Note: This edition has been updated with comments from U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.
State Sen. Spencer Deery on Thursday questioned the impartiality of a member of the Indiana Recount Commission – one who voted this week to reject a series of votes that overturned the Indiana Senate District 23 election in favor of challenger Paula Copenhaver – over his ties to U.S. Sen. Jim Banks and a dark money campaign designed to target Deery in the May Republican primary.
Deery challenged Paul Mullin, a Republican appointee to the three-member Indiana Recount Commission, to come clean on any correspondence he might have had with Banks, who was a college friend, a former client and instrumental in Hoosier Leadership for America, which spent more than $1 million in a campaign to unseat Deery.
Deery also asked Secretary of State Diego Morales to do the same. Morales is chair of the Recount Commission and backer of a failed mid-decade redistricting push from President Donald Trump, which was a centerpiece of Copenhaver’s challenge of Deery.
“Our state and country only work when Americans can trust that the institutions overseeing our elections are impartial and committed to the rule of law,” Deery said in a statement released Thursday morning.
“These conflicts raise serious concerns that some members of this commission may have been more committed to finishing what the dark-money groups started than to defending the will of voters and following the rule of law,” Deery said. “Mullin should have either recused himself or at least disclosed these ties before considering a challenge brought by a campaign that was basically financed by his close friend’s political organization.”
Reached Thursday morning, Mullin declined to comment on Deery’s accusations.
“I’m not really making any public comments on the Recount Commission,” Mullin told Based in Lafayette.
Mullin and Morales on Monday sided with Copenhaver’s challenge of eight disputed ballots across the six counties in Indiana Senate District 26, agreeing with her attorneys that technical issues caused by county election officials – some combination of missing initials on absentee ballots from poll workers, county clerk’s seal or the clerk’s signature – were enough to toss votes for Deery, a West Lafayette Republican running for a second term. (Deery successfully challenged two votes for Copenhaver on similar grounds during Monday’s Recount Commission hearing in Indianapolis.)
The result was a swing from a three-vote victory for Deery to a three-vote victory for Copenhaver.
Deery says an appeal is in the works. That had not been filed with the Indiana Court of Appeals, as of Thursday morning.
Deery blasted the Recount Commission decisions, most on 2-1 votes, saying that Morales and Mullin threw out voters’ clear intent on technicalities.
On Thursday, he asked whether that was part of a larger effort.
Deery called out Mullin’s appearance Wednesday, two nights after the Recount Commission decision, at a Broad Ripple GOP meeting, where he introduced a guest appearance by Banks, a first-time U.S. senator. According to a transcript from the event, supplied via Deery, Mullin talked about his time together with Banks on campus at IU in the College Republicans and how that friendship had lasted.
Deery also pointed to a time in 2022 when Mullin represented Banks in front of the Indiana Election Commission in a ballot challenge from a Democratic candidate over accusations that Banks had supported the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. He also highlighted that Mullin’s resume at Lewis and Wilkins law firm included that he’d been a member of the finance committee of Jim Banks for Congress from 2016 to 2024.
Banks was in the thick of campaigns targeted incumbent state senators who didn’t back a Trump-endorsed mid-decade redistricting effort to line up better chances to win seats for Republicans in the U.S. House. Deery was an outspoken critic of that idea.
Copenhaver, a former Fountain County clerk and chair of the Fountain County Republican Party, put the redistricting question at the heart of her decision to run against Deery. Trump endorsed her. And this week, after the race went her way, she included Banks among those she thanked for their support.
On Thursday, Deery said people need to know whether Mullin’s friendship with Banks influenced decisions on the Indiana Recount Commission.
“Both Mullin and Secretary of State Diego Morales should reveal details of any communications their teams have had with either the Banks or Trump camps throughout this process, and Copenhaver and her attorneys should immediately reveal who is funding their legal campaign to change the result that was counted by the counties in District 23 and reaffirmed by the independent State Board of Accounts,” Deery said.
“Mullin was sitting in judgment of a campaign financed by his longtime friend’s political organization,” Deery said. “The public deserves much more transparency than it has received thus far.”
Banks responded later Thursday, calling Deery a sore loser.
“I have never spoken to members of the commission about Spencer Deery or his election challenger, but Spencer Deery is now blaming me and everyone else for his loss rather than his own weak record in the Indiana Statehouse,” Banks said in a statement.
“President Trump endorsed Spencer Deery’s opponent because of Spencer’s liberal, anti-Trump voting record — that’s why he lost,” Banks said. “If Spencer wanted to keep his seat in the State Senate, he should’ve done a better job fighting for his voters. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a good state Senator, so his constituents gave him the boot. Spencer is a sore loser who’s throwing a temper tantrum instead of owning up to his poor record in office. I look forward to working with the voters’ choice, Paula Copenhaver, to help Hoosier families and make Indiana stronger.”
Earlier in the week, Copenhaver declined to say who was financing attorneys leading her effort to contest the election. Her attorney, Bill Bock, also declined to reveal who was paying his legal’s teams bills.
Deery also raised questions about the selection of Evan Norris, a Zionsville-based attorney, to lead the recount in Indiana Senate District 23 and several others from the primary across the state. Norris was a former employee of Mullin at Lewis and Wilkins, from 2017 to 2022, according to his profile on LinkedIn.
“Through no fault of their own, voters had their votes tossed and their voices silenced,” Deery said. “In most instances, they did everything right, but their government let them down. That’s not the way our elections are supposed to work. I will do everything in my power to stand up for their ballots and the integrity of our elections.”
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
I’m not a voter for Deery and I don’t live in his district…but I completely support his desire to investigate the Banks and the money connection. Also, why aren’t the ballots “assessed for suitability” which is BS anyway—a vote cast is a vote cast if one is registered—but why aren’t the selected candidates on the ballot covered up somehow so that a completely impartial decision could be made about its validity?
It really galls me to think that a crook like Morales would handle and investigate my ballot, and after seeing my name and for whom I voted, decide whether I was worthy of counting.
Thank you for your reporting, Dave—but I swear the last few articles are really making we want to get out my seashells or sidewalk chalk and spell some things! 🤣😂
As with everything, follow the money. Keep pressing and asking questions. There was no scenario where Deery was going to get a fair shake in all this.