Annoited New Marion County GOP Chairman Is Unlikely to Rebuild the Party

News came this week that Marion County Republican Chairwoman Jennifer Ping is resigning her position.  A new Indianapolis ethics ordinance forbids those who have appointment power from doing business with the city.  Ping is a principal with the Bose Public Affairs Group, which has contracts with the city and lobbies Indianapolis government on behalf of clients.  Rather than give up that gig, Ping chose to resign as party chair.  She had only been elected to her position in the party in December of 2015.

Of course that begs the question as to why in the world a lobbyist was picked (I hesitate to use the word "elected" given how the process is so easily rigged) to be a county chair in the first place.

Mike McQuillen

Unfortunately the next anointed county chair, Mike McQuillen, comes with a conflict of interest just as serious, if not more so, than Ping.  McQuillen is minority leader on the Indianapolis City-County Council.  While on the Council, McQuillen has demonstrated he has a tin ear when it comes to the animosity the GOP grass roots had toward the constant tax and fee increases and corporate welfare that marked Mayor Greg Ballard administration.  McQuillen was chief cheerleader of policies Republican Ballard pushed that he as chairman (and council minority leader) he will have to criticize when those polices are advocated by Democrat Mayor Joe Hogsett.  I am pretty sure local Democrats will not hesitate to point out McQuillen's hypocrisy. I doubt many grass roots Republicans will forget McQuillen's attacks on good conservatives like Christine Scales who pushed back against Ballard's tax and spend policies.

Long ago I put together an extensive memo on how to rebuild the grass roots of the Marion County Republican organization.  One of the suggestions was to ban elected officials, people like McQuillen, from serving in management positions in the party organization due to their inherent conflicts of interest. 

If the Marion County GOP organization is ever going to return to power, the leadership of the party needs to be willing to give up dictatorial power over the organization to restore that power to the grass roots workers.  They need to have opportunities to be appointed to key positions and to advance in the party leadership.  And the leadership of the Marion County GOP needs to understand that issues, not the benefits of pay-to-play corporate welfare, is what motivates the average Republican voter to go to the polls. 

I have seen nothing from McQuillen's tenure which suggests he has the foggiest idea of what is wrong with the Marion County Republican Party.  Or possibly he just doesn't care.   Either way don't expect the Marion County Republican organization to improve any time soon.  Instead expect the same dictatorial power structure within the organization to continue.