EVANSVILLE — In a different time, Ken Colbert was an aspiring Republican kingmaker who tried to organize a hostile takeover of the Vanderburgh County GOP and oust then-party chairman Mike Duckworth.
Now Colbert is a nonpartisan candidate for one of two EVSC school board seats currently occupied by Duckworth and David Hollingsworth, both of whom also are running nonpartisan. Also in the mix for one of the two District 2 seats: Lindsey Patterson, an Evansville resident making her first bid for elected office.
Colbert unsuccessfully sought an at-large seat on the school board in 2022, coming in third in a field of five candidates in a race ultimately won by Melissa Moore.
This year, school board candidates in Indiana may run under a party’s banner after Gov. Mike Braun signed a bill allowing it, but just one candidate so far — Republican Ryan Owens in District 1 — is doing so. Some school board members represent districts, but their seats and at-large seats are voted on countywide. They’re all countywide elections.
Colbert, 61, is a longtime Vanderburgh County conservative activist — and, according to his critics, an unrepentant political provocateur.
Soon after Colbert won a seat on the GOP’s precinct committee while running unopposed in the 2024 party primary election, Duckworth’s political allies on the 8th District Republican Congressional Committee took action. The four 8th District committee members banned Colbert and two other anti-Duckworth activists from seeking elected office under the party’s banner until 2030.
Colbert’s sin? Duckworth had accused him of violating a party rule forbidding “gross misconduct affecting the party organization,” an accusation Colbert said stemmed from his public criticism of prominent Republicans, including Indiana State Sen. Vaneta Becker.
Colbert signed up in February to be elected a delegate to the Indiana Republican Party’s June 19-20 state convention in Fort Wayne, signing a declaration of candidacy attesting that he complies with “any candidate requirements set by my party’s rules to be a candidate for this office.”
That got him accused by County Clerk Dottie Thomas of “falsely filing for elected office” in a case that went to a special prosecutor. Colbert hasn’t been formally charged with anything in that case.
Colbert’s latest candidacy for an EVSC school board seat won’t get him in hot water with the GOP, as he is allowed to seek elected office — just not as a Republican. Colbert did not return a text message from the Courier & Press for comment on this story. A call to his cell phone Monday went straight to voicemail, and his mailbox was full.
Patterson is not a familiar face in Vanderburgh County political circles. The 41-year-old Evansville resident is making her first bid for public office. She is the connections coordinator at Methodist Temple United Methodist Church.
Patterson has no complaint with school board incumbents Duckworth and Hollingsworth, each of whom seeks re-election. She has no opinion yet on two recent, higher-profile issues — whether EVSC should purchase weapons detection machines and how the school corporation should implement Indiana’s tough new bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools.
“I’m running so I can further support the community of the EVSC,” said Patterson, an EVSC graduate and parent. “I see how hard the students and educators work. I want to learn more on how we can collaborate together to ensure the success for all.”
Patterson, who cheerfully acknowledged she was reading from a prepared statement, said she is still studying the issues.
“I just had the opportunity to run, and I thought it was a really good opportunity for me,” she said. “I don’t have anything negative to say about (Duckworth and Hollingsworth). I’m just doing this to further my knowledge on the EVSC and to be helpful.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Two new candidates — one familiar, one not — seek EVSC school board seats
Reporting by Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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By Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press | USA TODAY Network
