s see what he says. He won’t respond to me. Maybe he’ll respond to you. Ireland, here’s the deal I’ll make you. I’ll support the closed primaries if he supports letting artificial intelligence draw the state House, state Senate and congressional maps. Deal? Just like Rokita did. And Ireland loves Rokita. Just like Todd Rokita did when he was secretary of state. We’ll take all the politics out of drawing the maps, and then I’ll let you put politics in the primaries on voting. Deal? Ask Andrew what he has to say to that. I bet he says no, because it’s not about anything other than politics and not just politics, but complete control over you. Your thought, your speech, your ability to speak out, your vote. That’s what these Republicans want, complete control over you so that they have complete control over the process, because you can’t have any undesirables in there. Look, I’m sorry, but the Trump people are becoming everything they claim to despise. I’m not saying you as a Trump voter. I’m saying this Trump team, like, it’s everything they claim to despise, everything the first Trump election was supposed to be against or fighting back on. They are that now. Everything they talked about Obama being, they’re doing it. It’s very scary. It’s very scary. You pay for the elections, you pay, and as long as you pay, you should have the right whenever you damn well please, and you walk in there and say, give me that ballot because I paid for it. You have the right to have a voice. If they’re going to take your money, somebody get that to Ireland. Let’s see what his response to that offer is.