POLITICS

Indiana Democrats to challenge Republican Todd Young's ballot access in Senate race

Young's campaign disputes Democrats' contention that candidate didn't submit enough valid voter signatures in the 1st District.

Maureen Groppe
mgroppe@gannett.com

WASHINGTON — The Indiana Democratic Party plans to challenge whether GOP Senate candidate Todd Young submitted enough valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot.

U.S. Rep. Todd Young, R-Bloomington

Young’s campaign disputes the charge.

If Democrats can knock Young off the May 3 primary ballot, the only Republican seeking the nomination would be Rep. Marlin Stutzman, a candidate Democrats think could be easier to beat in the general election.

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Stutzman, R-Howe, has the backing of conservative groups, such as the Club for Growth, which supported Republican Richard Mourdock’s unsuccessful 2012 Senate campaign.

While not ceding the conservative label to Stutzman, Young — who represents Indiana's 9th District from his home in Bloomington — has been running as a “responsible” conservative who can get things done. Both are hoping to replace retiring GOP Sen. Dan Coats.

Statewide candidates are required to turn in signatures from 500 voters in each of Indiana’s nine congressional districts.

Young bragged Jan. 21 that he was the first Senate candidate to submit and have verified the required signatures, two weeks before the Feb. 5 filing deadline.

The Indiana Democratic Party contends Young fell at least two votes short in the heavily Democratic 1st District in the northwest corner of the state. The district includes Lake and Porter counties and part of LaPorte County.

Young’s spokesman said in a statement that the campaign submitted more than enough signatures from each congressional district to quality. Those signatures were verified by local county clerks, said spokesman Trevor Foughty, who did not respond to an interview request.

“At this point, any attempt to disenfranchise voters would be unfortunate, underhanded and ultimately unsuccessful,” Foughty’s statement said.

A spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party declined to comment on the challenge before party Chairman John Zody’s news conference Wednesday. But Zody told Politico that Democrats are challenging Young “because it is imperative that every candidate seeking office in Indiana is determined to be eligible — and it appears Todd Young may not be eligible.”

The secretary of state’s office lists 501 voter signatures as having been verified by county clerks in the 1st District. That close margin prompted Democrats to count the signatures, and they came up with 498. In addition, the party contends that some of the 498 lacked complete information from either the signer or from the campaign worker who gathered the signature.

The Indiana election division has designated Feb. 19 as the hearing day for any challenges.

The signature counts for statewide candidates don’t show how many signatures candidates turned in, just how many were verified by county clerks.

The list shows clerks verified 737 signatures in the 1st District for Stutzman compared with Young's 501.

Young’s next lowest total was in the 2nd District, with 524 signatures.

In all districts but the 4th, Stutzman had more verified signatures than Young.

Young has money lead in Indiana's U.S. Senate race

Until the ballot challenge, Young had appeared to be in a stronger position for the GOP nomination than Stutzman.

His campaign started the year with $2.6 million in the bank compared with Stutzman’s $1.1 million.

Stutzman’s fundraising fell in the last quarter of 2015, the same time some of his top aides left.

And Republican Eric Holcomb’s withdrawal from the ballot Monday, before being tapped Tuesday as Gov. Mike Pence’s running mate, was seen as more likely to benefit Young. Both had been vying for more of the support from the business community and GOP establishment.

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Stutzman, who did not vote to re-elect John Boehner as House speaker in 2015 and opposed ending the 2013 partial government shutdown, has more appeal to the tea party wing of the party.

Because of Indiana's political leanings, Republicans are favored to hold onto the seat that Coats has had since 2011. But Democrats had hoped that a contested GOP primary would give them an opening, the way it did in the 2012 Senate race in which Democrat Joe Donnelly beat Mourdock. Mourdock had beaten Richard Lugar in the primary, after arguing that Lugar wasn’t conservative enough.

The only Democrat seeking the party’s 2016 Senate nomination is former Rep. Baron Hill, whom Young defeated in 2010. Hill started the year with $382,418 in the bank.

But if Democrats are able to oust Young, the national party apparatus may come to Hill’s aid.

Email Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.