New Vanderburgh GOP chair vows he'll be different
Moers, 36, succeeds Mike Duckworth, whose four-year tenure was characterized by near-constant turmoil. Duckworth used state law on candidates' primary voting histories to block Republicans he didn't support from seeking office while giving waivers to those he did support. He engineered the removal of three prominent intraparty critics from their elected positions, enabled a challenger to Republican County Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave against the wishes of his vice chair and timed an important GOP caucus to exclude newly elected precinct committee members from voting.
When one of the local GOP's representatives to the Vanderburgh County Election Board didn't back his push to disqualify intraparty rival Michael Daugherty from seeking office, Duckworth removed the board member.
More: Vanderburgh GOP leaders install supporters ahead of crucial Saturday election
Moers, husband of Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers, vowed not to play favorites among Republicans or employ hardball tactics against other party members. As he spoke, two uniformed sheriff's deputies milled about Saturday's GOP caucus, presumably in case any of the party's internal divisions spilled out into the open.
"I feel like rules get applied inconsistently, and I'm not going to do that," he said. "I think that consistency and fairness are what people want out of a chairman."
What does that mean?
"All situations are handled equally," Moers replied. "That means not showing favoritism, not allowing person to skirt rules or have a perceived skirt of the rules while other people are penalized."
In a Saturday morning caucus that attracted more than 200 GOP precinct committee and vice precinct committee members (PCs) to Faithway Baptist Church, Moers won with 112 votes to Frank Peterlin's 64 and Steve Ary's 36 votes.
Moers vowed that supporters of his opponents would not be blocked from participating in the GOP.
"They still have valuable contributions to make," he said. "There's no ill will there."
Cheryl Schultz, chair of the Vanderburgh County Democratic Party, faced no opposition in that party's reorganization caucus Saturday.
More: New Vanderburgh GOP chair will tackle an unusual problem
Moers, though disavowing Duckworth's tactics, had emerged as the candidate of the GOP's faction that helped elevate Duckworth to the party chairmanship in 2021.
Moers' victory margin on Saturday was convincing enough to secure a first-ballot majority with no second round of voting needed. It also was enough to turn back a determined effort by Duckworth's intraparty rivals to elect a GOP chairman more to their liking.
The anti-Duckworth faction — headed by conservative activists Ken Colbert, Cheryl Batteiger-Smith and a few others — got behind Peterlin. Ary ran without a slate of supporters for lesser offices while relying on relationships from his unsuccessful run for chairman in 2021.
More: Three men — so far — seek to head the fractured Vanderburgh County GOP
Moers and his slate — Vice Chair Dottie Thomas running again for that position, former Evansville Mayor Russ Lloyd Jr. for party treasurer and Joe Kratochvil for secretary — each convincingly won their separate contests against Peterlin's slate.
For Duckworth's intraparty rivals, it wasn't supposed to turn out this way.
While no one was looking during the January-February run-up to last year's May 7 GOP primary election, they were hard at work with an eye on Saturday's voting more than a year ahead.
Inspired by platform Precinct Strategy, Colbert, Batteiger-Smith and a few others mounted a sweeping PC candidate recruitment campaign. They claimed after the primary that they had elected enough PCs to defeat Duckworth or anyone he might support to succeed him on Saturday.
Colbert, in fact, had said the group probably had recruited enough PCs to navigate a complex thicket of party rules requiring they muster two-thirds of the PCs to oust Duckworth before his term was over.
But that never materialized. On Saturday, the anti-Duckworth activists couldn't even muster enough votes for Peterlin to get him to a second round of voting.
After last May's Republican primary election, Colbert, Batteiger-Smith and the others gave varying estimates of the number of PCs they had recruited who had won their elections in their precincts. The number invariably fell between 80 and 90. Those PCs had the right to appoint vice PCs in their precincts, with both groups eligible to vote in Saturday's caucus.
But those elected PCs had to reside in their precincts.
Meanwhile, in the runup to a mid-December deadline, by state GOP rules Duckworth and Thomas could appoint PCs and vice PCs to fill whatever vacancies remained without regard for where they lived. Among those they appointed were several who lost their bids to be elected as PCs in the May primary.
A Courier & Press analysis of the GOP's list of PCs and their vices indicated at least two dozen — Colbert said he had identified 30, but he would not provide names — had been appointed by Duckworth or Thomas to fill vacancies.
Peterlin, Colbert and Batteiger-Smith said after Saturday's caucus that some of the PCs they recruited voted for Ary, a conservative pastor.
Peterlin made this calculation: roughly 80 elected conservative PCs plus 20 or so "establishment votes" cast ballots for him or Ary to make exactly 100 votes between them.
But the 25 or 30 PCs and vice PCs Duckworth and Thomas appointed to fill vacancies were the decisive factor, Peterlin said. Added to the support Duckworth's faction already had among PCs, it was too much to overcome, he said.
It was all legal under GOP rules, admitted Peterlin and Batteiger-Smith — but they didn't admit they had been outmaneuvered. They each said Duckworth and Thomas had "padded" the GOP's PC rolls with supporters.
"They can just grab some bodies and we have to find somebody who actually lives there," Peterlin said. "And then we have to run, and we have to identify a vice that actually lives there. It's so much more difficult.
"It was all within the establishment of officeholders and their families and contractors and attorneys and their families. It protects the party."
Batteiger-Smith said the appointed PCs obviously were appointed for the sole purpose of winning Saturday's caucus.
"One guy, we asked him what precinct he is, and he said, 'I don't know, I just got appointed,'" she said.
But Moers, whose wife had given birth to a baby girl just days before, wore a broad grin after the caucus. He wasn't thinking about divisions in the GOP.
"I look forward to winning more hearts and minds as time goes on," he said.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: New Vanderburgh GOP chair vows he'll be different
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