I’ve been so focused on West Lafayette school board stuff, that I’ve neglected to follow up on the state’s Secretary of State race. As I’ve said before, you should absolutely vote for Destiny Wells and against Diego Morales. This is not primarily a partisan thing. You’ll notice any number of D v. R races where I’m not going out of my way to publicize a particular opinion. I know plenty of Republicans who think that Morales will particularly be bad for this position. James Briggs, writing for the Indianapolis Star, has a column noting the rumors and the evidence that Morales — running for the top election spot — did not actually live in the district where he was running in 2018.
This struck me because it touched on a running joke in my family. Back in 2018, the kids were on YouTube pretty actively. They were getting absolutely hammered with Fourth District primary campaign ads. Someone who opposed Morales was running ads pretty heavily on that platform such that my kids started joking about it. “Dishonest Diego Morales: He Doesn’t Even Live in Our District.” So, the “doesn’t even live in our district” tagline somehow worked itself into our family’s catalogue of inside jokes. When he became the Republican nominee, I sent a news article to our family group text. The response was immediate.
Basically what Briggs notes is that Morales was running in the primary for the Fourth District which does not include Marion County where he was taking his homestead deduction. Per Briggs column:
Morales’ record suggests he committed a Level 6 felony by voting in a precinct where he did not live, said Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in election issues and provided analysis for me based on available information.
Morales’ version is that he lived in a condo in Plainfield rather than the 4,000 square foot home in Marion County that he and his wife owned. The column is worth a read. Regardless of that, Destiny Wells is the better choice.
This guy is a sleazebag! Lied about his military service, reports of groping women and being fired from a government job. The only way a guy like this gets the nomination from the Republicans in the first place is due to Trump. When is comes to politics anything goes!
Apologize to Cole Porter
Anything Goes
Good authors, too, who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose
Anything goes
And black’s white today
And day’s night today
And to many believe all the lies today
political prose
Anything goes
We have had five prominent politicians who could have been prosecuted for voter fraud for voting someplace they didn’t live: Charlie White, Richard Lugar, Mike Pence, Evan Bayh and, now, allegedly, Diego Morales.
Lugar voted for years, signing under oath that he resided at a house he had sold 30 years earlier. (And, no, don’t tell me the AG issued opinions saying Lugar could vote using a residence at which he didn’t even arguably reside. The AG opinions had to do solely with Lugar’s qualification to serve as U.S. Senate from Indiana…it had nothing to do with voting.) Lugar by the way stayed in hotel rooms when he would come back to Indiana.
While a Senator and since he’s left office, Evan Bayh claims to reside at a rather modest downtown Indianapolis condo. When pressed by a reporter, he got the address wrong. Bayh clearly did not reside at the condo. He had a house in the DC suburbs where his kids were in school. Unlike Lugar, at least Bayh still owned property in Indiana.
After VP Pence lost re-election, he returned to Indiana to vote. He used as his residence, the Governor’s Mansion even though he hadn’t been Governor for years and Governor Holcomb was living there. Some will say the law allows you to do that. No, the law lets people who are in service in the government and the military to continue to use their Indiana residence for voting. But that is as long as they don’t ABANDON that Indiana residence and can,, at least arguably, move back into it.
Charlie White bought a new house in Fishers for he and his fiancé to occupy. But his fiancé did not want him to move into it until they were married. So White claimed as his residence his ex-wife’s house. White said he slept on the couch at that house at night, which house was occupied by his ex and her new husband. (People could not grasp that a man might still be friends with his ex-wife, but I guess it happens.) White had no real motive to commit voter fraud. Both of the houses were located in Fishers and voting in one location versus the other only made a slight difference in the races appearing on the ballot. And the Fishers council position was pretty unimportant as he had been elected Secretary of State and would soon be taking that position. Not a single Fishers resident complained that White no longer lived in the district he represented. Yet, despite the trivial nature of the offense, White was prosecuted for several felonies, some of which contradicted each other. White became a felon, lost his position as SOS, and lost his law license.
White’s real offense? White told me Governor Mitch Daniels threatened to have him prosecuted if he wouldn’t resign as SOS. (Daniels would get to appoint White’s replacement.) White refused to resign and he was prosecuted just like Daniels, allegedly, promised. I should emphasize that White was accused of voting illegally ONE time. Lugar and Bayh voted illegally for decades, and Bayh is still probably doing it. The difference is that Lugar, Bayh and Pence have/had substantial political clout and Charlie White did not.
I don’t know the Diego Morales circumstances, but when someone has a homestead that requires a declaration that it is that person’s residence. If that person declares for voting purposes to reside someplace else, yes, that’s a problem. Diego’s bigger problem though is that he doesn’t have the political clout of a Lugar, Bayh or Pence. If Diego loses, which is probably likely, then probably nothing will come out of this. If he wins, pressure may mount to have him prosecuted.
Last thoughts before the elections – Worked the early voting and their were a large and I mean large number of woman that came in by themselves to vote. Usually the older people dominate but I was surprised by the number of younger people that showed up to vote.
Is this is a trend across the nation then just maybe it won’t be a Republican blow out.