Mayor Wayne Seybold (R-Marion) is the first candidate to officially announce a run for the open Indiana State Treasurer position. With current Treasurer Richard Mourdock stepping down due to term limits, the race in 2014 is wide open.
Seybold is serving his third term as mayor and was a city councilman in Marion prior to 2003. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Indiana’s 5th District last year.
Seybold says he will use his experience in city government to connect the State Treasurer’s office to the local level.
“Not only to invest the money and invest it wisely, which is the most important thing in the Treasurer’s office," he says, "but to use these other tools to strengthen local government, then we can make the state of Indiana move from good to great.”
Seybold says those tools include state programs such as the Bond Bank and college savings plans that can strengthen local infrastructure and investment. He says that will help local governments survive economic downturns in the future.
In a statement, Indiana Democratic Party chair John Zody said his party is looking for a Treasurer candidate that won’t use the position only as a springboard for higher office. He also attacked Seybold’s failed Congressional run and charged that the Marion mayor ran his city’s finances into the ground.