Current Secretary Of State, State Treasurer Candidates Attend Kosciusko GOP Fish Fry
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jennifer [email protected]
The fish fry was a fundraiser for the GOP and was at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds. It was attended by 774 Republicans, according to Randy Girod, GOP chair.
Lawson (R-Danville) was appointed Secretary of State, the state’s chief election official, on March 16, 2012, by former Governor Mitch Daniels. Lawson replaced Charlie White. Lawson is a former member of the Indiana Senate, serving 16 years where she acted as majority floor leader.
Lawson was also county clerk for Hendricks County for eight years.
She said she will continue to fight for fair and accurate elections and continue to make sure the state has an absentee ballot process that has fidelity. She also wants to make sure the military has access to voting.
“Elections, integrity and security are my passion and we have worked on great election reform this session and will continue to do that,” Lawson said.
Lawson said this year there was a statewide cleanup in voter registration.
“There were counties in Indiana being sued because the allegations were that they had more voters on their poll list than they had voting age population due to people moving in and out of transient counties,” Lawson said.
She said the counties did not have the resources to clean up their voter registration list.
Lawson said Indiana joined a consortion of 22 other states to compare Indiana’s voter registration list with surrounding states to know if a voter is registered in more than one state and if someone voted more than once in the same election.
Seybold and Bates Jr. spoke about their run for the State Treasurer seat in 2014. A convention will be in June 2014 in Fort Wayne to put a name on the November 2014 ballot for the secretary of state, auditor and treasurer’s seats.
Current Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s term ends next year, and he will not be able to run again.
Seybold, who is in his third term as Marion’s mayor, said when he won the third term he decided it would be his last.
Seybold said he feels his experience as mayor will prepare him to serve as state treasurer, a position he decided in March to seek.
Seybold ice skated in the 1988 Olympics with his sister, Natalie Catron, in Calgary.
“The treasurer’s office deals a lot with the bond bank and education savings accounts so it seems like the right fit,” Seybold said.
“I’ve had a good run at representing the city of Marion and would love to use that same energy and marketing and management skills that I’ve learned about local government and take those skills to the state treasurer’s office.”
Seybold said he would like to better market the role of the treasurer’s office and how important the bond bank is.
Bates Jr. (R-Winchester) previously ran for U.S. Congress in 2012, and Senate in 2010. He has not held a political office before but has been a financial advisor for the past 15 years, currently in Richmond.
Bates Jr. said running for the state treasurer’s seat was not on his radar, but in January he started getting phone calls asking him to run for the seat.
He said in running for senate and congress, he has built a lot of relationships around that state.
“What I do everyday for a living is manage people’s investments and assets and that experience fits well with the duties of the state treasurer’s office,” Bates Jr. said. “I can’t think of a higher honor than investing the assets of the taxpayers of the state of Indiana.”
He said he remembers that it is not his money that he is managing, but his client’s money.
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The fish fry was a fundraiser for the GOP and was at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds. It was attended by 774 Republicans, according to Randy Girod, GOP chair.
Lawson (R-Danville) was appointed Secretary of State, the state’s chief election official, on March 16, 2012, by former Governor Mitch Daniels. Lawson replaced Charlie White. Lawson is a former member of the Indiana Senate, serving 16 years where she acted as majority floor leader.
Lawson was also county clerk for Hendricks County for eight years.
She said she will continue to fight for fair and accurate elections and continue to make sure the state has an absentee ballot process that has fidelity. She also wants to make sure the military has access to voting.
“Elections, integrity and security are my passion and we have worked on great election reform this session and will continue to do that,” Lawson said.
Lawson said this year there was a statewide cleanup in voter registration.
“There were counties in Indiana being sued because the allegations were that they had more voters on their poll list than they had voting age population due to people moving in and out of transient counties,” Lawson said.
She said the counties did not have the resources to clean up their voter registration list.
Lawson said Indiana joined a consortion of 22 other states to compare Indiana’s voter registration list with surrounding states to know if a voter is registered in more than one state and if someone voted more than once in the same election.
Seybold and Bates Jr. spoke about their run for the State Treasurer seat in 2014. A convention will be in June 2014 in Fort Wayne to put a name on the November 2014 ballot for the secretary of state, auditor and treasurer’s seats.
Current Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s term ends next year, and he will not be able to run again.
Seybold, who is in his third term as Marion’s mayor, said when he won the third term he decided it would be his last.
Seybold said he feels his experience as mayor will prepare him to serve as state treasurer, a position he decided in March to seek.
Seybold ice skated in the 1988 Olympics with his sister, Natalie Catron, in Calgary.
“The treasurer’s office deals a lot with the bond bank and education savings accounts so it seems like the right fit,” Seybold said.
“I’ve had a good run at representing the city of Marion and would love to use that same energy and marketing and management skills that I’ve learned about local government and take those skills to the state treasurer’s office.”
Seybold said he would like to better market the role of the treasurer’s office and how important the bond bank is.
Bates Jr. (R-Winchester) previously ran for U.S. Congress in 2012, and Senate in 2010. He has not held a political office before but has been a financial advisor for the past 15 years, currently in Richmond.
Bates Jr. said running for the state treasurer’s seat was not on his radar, but in January he started getting phone calls asking him to run for the seat.
He said in running for senate and congress, he has built a lot of relationships around that state.
“What I do everyday for a living is manage people’s investments and assets and that experience fits well with the duties of the state treasurer’s office,” Bates Jr. said. “I can’t think of a higher honor than investing the assets of the taxpayers of the state of Indiana.”
He said he remembers that it is not his money that he is managing, but his client’s money.
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