This story is part of Mr. Clean, a series that focuses on ethical concerns within Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration. You can read the full series here.
Late into the evening on April 27, 2018, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s team was in celebration mode inside the city’s private suite at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The ink was drying on a landmark Indianapolis jobs announcement as the Pacers walloped the Cavaliers. India-based company Infosys had just pledged to spend $245 million to redevelop the old Indianapolis Airport Authority terminal and eventually create 3,000 jobs here.
Alcohol flowed as city staff mingled with executives from Infosys and other Indianapolis bigwigs, despite a longstanding no-alcohol rule in the city suite. One of Hogsett’s top campaign benefactors, developer Michael Browning, got his picture taken with hall of famer Larry Bird. Hogsett’s then-chief of staff Thomas Cook was throwing potato chips at his coworkers.
“All hell broke loose,” Cook texted a fellow Indianapolis Democrat the next day, recounting the scene in the suite, where a Hogsett jersey hung prominently on the wall. “There was a lot of booze. I had to explain the situation to the Pacers. And close the door. … Watching entitled rich men do whatever they want is amazing.”
It was just one of the nights during Hogsett’s decade in office when the city’s private suites at Gainbridge and Lucas Oil Stadium served as gathering spots for a revolving door of well-connected guests.
Despite making a campaign vow to “renounce all perks of the office” if he was elected mayor, Hogsett and his family have been frequent attendees of Pacers and Colts games and other events in the suites. He’s also driven around town recently in a loaned Indianapolis 500-themed Corvette.
The suites — controlled by the mayor’s office and provided to the city as part of the facilities’ operating agreements — are intended to be used by city officials and employees for city business, according to the mayor’s office. At times they’ve been used for charitable purposes, such as providing tickets to local nonprofits and auction winners.
Hogsett, however, has also used the suites to entertain the donors who keep his well-oiled campaign machine humming.
Over the past 18 months alone, major campaign donors who’ve each given at least $5,000 to the mayor have used the suites on at least 20 occasions to take in Pacers, Fever, Colts games and other events at the venues, according to a list of suite attendees requested from the city.
Emily Gurwitz, the mayor’s top campaign fundraiser who has no formal role in city government, is recorded as going to seven games and events during that timeframe.
In at least two cases, donations of thousands of dollars to the mayor were recorded within days of a donor’s attendance at a game or event in one of the suites.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office, Aliya Wishner, who has since resigned, initially told IndyStar “the suite has never been used for political fundraising purposes during Mayor Hogsett’s time as mayor.”
But campaign finance reports show the mayor’s campaign has paid for food and beverage in the Gainbridge suite. Hogsett’s current spokesperson Emily Kaufmann later acknowledged that the campaign has paid for food “on rare occasions.”
“Unrelated to city business, elected officials, friends of the mayor, and city partners will sometimes request tickets to games or special events,” Wishner said. “If there are available tickets, these requests are sometimes granted.”
‘Forget they are servants of the people’
Hogsett’s 2015 promise to “renounce all perks of the office” came as part of a broader set of ethics promises announced during his inaugural campaign for mayor.
“There is always a danger that elected leaders will forget that they are servants of the people, and not the other way around,” Hogsett said in campaign materials. The acceptance of perks “has the potential to contribute to such a disconnection from the lives of city residents.”
Hogsett said he’d refuse memberships in country clubs or “other exclusive private clubs” and that he’d only accept gifts given to the city “in accordance with law and only to the extent that they directly promote the interests of the city.”
Since January 2025 alone, however, the mayor and his son are listed in city attendance records as having gone to about a dozen events in the suites, including the WWE Royal Rumble and a Chaka Khan concert. That might not account for all the times he’s attended. The mayor’s office said his attendance is not always tracked due to security measures inside the venues.
Along with using the sports suites, a viral video that circulated on social media earlier this year showed Hogsett getting into an Indianapolis 500-themed Corvette after walking out of a local 21st Amendment Wine and Spirits store.
The mayor’s office confirmed Hogsett was “loaned one of the official Indy 500 pace cars” this year as part of an Indianapolis Motor Speedway program used by other dignitaries and local officials, but didn’t answer further questions about the video, which depicted him leaving the store with a paper bag.
Kaufmann said the mayor participates in several 500 Festival celebrations throughout the spring to “promote one of Indianapolis’ most longstanding, treasured traditions.”
She didn’t respond to a question about whether Hogsett believed he had followed through on his pledge to reject mayoral perks.
Taking in Taylor Swift, Michelle Obama in a ‘dreamy’ suite
When Taylor Swift came to Lucas Oil Stadium for three nights in November 2024, the crowds smashed the venue’s all-time records for concert attendance.
While fans shelled out hundreds or thousands of dollars for tickets to the sold-out shows, several of Hogsett’s donors and their family members had a prime spot to see the pop mega star inside the city’s suite.
Browning, who has donated $619,000 to Hogsett over the last decade, attended the second night of the show in the city’s suite. Several of his family members, including his grandchildren and daughter-in-law, helped fill out the suite the other nights.
Patti Yount, who has donated more than $63,000 to Hogsett’s campaign, also took in Swift’s performance from the suite. So did Gurwitz, two other donors and the mayor’s daughter.
Taking into account all three nights, more campaign donors and their family members made use of the seats than did city staffers.
More recently, the suites have played host to several guests who have each donated tens of thousands of dollars to the mayor’s campaign.
That includes Birge & Held cofounder Taggart Birge, American Structurepoint President Cash Canfield, Bose McKinney & Evans Partner Greg Hahn, TWG Development CEO Tony Knoble, Janssen and Spaans President Abe Swidan and DB Engineering President Rachel Doba.
All of those companies have received contracts for city work or have been awarded city incentives.
At least one Hogsett donor has made use of the city’s suite for their own event.
Democratic megadonor Ann Stack hosted an event in the city suite when former First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at Gainbridge back in 2018.
In an invitation to guests, Stack, who has given about $28,000 to Hogsett, referred to “our mayor’s premier suite” as “dreamy with unobstructed views of the stage.”
Asked about the event, Wishner said “Stack was invited to host the suite for this event because of her role as a community leader dedicated to uplifting women and their causes in our city.”
Stack didn’t reply to IndyStar’s request for comment.
‘They pay their taxes. You get a Pacers suite.’
More than a decade after his first mayoral campaign, Hogsett’s old promise to reject all perks of the office seems “foolhardy,” said Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at University of Indianapolis.
While it’s “ethically tricky” to entertain donors in city suites, Merrifield Wilson said, she noted that many of the donors are likely also city partners and friends of the mayor who have been invited as personal guests.
“He also said he wasn’t going to run for a third term,” Merrifield Wilson said. “You start to see lots of blurred lines. Why did he make those claims in the first place?”
Cook, Hogsett’s former right-hand man who was eventually forced to resign from the administration in 2020, appeared to consider the Gainbridge suite to be one of those perks.
In a 2019 text message, Cook noted with disapproval that Hogsett sometimes complained about the personal toll of the job.
“They pay their taxes,” Cook said. “You get a Pacers suite.”
Contact investigative reporter Hayleigh Colombo at hcolombo@indystar.com or follow her on X @hayleighcolombo.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ‘Dreamy’ suite views and a Corvette: Here’s how Hogsett uses mayoral perks
Reporting by Hayleigh Colombo, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hayleigh Colombo, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
