10/11/2010 - Controversy Shines Light on Usually Obscure Race (Indy Star)

By Mary Beth Schneider

It may be the most important political race that Hoosier voters know next to nothing about.

Until recently, the election for Indiana's next secretary of state had been -- as expected -- overshadowed by higher-profile races for the U.S. Senate, Congress and the state legislature.

But who becomes secretary of state could determine which party controls the Indiana House. Why? Because when there is an even split among Democrats and Republicans -- and there's a possibility this year that that could happen -- the majority party is determined by which party wins the election for the highest-ranking statewide office on the ballot. And this year, that's the secretary of state.

And it will determine a slew of other issues that affect Indiana's elections for the next four years: whether Libertarians continue to be listed on Hoosier ballots; the number of signatures that independent and other third-party candidates have to collect to get on the ballot; the order in which voters see their candidates listed; the party affiliation of polling place inspectors in each county; and whether Republicans or Democrats have the deciding vote on the State Recount Commission.

Yet most voters probably can't name the three candidates seeking to wield all this potential power: Republican Charlie White, Democrat Vop Osili and Libertarian Mike Wherry.

It took a political controversy for the race to draw any attention at all.

White has been accused by Democrats of committing voter fraud because he voted in the wrong precinct in the May primary -- having moved without updating his registration or informing election workers at the precinct where he voted. The flap was revealed when White resigned from the Fishers Town Council, admitting he had been living for several months outside his district.

White, an attorney and Hamilton County GOP chairman, says it was simply a mistake, caused by inattention to details as he went through a divorce, remarriage and the purchase of a new home.

Democrats, though, maintain that White committed a Class D felony -- a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine -- by intentionally voting in the wrong precinct to cover up his address change.

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker called White's gaffe "the gift that keeps on giving."

"You now have Democrats really, really engaged on this because they see the hypocrisy of the Republican Party who has pounded their chest on voter fraud for years," Parker said. "Now they've got their own candidate for the chief elections office trying to game the system."

But Parker acknowledged that it's now up to Osili to make sure voters know about the scandal.

Friday, Osili began to do that by airing a TV ad slamming White on stations in Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, South Bend and Terre Haute.

The ad, which Osili said will run through the election, says White was "forced to step down" from his council seat.

"A grand jury and special prosecutor are being commissioned to investigate him for felony voter fraud," the ad states. "And he expects us to vote for him to be Indiana's next chief elections officer? Sorry, Charlie. Indiana deserves better."

The ad's assertion is premature; there is no grand jury, though Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp has said she will seek a special prosecutor, who could turn the issue over to a grand jury.

White, who has yet to run any TV ads, issued a statement calling it "unfortunate that my opponent is choosing a cynical and negative strategy for his campaign. I will continue to campaign on the issues despite these false, negative attacks."

Robert Dion, a political science professor at the University of Evansville, said an ad is just what Osili needs to grab voters' attention.

"There's no doubt this (controversy) was an unwelcome development for the White campaign. That bad news has to be spread and blanketed across the state through paid advertising for the Democratic candidate to benefit from it," Dion said.

Otherwise, he said, voters likely will cast their ballots for this race based on the candidate's party -- and that's bad news for Democrats.

Currently, all statewide elected offices are held by Republicans. The secretary of state, Todd Rokita, is running for Congress in the 4th District against Purdue University Professor David Sanders.

Democrats haven't won the secretary of state's office since 1990.

What's in a name?

The GOP dominance, said Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark, is proof that this is a Republican-leaning state and that Republicans have done a better job of grass-roots organizing to make sure their candidates are supported at the polls.

Dion said that in the lower-profile races for secretary of state, auditor and treasurer, "people don't know who the candidates are."

They instead vote their party -- and also tend to tilt toward "WASP-y" sounding names, he said, referring to the acronym for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

"In the absence of any other information, (voters) are really grasping at straws," Dion said. "If you don't know anything about (Osili) but his name, my guess is it would be a disadvantage. Charlie White sounds like the guy down the street."

Osili said it's his job to overcome that hurdle by making himself known to as many Hoosiers as possible.

He's tried to turn his name into an asset. At a labor rally in Indianapolis, Osili told the workers: "My name is Vop. It's V-o-p. A lot of you might call me Bob when I call you on the phone. That's all right. You can call me Bob all day long, but when it comes time to vote, though, I'm going to ask you to vote for the guy named V-o-p."

It stands, he told them, for "voice of the people."

That, he said in a recent interview, is the nickname his parents gave him when he was a talkative 18-month-old named Samuel Osili, for his father. He's answered to Vop ever since.

Before the news of White's voting problems, Osili, an architect, said he had focused on other aspects of the office, including ways to help people obtain the ID they need to vote and especially on how the secretary of state's office -- which also is in charge of new business registrations and enforcing securities laws and regulating auto dealers -- can help businesses. That includes, he said, creating a "small-business resource kit" to help businesses get started, and an interactive service to match businesses with government loans and grants.

Now, "the issue is not strictly about jobs anymore. That had been my prime objective and still is. Let's use the office to help our small businesses access resources," he said. "But it's brought into sharp focus another aspect of the office, and that's obviously elections and abiding by the law."

Discounts residency issue

White won't concede that his residency mistakes are an issue with voters.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican, Democrat or independent," White said. "You've got Hoosiers out there who are worried about their jobs, about paying for their mortgage, about putting food on the table."

He refused to discuss the voting fraud accusations against him, saying he has admitted he made a mistake and now it is time to move on to issues Hoosiers care about.

"No one is more mad about this, about the mistakes, than I am," he said, adding that he has paid back more than $5,000 of his $1,000-per-month council salary. "I'm remedying it, and I'm trying to move on and talk about the issues. And that's what voters want to hear about."

Like Osili, White said he'd use the office to help people obtain proper ID to vote. And he plans to continue the unit, formed under Rokita, to help counties prosecute white-collar criminals; launch an effort to educate newly formed car dealerships on their various legal responsibilities; and encourage the use of the Internet for various business transactions while also keeping "old-fashioned" paper methods for "mom and pop dealers."

White also said he would work to promote bipartisan cooperation, saying he comes from a family of Democrats, "and if I can't work with Democrats, then that means I'm not going to be invited back to Christmas and Thanksgiving."

Trying to change habits

Wherry, the Libertarian running for secretary of state, said it's time voters thought beyond party labels.

He's heard all the reasons people give for voting only for Republicans or Democrats, and he used the "wasted vote" argument himself when he voted for GOP presidential nominee John McCain in 2008. But, he said, he later realized that the only way to waste a vote is to cast it for someone you don't agree with.

Wherry, an attorney, said he decided to run for secretary of state to help the Libertarian Party get at least 2 percent of the total votes cast in that race. That's the threshold the party needs for its candidates to continue to be listed on Indiana's ballots.

"If I don't get it, I'll be very disappointed in myself," he said. "I think a lot of people in Indiana genuinely are Libertarian-oriented. But they're so married to their current party."

If he won, he said, he'd work to open Indiana's election laws to allow more participation, including lowering the number of petition signatures an independent or third-party candidate has to collect to be on the ballot.

"I read the election law statute. It's long. It's tedious. It's complicated," he said. "It should be written so it's easier to understand and more individual-focused than party-focused so that no matter what party I'm in, I've got to play by the same rules as anybody else."