Former Republican Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard recently announced plans to run for Indiana Secretary of State. While he plans to run as an independent, he will also run under the banner of the newly named "Lincoln Party" in November.
WFYI's Barb Anguiano sat down with Laura Merrifield Wilson, an associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis, to discuss the move and what it tells us about Indiana's political landscape.
This transcript has been edited for style and clarity.
Barb Anguiano: Let's start with the basics. What's the difference between Ballard running as an independent and him running under the Lincoln party?
Laura Merrifield Wilson: Yeah, for Ballard to run as a party member, even with this newly created Lincoln party, it's treated differently under state election law?
And so it allows him to have a party title underneath him, and he still is required, since it's a third party candidacy, to have the 37,000 signatures in order to get himself on the ballot, but it allows him to be a partisan affiliate, if that makes sense, versus being truly independent, so he wouldn't be as visible on the ballot for folks.
And I think doing this was very intentional for Ballard, even the name, I know he's talked about this in several interviews, but for Greg Ballard, he sees himself as a Republican of the old age of Republicans of the party of Lincoln, and not nearly as ideologically extreme as some of the Republicans that are affiliated with the party.
Anguiano: Now, what's been the overall response to the Lincoln party?
Wilson: Well, it's been mixed. On one hand, there have been several like, heavily partisan Republicans that come out and say, ‘No, you know, if he's running, he was a Republican. He doesn't want to run within our party, but he's supported the party in the past, and the party has supported him’, and I think that's to be expected.
But we've also seen pushback from Democrats. And for [Beau] Bayh's campaign, they see this as an opportunity for Ballard to probably cut in a little bit to some of the supporters they would have had, who were independent voters that just didn't want to support [Diego] Morales. But now see an opportunity or competition choice, if you will, between Ballard and Bayh.
Anguiano: What sort of factors need to be considered for the Lincoln party to be deemed a success or successful as far as parties go.
Wilson: One metric, the very simple success, is winning. It's the outright victory. And we are in a winner take all system. We don't have runoff elections in Indiana.
So simply, if Ballard were able to beat the other candidates on the ballot, I mean, that would obviously be a success, but I think there's a smaller, more subtle victory in gaining a substantial margin of voters, right? There's no automatic threshold.
I don't think there'd be anything guaranteed that people would say, ‘Oh, well, you know, you just need to get the 15% and 20%’ but if Ballard's able to attract a sizable number of voters that align with his candidacy, and they really resonate… they see the message that he's providing, and they like that.
I think if, even if, he were to lose in this race, but you see a number of voters that support his candidacy, that in and of itself, would be a victory, even if not Ballard taking over the office of secretary of state.
I mentioned margin, like if he was able to get a certain number of voters, quite frankly, if you see a large turnout because the same because the secretary of state's race is the top of ballot for Indiana, this is the big draw of a race, and in part because of Ballard's entry, it's a very exciting race for voters.
But I think if you see an increase in terms of voter turnout, if you see Ballard and his candidacy able to capture a significant percentage of voters. All of those would be indicators, regardless of the outcome of a success for the Lincoln party and probably for independent candidacies, right prospective candidates looking to run as independent in the future.
Anguiano: So let's say the Lincoln party is a success. Ballard gets the 37,000 signatures. How likely are candidates to follow his lead and run under the Lincoln party label.
Wilson: I think candidates will be very interested, and it's going to be the right candidate. Party resources are important in an election cycle, so if you're running the independent route or the Lincoln party route, it is not the same as running as a Democrat or Republican.
You don't have access to the same network, infrastructure, fundraising capabilities, different things that you benefit from if you belong to one of the two major parties. And that said, there are likely many prospective candidates out there that do genuinely identify as independent and don't see a path forward for victory to serve in public office, if they have to pick one party or another.
Greg Ballard still needs to gather 37,000 signatures to appear on the ballot in November as an independent or under a minority party.
Contact WFYI Morning Edition newscaster and reporter Barbara Anguiano at banguiano@wfyi.org