Lifelong Republican Who Chaired Indiana's Senate Elections Committee Says He's Voting Bayh for Secretary of State

State Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, former chairman of the Indiana Senate Elections Committee. (Photo: Indiana Senate Republicans official portrait)

Greg Walker used to chair the Indiana Senate Elections Committee, the panel that handles the state's election laws. On Wednesday, the Columbus Republican announced which candidate he wants running the office that carries those laws out, and it is not his own party's nominee.

“I am a lifelong Republican, and I’m proud to vote for Beau Bayh,” Walker said in a statement released by the Democrat’s campaign. “Hoosiers deserve better than the corruption that has plagued the Secretary of State’s office. Beau is the only candidate I trust to take it on.” The statement was first reported by The Republic in Columbus and published in full by The Reporter.

Walker, a 20-year senator, is on his way out of the Statehouse after losing his primary in May. He did not single out Republican Max Engling by name. His target was the office itself, and the record Indiana Republicans have spent most of this year trying to get away from.

Aimed at the office, not the man on the ballot

That record belongs to Secretary of State Diego Morales, the Republican incumbent whom convention delegates dumped this summer in favor of Engling. The Republic summed up the Morales years as disputes over travel expenses, ethics complaints and allegations about the use of public resources; Morales has denied wrongdoing. WFYI listed the complaints Bayh keeps raising, including nepotism and misspending of taxpayer dollars.

Engling’s argument is that he is the cleanup crew, not the problem. “My main opponents have decided that they are still running against the current secretary of state,” he told IndyStar in a Sept. 29 interview. “I find it unique that they’re still running against a previous opponent when I’m the only candidate in this race that has stepped up and done something about what we saw.”

Walker’s statement is a problem for that pitch, because it comes from inside the party. A Democrat attacking the office’s recent history can be waved off as politics. A Republican who chaired the Senate panel over election law is harder to wave off, and he is saying that winning the convention is not the same as earning his trust.

Bayh, who has promised to audit the office, welcomed the backing in language that sounded more like a coalition pitch than a victory lap. “We come from different political parties, but we share a commitment to integrity and accountability in public service — a commitment that goes far beyond partisanship,” he said. “Indiana is ready for a change, and I am proud to stand with Senator Walker as we work to clean up this office and deliver for Hoosiers.”

The map vote that ended his career

Some Republicans will read the endorsement through a different lens. Walker was one of 21 GOP senators who joined all 10 Senate Democrats last December to kill the Trump-backed congressional map, 31-19, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported. He called the bill unconstitutional “on its face.” Earlier that week, speaking about threats he had received, he told colleagues, “I fear for this institution, I fear for the state of Indiana, and I fear for all states if we allow intimidation and threats to become the norm,” CBS News reported.

WFYI says that vote cost him his seat. State Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, a Trump-backed challenger who supported the map, beat him in May, 58.8% to 41.2%, according to WFIU/IPM and The Republic. Walker said afterward that he did not regret the vote.

There is a Banks thread here, too. Political groups tied to Sen. Jim Banks, Engling’s most recent boss, spent millions of dollars this year backing Republican primary challengers to state senators who voted against the map, the Capital Chronicle reported. Engling is on leave from his job as a top Banks staffer while he runs.

So critics have an easy line ready: a senator who lost his seat for crossing Trump is now crossing the party again. Whatever his motives, that line does not answer the complaint he actually made, which was about the office Engling wants to run, not about maps.

A second GOP name, a different pick

Walker is not the only well-known Republican to break from the nominee. Former Republican Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann has endorsed Lincoln Party candidate Greg Ballard, WFYI reported, describing both defections as part of a faction that turned up at this year’s convention, the same gathering where delegates turned on Morales.

The money fight hasn’t slowed down either. The Capital Chronicle’s Oct. 7 rundown has Bayh on track to pass $4 million by the Oct. 16 campaign finance deadline and Engling saying he has raised more than $2 million, including $1 million from the state Republican Party and Gov. Mike Braun’s campaign fund. Engling has also defended keeping a $50,000 donation from Michael Sherfick, who pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in 2010; Engling told the Capital Chronicle that Sherfick “has paid that penalty.”

Libertarian Lauri Shillings rounds out the four-way field. Early voting is already open, and IndyStar reports a third secretary of state debate is set for Oct. 22, following Wednesday’s clash over noncitizen voting and an audit of the office. We found no public response from Engling’s campaign to Walker’s endorsement as of Friday morning.

Engling says his rivals are still running against the current secretary of state. As of Wednesday, so is a Republican who spent two decades in the Indiana Senate and once ran its elections committee.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.