Indiana Republicans stood by Diego Morales through sexual assault accusations from two Republican women, serial job and military embellishments, documented performance failures, illegal voting, foreign entanglements, nepotism and luxury perks at taxpayer expense.
There’s only one thing Republicans couldn’t abide: fear of losing.
Morales’ tales of corruption have penetrated beyond the Central Indiana bubble into Indiana’s news-starved rural counties at a time when Beau Bayh, a famously named Democrat, and Greg Ballard, a formidable independent, are mounting strong challenges in the November race for secretary of state.
Any one of those three elements would have been tolerable on their own. Republicans project confidence that they can defeat Bayh. They dismiss Ballard, a former Republican mayor of Indianapolis. They esteem Morales’ brand of low character and incompetence as populist assets.
But put all that together — Morales’ awfulness and the prospect that Ballard meets his signature threshold and wins enough conservative votes to move the needle in November — and Republicans face the end of their dominance in Indiana.
That prospect forced U.S. Sen. Jim Banks into action. Banks has awarded himself the big hat of unofficial archbishop for the Indiana Republican Party after having slain the legacy of former Gov. Mitch Daniels and carried out President Donald Trump’s retribution in this month’s primary elections. Banks moves people and resources around with waves of his hand.
Banks, of course, endorsed Morales just a few weeks ago. But Banks’ superpower is suppressing introspection and logical consistency. He looked around, saw handsome staffer Max Engling, laid hands on him and blessed him as the party’s new de facto nominee for secretary of state.
I don’t want to be all negative here. Indiana will be better off when Morales exits the state payroll (assuming he doesn’t slide into another taxpayer-funded job).
He is one of the worst people to ever hold elected office in Indiana. To the extent he has carried out his duties, he has put himself first at every step and carried on with the smugness of someone convinced of invincibility.
Morales’ excommunication (he announced he’s staying in the race, but faces long odds now) is cause for celebration no matter the mechanism. But let’s be honest about the mechanism.
Banks only stabbed Morales in the back because a competitive election forced his hand. Bayh and Ballard have provided something Indiana has lacked for many years — viable options for voters.
Banks and Attorney General Todd Rokita, who co-led the effort to bump Morales, can pretend all they want that they just discovered Engling like some untapped Hollywood talent in a bar. The other B- and C-list Indiana Republicans coalescing around Engling can pretend all they want that they just noticed Morales is ill-suited to be secretary of state.
We know what they really noticed: the polls.
That’s why competitive elections are important. They enforce market conditions on political organizations that refuse to hold their own people accountable to any code of conduct. When Indiana Republicans attempted to redraw Indiana’s congressional map to create nine safe seats for themselves last year, they were demonstrating their preference to elect Morales-caliber candidates everywhere in the state.
Banks in particular has followed Trump’s lead to create a party apparatus of yes-men (and women) who will let him do whatever he wants free from consequences. In turn, Banks affords free rein to all other Republicans so long as they are obedient to him — and, more importantly, so long as they are winners.
That’s why Bayh’s candidacy is good for Indiana. That’s why Ballard’s attempt to carve out a statewide electoral lane for independents is honorable, even though his former copartisans now smear him and tarnish his record.
Until just a few days ago, Banks, Rokita and most other Republicans were content to help Morales secure another four years as Indiana’s elections chief. They didn’t see the light on their own. Bayh and Ballard blasted it up into their ivory tower.
Morales is the same person today that he was during all his years in public life. Republicans don’t care about any of that. They’re abandoning Morales now because of what he was about to become: a loser.
Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or james.briggs@indystar.com. Follow him on X at @JamesEBriggs.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: For Republicans, Diego Morales became even worse than corrupt | Opinion
Reporting by James Briggs, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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