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Periodicals postage paid at Richmond, IN and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Palladium Item, Customer Service, P.O. Box 1387, Fort Smith, AR 72902. where, according to an analysis of can- didates who reported contributing at least $1 million this election cycle by Open Secrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. Four Indiana candidates ranked in the top 10 in terms of what percentage of their bottom line is self-funded.
So while Early may not have foreseen a 2024 gubernatorial primary where a whopping six candidates will appear on the ballot, his statement remains pre- scient: The big money game has only gotten bigger, and those who raise or spend millions get left behind. sends a message that politics is a wealthy said Marina Pi- no, who serves as counsel in the elec- tions and government program at the Brennan Center for Justice. is part of an ecosystem of unlimited big money that we ourselves in, and at bottom, this has implications for goals of achieving a more representa- tive The numbers: This gubernatorial primary dwarfs others The magnitude of this Republican expense be overstated. Since the 1996 race, Republican pri- maries just been competitive until this year each election there has been one prominent candidate with all the party backing and all the money. And for the most part, they saved up their money for the real competition: the general election.
This election cycle, from Fort Wayne entrepreneur Eric entry in 2021 through the end of the quarter of 2024, the six Republican candidates which also include U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, former commerce Secretary Brad Chambers, former Attorney General Curtis Hill and Indianapolis mother Jamie Reitenour have raised more than $42 million and spent nearly $36 million.
Chambers came out the quarter on top in terms of spending: spent more than $12 million; Doden nearly $10 million and Braun more than $9 million. The last Republican primary with multiple candidates qualifying for the ballot was in 2004, when Mitch Daniels handily defeated conservative activist Eric Miller. David McIntosh, a guberna- torial candidate in 2000, also ran, but dropped out before the deadline. Altogether, the three raised nearly $8 million that election cycle and spent about $5 million. The last gubernatorial election where candidates collectively spent more than $40 million was the general election in 2016.
It was going to be a rematch be- tween Republican Mike Pence and John Gregg, a pro-Second Amendment Dem- ocrat who lost to Pence by a razor-thin margin in 2012. But after Pence won the Republican primary nomination in 2016, he was tapped to be former President Donald vice president. Con- vention delegates selected Eric Hol- comb to be the replacement nominee. Gregg, spending $16 million by the end of the election cycle, had out-spent both of them, but lost narrowly to 51.4% of the vote. The winds have shifted since the Trump era.
less and less room in Democratic party for the kind of Gregg-esque, socially conservative can- didate who could stand a chance in deep-red Indiana. This Demo- cratic presumptive nominee, Jennifer McCormick, has raised a little over half a million dollars thus far not nearly the kind of backing political ob- servers believe a Democratic nominee would need to have a fair shake. So the real competition for governor, this time, is in the primary. The season for self-funders Several of primary races, including the race, break molds in a way: Some of their biggest spenders are also self-funding their endeavors. To date, Chambers has loaned his gu- bernatorial campaign $10 million of the roughly $13 million raised.
Doden gave $200,000 to his campaign, and his family members chipped in $4,875,000 in both loans and direct contributions. And Republican candidates in the 5th and 6th Congressional District prima- ries have funneled millions of dollars to their own campaigns, far exceeding the self-funding amounts of individual can- didates in the last competitive primary races for those districts. In some ways this is part of a national trend. From 2002 to 2022, the amount of self-funding in congressional races the total dollar across all races has quadrupled. The U.S.
Supreme Court has repeatedly protected candi- unlimited ability to lend or donate to themselves. But there have also been some local circ*mstances that explain the stakes: an unusual situation with incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Victoria return to the race in the 5th District and an open seat in the 6th with the retire- ment of Republican U.S. Rep.
Greg Pence. In the 5th District, Gaylor Electric CEO and state Rep. Chuck Goodrich has loaned $4.6 million to his campaign since March 2023 with more than of that self-funding coming after Spartz for reelection in early February, ac- cording to federal election reports. That district stretches from Hamilton County north to Grant County. Spartz in 2023 publicly announced that she would not run for reelection to the 5th District, but reversed that deci- sion in February after eight other candi- dates, including Goodrich, had been campaigning and fundraising for months.
With late entry into the race, contributing own money was likely a quicker way to at- tempt to compete with name recognition than doing an 11th-hour fundraising blitz. The 2020 primary for the 5th Con- gressional District featured 15 Republi- can candidates, but federal campaign reports show nobody in that race self-funded their campaigns to the level that Goodrich has in 2024. Spartz, who won that 2020 primary, was the only candidate to spend $1 mil- lion on her own campaign, which she paid back to herself in 2023. Former U.S. Rep.
Susan Brooks, who won her elec- tion to the 5th District in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, never self-funded her campaigns. Between April 22 and April 30, Spartz has given about $700,000 to her cam- paign, according to 48-hour contribu- tion reports. There is still a large fund- raising gap between Spartz and Good- rich and her campaign has criticized the Noblesville state representative for try- ing to the election, including in a recent campaign email challenging the him to a debate. Chuck is spending millions of dollars to smear my conservative rec- ord with lies, so he can buy this election and get even richer in Spartz said in the campaign email. But campaign in a state- ment pointed to loans in her 2020 run for the 5th District.
future of the country is at stake, and Chuck Goodrich is the Washington Swamp special and foreign interests, which Victoria Spartz wholly the Goodrich campaign statement reads. In the Republican primary for the 6th District, Storage Express founder son Shreve has loaned $4.5 million to his primary campaign and Indianapolis state Rep. Mike Speedy has funneled $1.3 million to his campaign. Richmond businessman Jamison Carrier also self- funded $750,000 to his campaign for the 6th District, which includes Marion County and stretches east to border with Ohio. Shreve, who lent and donated a total of $13.5 million to his unsuccessful Indi- anapolis mayoral bid in 2023, has al- most entirely self-funded his 6th Dis- trict campaign in the three months of 2024, outside of one $500 donation in March.
Shreve and Goodrich rank among the top of candidates running for federal in self-funding, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. Shreve in a statement told IndyStar he has focused his campaign on meet- ing 6th District residents, not fundrais- ing. worked hard and have been lucky in business, so spending my own Shreve said in the statement. the voters send me to Congress, keep working hard to serve my con- stituents. I owe anything to spe- cial interests or Among 2024 candidates for U.S.
House races, only Gil Cisneros, a Cali- fornia Democrat, has contributed more of his own money to his campaign than Shreve this election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. In terms of the proportion of fundraising from the bank account verses outside contribu- tions, Shreve tops the national list. The last competitive primary for the 6th Congressional District was in 2018 when Pence was elected to the seat his younger brother previously held. In that primary, Pence did not give any of his own money to his campaign, but Jona- than Lamb, one of his opponents, loaned his own campaign $820,000. In the 8th Congressional District, which is also an open seat this year, two candidates have loaned their cam- paigns $500,000 or more: Richard Moss and Dominick Kavanaugh.
While self-funders in 2024 congres- sional races have hit million-dollar high in loans to their campaigns, not the race where a candidate has been accused of a race. In 2016, Republican Trey Hollings- worth moved to Indiana from Tennes- see, skirted the two-primary law with the approval of then-Clark County GOP chair Jamey Noel and ran for the 9th Congressional District. He drew nicknames like and but won his election in 2016, 2018 and 2020. Hollingsworth ahead of the primary in 2016 loaned more than $1 million to his campaign. His father also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a super political action committee that pumped out ads praising his son leading up to the primary.
The pros and cons of self-funding Pumping personal wealth into a race can help a candidate leap forward in the polls with less Big dollars buys exposure. And a candidate can claim, as Shreve has, that they be by special interests. But the reality is more complicated. For one, self-funders rarely win. In 2022, only six of the 44 congressional candidates across the country who gave at least $1 million to their campaigns ac- tually won their races, according to OpenSecrets.
But winning may not be the only goal, points out John Martin, Research Assis- tant Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. could help them buy in the larger political ma- he said. Vivek Ramaswamy, for example, dropped his presidential bid but is now a nationally recognized name and has hitched onto the Trump campaign. even headlining a GOP dinner in Hamilton County on Thursday.) At the local or state level, a self-funder can raise their among their local par- ty. works the other way around, too: If the self-funder wins, a private donor could take the opportuni- ty to curry favor by donating a large sum to help replenish their bank account.
view is if this raise cor- ruption risks, I know what Martin said. If the self-funder loses, third-party donors are nonetheless on the hook to help the campaign pay the candidate back. The trend also tends to favor less di- verse, and heavily male, participants in politics. Male self-funders outnumber female self-funders to one, Pino, of the Brennan Center, said. The upward spiral of campaign spending contrasts drastically with the wishes of everyday Americans.
In a Pew Research Center poll last year, a vast majority of Americans across the politi- cal spectrum said they felt the cost of campaigning it hard for good people to run for and most felt there should be limits on individual contributions. just becomes a question of how these candidates are aligning them- selves with the folks seeking to Pino said. a gap Chambers thinks of it less cynically. Most Hoosiers know who he was, and so he invested his own money part- ly to ramp up his name ID. And, he con- siders his contributions more like an in Indiana and a form of giving back.
think in that spirit. I mean, expensive. Who wants to do that? No he said. a invest- ment, but I believe in my ability to change and move Indiana into the fu- ture. And so worth Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at or follow her on Twitter Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com or 317- 779-4468.
Follow her on Elections Continued from Page 1A Berry backs bill to bring more services to health Actress Halle Berry took on a new role on Thursday as she joined senators to push for a bill on health. The Advancing Menopause Care and Mid-Life Health Act is a bill that would provide research, grants, education, outreach and additional ser- vices to women who are experiencing perimenopause or menopause symp- toms. The bill that would authorize $275 million over years is supported by senators from both sides of the aisle. shame has to be taken out of Berry said. have to talk about this very normal part of our life.
Our doctors even say the word to us, let alone walk us through the jour- Research has shown that menopause curriculum is often left out of residency programs. In a post on Sen. Tammy Baldwin, shared a picture of her, other senators and Berry as they stood to- gether to introduce the bill. too long, menopause has simply been written as a Women have to in si- Baldwin wrote in the post. was proud to stand with the amazing leberry and my colleagues to introduce bipartisan legislation that makes long overdue investments in menopause re- next court date set in Nashville chair throwing case Morgan court case following his arrest in Nashville, Tennessee, for allegedly throwing a chair from a down- town rooftop will be continued later this summer.
The attorney, Worrick Robin- son, attended an initial hearing on Wal- behalf on Friday after the singer waived his right to appear in court. The next hearing was sched- uled for Aug. 15. is obviously a very complicated case, and not going to resolve itself without subpoenas and Robinson said Friday morning. will be there on Aug.
Three things could happen in August when the award-winning country music star appears in court. Davidson County prosecutors may call witnesses for a hearing on the facts of the case. They may, instead, settle. Or, depending on the schedule, they could kick the case down the road a little further. On April 7, the country singer, 30, was charged with three counts of reck- less endangerment with a deadly weap- on, each a felony, and one count of dis- orderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
He was on the rooftop of Chief a six-story Nashville honky-tonk, when he allegedly threw a chair over the rail- ing to the street below, according to his arrest Several Nashville police were standing in front of the bar when the chair landed just feet from them, the stated. PEOPLE IN THE NEWS.
