The mystery of a Texas super PAC’s interest in a county commissioner primary
That and other election notes heading into the final days of campaigning and early voting in the May 5 primary.
Support for this edition comes from ATLYS. ATLYS, featuring Lafayette native violinist Jinty McTavish, is excited to return to Lafayette for a special night May 13 at The Arts Federation presented by SAMI. Buckle up for a high-energy evening featuring a genre-blurring mix of original music, reimagined covers and brand-new pieces you haven’t heard before. If you love the vibe of Bridgerton, epic film scores or the timeless charm of string quartet music, this concert is for you! Get tickets and more details here.
Some election notes heading into the final days of campaigning …
TURNOUT STILL OUTPACING PAST TWO PRIMARIES IN TIPPECANOE COUNTY
The number of people voting early in Tippecanoe County has nearly tripled this primary season over the last midterm election in 2022, after Saturday’s vote center totals were reported by the county election office.
With a half-day of early voting remaining Monday ahead of the May 5 primary, 7,227 people had asked for ballots, according to election office figures. That’s 2.8 times more than the 2,587 voters coming out early at the same point in the 2022 primary.
It’s also up 55% from the 4,640 ballots cast by this point in the 2024 presidential year primary in Tippecanoe County, according to county numbers.
“My hope is that it’s kind of a measurement of what’s to come on Election Day,” Tracy Brown, Tippecanoe County Republican Party chair also running in a contested primary in Indiana House District 27, said this week. (More from Brown later in this edition.)
The party split: So far, 51% of the ballots requested have been Republican, 49% Democratic, according to county numbers. The past two primaries leaned in the 64% range for Republican ballots by this point.
One other number: Early voting so far accounts for a 6.2% turnout of the county’s registered voters. The 2022 primary drew 9,263 voters, or 7.6% of the registered voters in the county at the time, according to county records. In 2024, the primary had 14,943 voters, or a 13% turnout.
THE MYSTERY OF A TEXAS SUPER PAC’S INTEREST IN A COUNTY COMMISSIONER PRIMARY
One of the mysteries that popped up in the closing stages of the primary election season in Tippecanoe County: Why is a super PAC based in Texas funding mailers in a county commissioner race in Lafayette, Indiana?
“Beats me,” Julie Roush, the current Tippecanoe County clerk running in a Republican primary for county commissioner, said this week.
Roush said she came home earlier this week to find on a counter a mailer with her face and a collection of her credentials touting her as a defender of private property rights, supporter of increased government transparency and a champion of responsible spending.
Roush said she was confused and that she hadn’t planned for mailers in the primary. Her first impression from the photo – “it is, to me, a terrible photo,” she said – was that it was a negative ad. Until she read the copy. Later, she got a text from a friend saying they’d seen a similar message on social media.
All of it was marked as paid for by Private Property Rights PAC, a political action committee based in Dallas, Texas. More mailings came during the week.
The disclaimer says the mailers were “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”
Roush said she had no heads up about mailers. She said she received a call after she announced her campaign from someone who mentioned property rights and that their group planned to endorse her. Roush said she thought it might have been tied to support she’d received from the Builders Association of Greater Lafayette. But she said she didn’t get many details at the time and planned to follow up after the primary.
“I feel grateful, don’t get me wrong,” Roush said this week. “But it made me wonder, what in the world and where did that come from? … Why did they choose me? Where did they even get my information? I’m telling you, I know nothing.”
Messages sent to the Private Property Rights PAC weren’t immediately answered this week.
From the PAC’s site, it is “dedicated to defending the fundamental right to private property ownership, a cornerstone of personal freedom and economic prosperity. Our mission is to protect landowners from government overreach, burdensome regulations, and zoning restrictions that threaten their ability to control their property.”
Of its local campaign support, the site says: “Your contributions empower us to advocate for fair and transparent policies within city councils, zoning boards, and county commissions. We engage with local stakeholders, provide expert testimony, and help shape ordinances that respect property owners’ rights and encourage responsible growth.”
Private Property Rights PAC’s latest campaign finance report shows disbursements of more than $568,000 for printing and postage between April 1 and April 15 to the Iowa-based consulting firm Right Strategies for non-federal races, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Another $86,000 was reported from the PAC in digital media and text messages in non-federal campaigns. The report doesn’t break that down by individual candidates or issues, so it isn’t clear what other campaigns are part of the PAC’s interests and where Roush’s campaign fits in among them.
Recent press releases from the PAC show it has backed candidates in township races in Pennsylvania in 2025, board of supervisors races in Virginia in 2023 and fought legislation in South Carolina in 2026 that would have regulated short-term rentals such as those offered through Airbnb.
Questions about dark money have been at the center of several Indiana Senate races, including Indiana Senate District 23, where state Sen. Spencer Deery is fending off a challenge by fellow Republican Paula Copenhaver in a campaign fueled by retribution from White House allies over the Senate’s rejection of President Donald Trump’s call to redraw congressional district maps in Indiana. Deery estimates that between $2 million and $2.4 million has been aimed at his campaign by several Trump-aligned super PACs, in a race he’s frame as one about whether a local race should be controlled by national interests.
Seeing national super PAC money funnel into a county race in the past week raised eyebrows – particularly when the candidate says she was unaware of and mystified by the support.
James Waters is running against Roush for the Republican nomination to replace Tracy Brown as commissioner. He said he was confused by the mailers and had a tough time answering questions from people who asked about Roush’s support from Dallas.
“First I thought, well, maybe she just found a less expensive-type company to do this work,” Waters said.
“But then I got another one that said right on there, paid for by (Private Property Rights PAC) and everything. OK now, wait a minute, why would an interest group out of Texas be willing to pay for all these mailings from like a thousand miles away?” Waters said. “I’m not saying that she said yes or no to anything, but it had me pondering. Are they just hoping they get on her good side, so if she does win that she might show them favor when it comes time for voting on their issues? I don’t know, it just kind of smells.”
Roush said she was still trying to figure it out.
“People have asked me,” Roush said. “I just don’t know what to tell them.”
The winner of the May 5 primary between Roush and Waters will face the winner of a Democratic contest in District 1 between Andrea Burniske, Travis Dowell, Justin Kendall and AR Lane.
ON TURNOUT: COUNTY GOP CHAIR TAKES STOCK
Earlier in the week, Ken Jones, Tippecanoe County Democratic Party chairman, took a stab at why the party’s early voting was up four-fold since the 2022 primary and more than double what it was at this point in the 2024 presidential year primary. His assessment: The number of races on the ballot. “I get the criticisms, well, Democrats never put anyone up and we don’t have a choice. Oh, we gave you a choice,” Jones said.
The numbers are way up for Republican ballots pulled, too – more than double from the last midterm primary in 2022.
Tracy Brown, the county GOP chairman, noted similar trend, saying that he’d “never seen people engaged at a level like this before.”
“I don’t know if it’s the 24-hour news cycle, with just so much out there about politics and policy,” Brown, currently in his final year as a Tippecanoe County commissioner, said. “Just look back over just the last year and look at the things that the commissioners have been involved in. We had the debate over the LEAP (pipeline) project, the solar project and a lot of other things that got people out. We’ve said for years we want people showing up and we want their input so that we can use that to come up with policy. And, wow, they’re coming out in droves. I think they also understand that local elected officials are the ones that really impact local policy and impact local lives. Don’t get me wrong, what goes on at the national stage or the statewide stage does, as well. But I think there’s kind of been an awakening to the importance of these local offices.”
Brown said that seems to be projecting forward, too: “We’re not even through the primary for 2026 and we’ve already got people talking about the municipal races coming up next year.”
Navigating some intense local Republican primary races – including tests of President Donald Trump’s influence (see: presidential endorsements in Indiana Senate Districts 22 and 23); state Rep. Craig Haggard challenging U.S. Rep. Jim Baird in U.S. House 4th District; on down to a contest for the nomination for county clerk – what challenges does he see come May 6, after results are out?
“It’s just part of the process,” Brown said. “People pour not just their time but their entire lives into a campaign. Our expectations are that once the campaign is over and we have our we have our nominees from the primary, then everybody who ran, win or lose, has a duty to pull things together. Because ultimately, our goal is to elect Republicans in the fall.”
OTHER READS …
The national takes on local races continued in Indiana Senate District 23, where the New York Times had a piece sizing up the Republican primary between state Sen. Spencer Deery, a first-term senator from West Lafayette, and Paula Copenhaver, a Trump-backed candidate from Fountain County. The scene from Rockville, on the other side of the sprawling Senate District 23: “Indiana Republicans Defied Trump. Will Voters Punish Them for It? The election on Tuesday will test the influence of President Trump, who endorsed challengers to Republican state senators who scuttled his push to redraw political maps.”
The New York Times also looked at the broader play Trump has made in Indiana and in primary races in other states: “Trump’s Push for Electoral Retribution Heads to the Ballot Box. The president’s push to punish political enemies in his own party will play a starring role in a series of Republican primaries this month in which he has backed challengers.”
And here’s a look at that race, via a BiL edition Saturday: The Trump-fueled revenge campaign in Indiana Senate District 23, already expected to rack up campaign spending equaling hundreds of dollars for every vote cast in the sprawling district, continues to bloat in the final push to the May 5 primary.
ABOUT THE PRIMARY
Final day of early voting: The cutoff for early voting is 8 a.m.-noon Monday, May 4, at the Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette.
Election Day vote centers: Voting on Tuesday, May 5, will be 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Registered voters in Tippecanoe County may choose any of these sites.
Lafayette
Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, 1406 Teal Road
Lafayette Community Church of the Nazarene, 3801 Union St
The Grove Covenant Church, 3600 S. Ninth St.
Tippecanoe County Historical Association History Center, 522 Columbia St.
Wea Ridge Baptist Church, 1051 E. County Road 430 South
Eastside Assembly of God, 6121 E. County Road 50 South
Northend Community Center, 2000 Elmwood Ave.
West Lafayette
Faith West Community Center, 1920 Northwestern Ave.
Córdova Recreation Center, 355 N. Martin Jischke Drive
Connection Point Church, 2541 Cumberland Ave.
John Dennis Wellness Center, 1101 Kalberer Road
Outside Lafayette/West Lafayette
Shadeland Town Hall, 2485 Indiana 25 West, Shadeland
Tippecanoe Township Volunteer Fire Station No. 2, 448 W. County Road 650 North, West Lafayette
Dayton Gathering Point Church, 7201 Wesleyan Drive, Dayton
Battle Ground Fire Station, 112 North St., Battle Ground
How to check who is on your ballot: A good way to check – and then line everything up against the candidate Q&As below – is through the Indiana Secretary of State’s portal at www.indianavoters.com. There, you can check who will be on your ballot, based on your address and whether you plan to ask for a Republican or Democratic ballot. For a look at all candidates on Tippecanoe County primary ballots, including those for township trustee, township boards and state delegates, here are links to Democratic candidates and Republican candidates.
Candidate Q&As: Find Q&As in contested races in Tippecanoe County in this edition of BiL.
Thanks, again, for support edition from ATLYS. ATLYS, featuring Lafayette native violinist Jinty McTavish, will play May 13 at The Arts Federation. Get tickets and more details here.
Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
James Waters supported some lousy ideas in a surprisingly recent race he lost badly in Southern California (!). Meanwhile, Julie Roush was busy brushing back election deniers here. If you like me are furtively pulling an R ballot to help Spencer Deery fight against the malignity oozing from MAGA, be sure to remember Ms Roush. She is much less likely to buy an RV, if you get my drift.