Indiana Democrats Set To Nominate Statewide Candidates

Indiana Democratic Party delegates will officially choose their candidates to run for statewide office at this weekend’s convention.

Two of those candidates signed on to run less than two weeks before the party’s big meeting

State Republican Party Chair Kyle Hupfer gave Democrats a jab at the recent GOP convention. He told the crowd the Republican incumbents for statewide office finally had opponents, after Democrats spent a long time looking.

There’s some truth to Hupfer’s catty remark – Joselyn Whitticker, the Democrats’ candidate for Auditor, and Treasurer candidate John Aguilera only filed last week.

Mike Downs Center For Indiana Politics at IPFW Director Andrew Downs says that’s not a good sign when Democrats already have an uphill battle when it comes to, for instance, name recognition.

But Downs says that’s not even those candidates’ biggest issue.

“The real problem here is that you have some folks who have some decent-looking résumés who are being asked to run a statewide campaign in a year in which outside money and U.S. Senate money is going to just come pouring into the state – which really increases the cost of running a legitimate statewide campaign,” Downs says.

Whitticker, Aguilera, and Secretary of State candidate Jim Harper are each uncontested within the party heading into Saturday’s convention.