Fish Fry Is GOP’s 1st Event Of 2021
April 8, 2021 at 1:44 a.m.
Fish Fry Is GOP’s 1st Event Of 2021
By David [email protected]
There was dine-in and drive-thru available at the fairgrounds, but the only candidate campaigning was Diego Morales, who hopes to be the next secretary of state and chief election officer for Indiana. Morales announced his candidacy in November and the election for that position isn’t until 2022.
County Republican Party Chairman Mike Ragan said the GOP had events scheduled all year long. Along with Wednesday’s spring fish fry, another one was planned for the fall.
“This is our first inside dining fish fry in a year and a half. Last year, we didn’t have one in the spring because of COVID. And then in the fall, it was drive-thru only,” he said.
Ragan pointed out the sanitary station and availability of masks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Any Republican working at the fish fry was asked to wear a mask, and there was sanitizer at every table.
The Lincoln Day Dinner is scheduled for June 3, the golf outing is July 28, trivia night at Stacy’s in Leesburg will be the second Wednesday in September and then the Hall of Fame dinner is to be determined.
“So we’ve got a full schedule,” Ragan said of 2021 plans. “We’re very busy.”
GOP headquarters is going back to regular hours next week to noon to 5 p.m. and noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The headquarters is downtown Warsaw at the corner of Center and Lake streets.
In a short interview, Morales said the reason he was running for Secretary of State was “because I truly believe now more than ever we need to protect our election security and our election integrity. My No. 1 priority is to have free, fair, safe, secure, honest and transparent elections. And that is my No. 1 priority.”
He said his commitment to his fellow Hoosiers is to protect the election security with the same passion that he protected the country while serving in the U.S. Army.
“I believe there is always room for improvement,” Morales said about Indiana’s election in 2020. “There is always room to secure elections, and I am running because I want to clean out the voter rolls, the voter list, we need to clean that list. Number 2, we need to minimize absentee ballots to the disabled, to our men and women in uniform serving across the world protecting us.”
Morales said he is opposed to same-day voter registration because that can’t be verified in one day. He said he also is opposed to HR-1 because “I think it’s a horrible policy.”
According to congress.gov, HR-1 expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls. The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting, among other provisions.
Morales said he is promoting voter ID laws and wants to strengthen voter IDs, but in addition to that, he is asking for proof of citizenship.
“You know why? It is not voter suppression, by the way. It is when you go anywhere, you present your voter ID, right? You show when you go to a concert, to anywhere, you show your voter ID. So what we need to do now is we need to strengthen our voter ID laws,” he said.
Morales, born in 1979, is a former senior advisor to Vice President Mike Pence during Pence’s time as Indiana governor. He graduated from Silver Creek in Clark County, received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and completed his MBA at Purdue University. After serving in the Army, he taught at Ivy Tech in Marion, Hendricks and Hamilton counties.
The fish fry provided many people there an opportunity to socialize with friends and/or elected officials or their representatives.
Former GOP Chair Jean Northenor can often be found at the Kosciusko GOP events. At the fish fry, she was surprised to run into Greg Fitzloff, who served with her on the Indiana Lottery Commission. She said she didn’t recognize him right away. Fitzloff recently moved to the area.
Fitzloff said they served on the Commission around 2005-06.
“We managed the Lottery Commission,” Northenor said.
“There were five commissioners that oversaw the operation of the Hoosier Lottery,” Fitzloff said. “We approved each game.”
Northenor said they served on the Commission when Mitch Daniels was governor and Daniels appointed her as chairwoman. Fitzloff was appointed by Daniels to serve on the Commission from the south end of the state.
Fitzloff said he was appointed by Daniels, reappointed by Pence and then reappointed the final time by Gov. Eric Holcomb. He served a total of 11 years.
“Overseeing that operation was a big process simply because of the size of it. It’s one of the largest state entities at the time. When Jean and I were (on the Commission), it was probably about $700 million a year and we returned about $200 million to the state revenue funds every year,” Fitzloff said.
“It was a pretty interesting job,” Northenor said.
“Now it’s a billion-plus,” Fitzloff said. “One of the big changes was when Gov. Daniels actually wanted to move the lottery more toward privatization. So we actually signed a contract for sales and management day-to-day with a private firm that has really grown the lottery since then. It was really a good decision. It kind of took state revenues from a net of about $200 million to over $300 million a year simply with that change.”
He and Northenor agreed the lottery has been a good thing for Indiana.
“Whether you agree or play the lottery or not, it has, over the years, literally turned billions of dollars back to the state general fund,” Fitzloff said.
“And you don’t have to (play) if you don’t want to,” Northenor said.
Fitzloff’s last year on the Commission was 2018.
There was dine-in and drive-thru available at the fairgrounds, but the only candidate campaigning was Diego Morales, who hopes to be the next secretary of state and chief election officer for Indiana. Morales announced his candidacy in November and the election for that position isn’t until 2022.
County Republican Party Chairman Mike Ragan said the GOP had events scheduled all year long. Along with Wednesday’s spring fish fry, another one was planned for the fall.
“This is our first inside dining fish fry in a year and a half. Last year, we didn’t have one in the spring because of COVID. And then in the fall, it was drive-thru only,” he said.
Ragan pointed out the sanitary station and availability of masks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Any Republican working at the fish fry was asked to wear a mask, and there was sanitizer at every table.
The Lincoln Day Dinner is scheduled for June 3, the golf outing is July 28, trivia night at Stacy’s in Leesburg will be the second Wednesday in September and then the Hall of Fame dinner is to be determined.
“So we’ve got a full schedule,” Ragan said of 2021 plans. “We’re very busy.”
GOP headquarters is going back to regular hours next week to noon to 5 p.m. and noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The headquarters is downtown Warsaw at the corner of Center and Lake streets.
In a short interview, Morales said the reason he was running for Secretary of State was “because I truly believe now more than ever we need to protect our election security and our election integrity. My No. 1 priority is to have free, fair, safe, secure, honest and transparent elections. And that is my No. 1 priority.”
He said his commitment to his fellow Hoosiers is to protect the election security with the same passion that he protected the country while serving in the U.S. Army.
“I believe there is always room for improvement,” Morales said about Indiana’s election in 2020. “There is always room to secure elections, and I am running because I want to clean out the voter rolls, the voter list, we need to clean that list. Number 2, we need to minimize absentee ballots to the disabled, to our men and women in uniform serving across the world protecting us.”
Morales said he is opposed to same-day voter registration because that can’t be verified in one day. He said he also is opposed to HR-1 because “I think it’s a horrible policy.”
According to congress.gov, HR-1 expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls. The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting, among other provisions.
Morales said he is promoting voter ID laws and wants to strengthen voter IDs, but in addition to that, he is asking for proof of citizenship.
“You know why? It is not voter suppression, by the way. It is when you go anywhere, you present your voter ID, right? You show when you go to a concert, to anywhere, you show your voter ID. So what we need to do now is we need to strengthen our voter ID laws,” he said.
Morales, born in 1979, is a former senior advisor to Vice President Mike Pence during Pence’s time as Indiana governor. He graduated from Silver Creek in Clark County, received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and completed his MBA at Purdue University. After serving in the Army, he taught at Ivy Tech in Marion, Hendricks and Hamilton counties.
The fish fry provided many people there an opportunity to socialize with friends and/or elected officials or their representatives.
Former GOP Chair Jean Northenor can often be found at the Kosciusko GOP events. At the fish fry, she was surprised to run into Greg Fitzloff, who served with her on the Indiana Lottery Commission. She said she didn’t recognize him right away. Fitzloff recently moved to the area.
Fitzloff said they served on the Commission around 2005-06.
“We managed the Lottery Commission,” Northenor said.
“There were five commissioners that oversaw the operation of the Hoosier Lottery,” Fitzloff said. “We approved each game.”
Northenor said they served on the Commission when Mitch Daniels was governor and Daniels appointed her as chairwoman. Fitzloff was appointed by Daniels to serve on the Commission from the south end of the state.
Fitzloff said he was appointed by Daniels, reappointed by Pence and then reappointed the final time by Gov. Eric Holcomb. He served a total of 11 years.
“Overseeing that operation was a big process simply because of the size of it. It’s one of the largest state entities at the time. When Jean and I were (on the Commission), it was probably about $700 million a year and we returned about $200 million to the state revenue funds every year,” Fitzloff said.
“It was a pretty interesting job,” Northenor said.
“Now it’s a billion-plus,” Fitzloff said. “One of the big changes was when Gov. Daniels actually wanted to move the lottery more toward privatization. So we actually signed a contract for sales and management day-to-day with a private firm that has really grown the lottery since then. It was really a good decision. It kind of took state revenues from a net of about $200 million to over $300 million a year simply with that change.”
He and Northenor agreed the lottery has been a good thing for Indiana.
“Whether you agree or play the lottery or not, it has, over the years, literally turned billions of dollars back to the state general fund,” Fitzloff said.
“And you don’t have to (play) if you don’t want to,” Northenor said.
Fitzloff’s last year on the Commission was 2018.
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