The battle for the heart and soul of the local Democratic Party

Will the chairwoman be 'wise enough to pursue an agenda to unite the party'?

The local Democratic Party has been beset by conflict, corruption and election losses. Photo by Seth Slabaugh

MUNCIE — Reform candidates scored a large number of victories in a battle for control of Delaware County’s troubled Democratic Party on Primary Election Day two months ago.

By their count, 31 reformers won election to the grassroots position of precinct committeeperson — a significant number of seats but short of a majority.

(Go to the bottom of this article to see a complete list of the winners, losers and uncontested races in all 78 precincts).

“I hope the leadership is wise enough to purse an agenda that unifies the party,” beset by conflict, corruption, and election losses, one newly elected committeeman said.

Attorney Ana M. Quirk-Hunter, the party’s chairwoman, got through her own precinct committee race, defeating challenger Scott R. Popplewell, a retired Ball State University faculty member, 57-43.

Quirk-Hunter also succeeded in getting some reform candidates kicked off the ballot, including a BSU professor who had filed to run for committeeperson against Jerry Dishman, the party’s vice chairman and a member of city council. (More on that clash later in this story).

Other party insiders winning election as precinct committeeperson included ex-party Chairman Allie V. Craycraft Jr., a former state senator; Eric Hoffman, the county prosecutor; city councilman Roger Overbey, and Marilyn Kay Walker, the Center Township trustee.

Among those defeated by reform candidates were Diane M. Frye, semi-retired deputy prosecutor; Louis Denney, a deputy prosecutor; Quirk-Hunter’s brother Michael, a former Democratic party chairman and a suspended attorney who was arrested before the May 3 primary on charges including public intoxication and battery on a minor; and committeeman “Jersey” Joe Greer, a retired firefighter.

“I took Craig Nichols’ place (as committeeman) down here on the south side,” Greer told me. “The party put me in.”

Nichols, a former city building commissioner, was one of nine defendants convicted after an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of “systemic corruption” of municipal public works projects, including bid rigging, in Muncie.

Nichols’ father, Phil, a former city councilman, chaired the local Democratic Party in the 1990s, after which he continued to maintain a private office at party headquarters and exert influence and control over multiple public officials, according to the federal investigation, known as “Operation Public Trust.” Charged with wire fraud, witness tampering and other offenses, Phil Nichols awaits sentencing.

Former Mayor Dennis Tyler, a confidant of Phil Nichols (the two longtime friends served together on the fire department), also once served as chairman of the Democratic Party.

Tyler recently was freed after serving less than half of a 12-month sentence for his plea of guilty to theft of government funds — accepting $5,000 in cash in exchange for steering work to a local contractor who charged more than an honest competitor.

“I don’t look for the Democrats to win anything for a long time,” said Greer, who attributed his defeat by one vote (25-24) to health issues (he suffered two strokes the month before the election).

In the wake of the corruption indictments, Democrats in 2019 lost control of city council for the first time in 40 years. Republicans also rule the mayor’s office, county council and the board of county commissioners.

“Supposedly it has to do with how Phil was, and the past,” Greer said of the campaign by reformers to take control of the Democratic organization. “He got a lot of people beat. But we’ve got to keep a good party chairman, and Ana’s a good person.”

Greer has been friends with Tyler for nearly 70 years. “When I was in the nursing home after my strokes I got a call from him,” Greer recalled. “All of the problems he’s got — and he’s worried about me.”

The Quirk family law firm represented city hall when Tyler served as mayor (2012-2019). Attorneys Jack, Megan and John Quirk submitted character-reference letters to the federal judge on Tyler’s behalf before he was sentenced, but Ana Quirk-Hunter refrained from doing so.

Greer noted that another retired firefighter, Richard Huff, won election as precinct committeeman over reform candidate Ari Hurwitz by only two votes, 19-17.

Another retired firefighter, Stephen Bryant, lost his race for committeeman in a northwest precinct.

Bryant lost 70-10 to David Williams, chairman of Team Democrat PAC, president of the Robinwood Neighborhood Organization, and retired director of the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities on the BSU campus.

The state Democratic Party calls the position of precinct committeeperson “the heart, soul and strength of this party.” The party depends on them to register voters, to get voters to vote, to obtain petition signatures for candidates, to display yard signs, to hand out literature during door-to-door canvassing, and to vote in a party caucus to fill a ballot or office vacancy.

Committeepersons also elect the local party chair and other party officers, but the party’s next reorganization convention isn’t scheduled until 2025.

The New Democratic Coalition of Delaware County is an umbrella group coordinating the efforts of Democratic groups — including Muncie Resists and Team Democrat PAC — seeking to reform the official local party. Before COVID-19, local Stonewall Democrats, Labor Democrats and other groups were thinking about organizing here to reflect the different caucuses within the state party, Williams said.

The reform coalition was unable to recruit someone to run for committeeman in every precinct. By the coalition’s count, reform candidates won 23 out of 28 contested races. Reformers also won eight seats where they had no opponents. Party candidates won five contested races, 20 races where they lacked opponents, and five races where a reform opponent was removed from the ballot. Three uncontested races were won by those whose affiliation is uncertain, and there were no candidates at all in 15 precincts. Quirk-Hunter gets to fill those 15 vacancies.

“The … election results were clearly a rejection of the status quo for the Delaware County Democratic Party,” Williams said via email.

He went on:

“I would hope an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality does not materialize. I think it is important to coalesce around issues of agreement the majority can support. This will require the leadership of the party to be more open to discussion and change than has been indicated in the past. But, I think many of the precinct committeepersons, regardless of their initial inclinations, recognize the need for some changes within the party and we should endeavor to identify these points of agreement and act upon them.

“I think it is important the leadership of the party recognize that if open discussions are not allowed within the framework of the party, then likeminded precinct committeepersons will likely meet separately and develop their own agenda. This will continue the split within the local Democratic Party and lead to more election losses. I hope the leadership is wise enough to purse an agenda that unifies the party.”

Reformer David Williams, no relation to Dave Williams-for-sheriff, won election as precinct committeeman.

Dishman, the vice chair of the local party and a city council member, ran uncontested for re-election as committeeman after Quirk-Hunter got his opponent, Jayne Beilke, booted from the ballot on a technicality. Reformers called that move, as well as the chairwoman’s removal of other reformers from the ballot, “a troublesome act of gatekeeping.” The removal process included litigation.

When Dishman, a longtime mechanic at PepsiCo, found out that Beilke was running, he met with her to explain the responsibilities of serving as a committeeperson, in part because a lot of reformers reportedly were politically inexperienced. Those tasks include knocking on doors and entering nursing homes. Dishman said he’s been bitten by dogs and had doors slammed in his face while canvassing neighborhoods.

“She’s a 76-year-old woman,” said Dishman, who’s a decade younger than Beilke. “I’ve got no problem with that but I told her you need to realize … you could catch COVID. She said she’d still love to do it. Come to find out, she didn’t know if she was running as a Democrat or a Republican.” Which led Quirk-Hunter to act. “We get fence jumpers all the time,” Dishman said.

“Ha!,” responded Beilke, a Ball State professor of multicultural education and social foundations of education. “Nice of Jerry to be concerned about my health, but he didn’t mention that when we met for lunch. He started out by saying that ‘he was not going to tell me not to run.’ He did tell me about the duties of the precinct committeeperson and that it was a lot of work … But he was mainly concerned that I might be a member of Muncie Resists, who were trying to ‘tear apart the party.’ I said that I was not and I was not at the time. I also said that my main interest in running was to get out the vote. That is my priority.

“As we left, he told me that Dennis Tyler wasn’t guilty — Tyler thought the 5k (bribe) was a campaign contribution. I said that the party had a few self-inflicted wounds.”

What led to Beilke’s dismissal from the ballot was not that she forgot whether she was a Democrat or a Republican but an apparent oversight that occurred in the 2020 primary election, when she says she cast a Democratic ballot.

During a primary election, the voter must select a party. In Delaware County, this is now done with an electronic poll book, but in the 2020 election, paper poll books were still being used to process voters. In a primary election, poll clerks are supposed to be sure that the voter has been given the proper ballot. For whatever reason, the poll clerk did not check either the Democratic or Republican box when Beilke voted in the 2020 primary, nor, obviously, did Beilke notice the oversight at the time.

(Records that I checked on in the voter registration office going back to 1996 reflect that Beilke has only voted in Democratic primaries, never a GOP primary, during that time).

Upholding Quirk-Hunter’s challenge of Beilke’s candidacy, the county election board decided that Beilke should have contacted Quirk-Hunter to authenticate her eligibility to run once she was challenged.

Beilke questioned how much walking Dishman has really done. “In asking my neighbors, no one seems to know who the committeeperson is or (what he) does,” she said. “In my 20-plus years on West Waid (Avenue) he has certainly never knocked on my door.”

Dishman responded: “ … I might’ve went to her door and she didn’t answer.”

Dishman denies discussing Muncie Resists with Beilke. “I don’t even pay attention to Muncie Resists … If they are not in the Democratic Party, I let it go. If they want to do something, they can come on the inside and do it … They ain’t going to make a difference on the outside looking in.”

Dishman acknowledges informing Beilke that he doesn’t think Tyler was guilty. “Everybody else got anywhere from 15 to 16 charges against them. He only had one charge,” Dishman said. “If it wasn’t a campaign contribution, then he deserves what he gets.”

As for the other defendants in “Operation Public Trust,” Dishman said, “I have condemned all that stuff and wish they had got more of a sentence than they got. I don’t condone any of that kind of crap, and I can honestly say they never asked me to do anything illegal for them and probably knew I wouldn’t.”

The bottom line for Dishman regarding Beilke is that he didn’t condone removing her from the ballot. “I hope she doesn’t think it was me that done that because it wasn’t me,” he said. The decision was Quirk-Hunter’s. “It shocked me when they challenged her,” Dishman continued. “She (Beilke) told me she was a strong Democrat.” Had she been allowed to run, and had she defeated him, Dishman would have helped her in any way he could, he told me.

Beilke’s research interests include the life of James Baker, a fugitive slave who briefly attended the multiracial Union Literary Institute in Randolph County. She also has studied the effects of the 1869 Indiana School Segregation Law on common schools in Indiana. She also has served as branch president of the Muncie NAACP and has been active with governance at the Muncie YWCA, the Friends of Conley, Inc., and the Muncie Boys & Girls Clubs.

Quirk-Hunter challenged the candidacies of more than a dozen reformers who filed for precinct committeeperson, though she later withdrew some of those challenges. She didn’t return telephone or email messages that I sent a month ago asking her to discuss the challenges.

But Quirk-Hunter did address the corruption issue in an e-mail exchange, saying:

“People who have been accused of criminal offenses and/or investigated by the FBI are no longer part of our organization. The Central Committee and I have all tried to turn the Democratic Party around. We are trying to change the culture of the Democratic Party here. We have tried to follow and enforce appropriate election statutes and campaign finance statutes to the best of our ability and we will continue to do so.  We will continue to monitor our party members and officials.

“We need to change and do better. However, the changes we are implementing will not happen overnight. I do not expect members of the public to automatically believe that we have turned things around. However, I do expect to be given the chance to show that the Delaware County Democratic Party is changing for the better.”

In addition to the loss of city hall and the county building, local Democrats experienced a “very low turnout” in their primary this year, Quirk-Hunter noted. For example, for U.S. Senate, the Delaware County results were:

• 5,413 Republicans voted to nominate Todd Young

• 3,119 Democrats voted to nominate Thomas McDermott Jr.

• (Turnout was less than 14% among Democratic and Republican voters combined, or 10,781 total votes out of 78,210 registered to vote).

“We are all Democrats and we all need to work together in order to get Democrats elected,” Quirk-Hunter told me. “I am not interested in continuing to divide Democrats into this faction or that faction. We need to cooperate with each other and treat each other with dignity and respect. We are not involved in an adversarial system. We need to present a united front towards the election coming up this year and in the future.”

In contrast to that statement, Quirk-Hunter’s challenges of candidacies during the primary created some ill will and resentment among reformers.

“Ms. Hunter said she was treating all (precinct committee) candidates the same,” said Sarah Vitale, chair of Muncie Resists. “This is peculiar because, upon inspection, the candidates she recruited had several errors on their forms as well. “

Five of them did not put “same” on the mailing address line; two did not write Delaware County at the top of the form; one had different dates on the signature and notary lines; one had no date on the signature line; and one wrote “Precinct Committee Person PCT 75” on the line for how they would like their name to appear on the ballot, according to Vitale.

Yet Quirk-Hunter did not challenge those candidates.

A Ball State associate professor of philosophy whose research focuses on Marx and post-Marxism, Vitale complained that the official local Democratic Party kept the role of precinct committeeperson as secret as possible before the election this year in an effort to maintain power. Vitale explained:

“They do not have a website where people can express interest, they held no events on running for the position. Chairperson Quirk-Hunter claimed at the election board meeting that people interested in running should have contacted her — she would have helped them with the process. At least two people I know reached out to her and received no response.”

The New Democratic Coalition, on the other hand, hosted four precinct information sessions, which were advertised publicly; sent postcards to the homes of Democrats throughout the county inviting them to attend, and wrote about one of its events in a letter to the editor, Vitale said.

The New Democratic Coalition recruited candidates for precinct committeeperson to reform the local party.

Lynn Greiner Thornburg, who lives in the historic East Central Neighborhood, is the widow of Jerry Thornburg — a blue-collar, local Democratic firebrand and former county auditor who kept a sign in his office that read: “Democrat born, Democrat bred, and when they bury me, I’ll be Democrat dead.”

The couple were identified in the 1980s as “dissident” Democrats. Jerry Thornburg ran against Phil Nichols for party chairman in 1989.

Now, Greiner Thornburg says she has been labeled as a regular party insider, though she calls herself a “Thornburg Democrat.” A precinct committeeperson off and on for 20 years or so, when she ran for the position again this year she lost.

“ … you can’t throw out all the old because the knowledge and savvy goes, too,” she told me. “The cause may be just, but unless there is a way to deliver it, it might be in vain. When we were dissidents in the late 80’s, we had seasoned veterans as well as new people. Have any of these people won campaigns, other than the committee races that aren’t really a public office?”

Greiner Thornburg lost 68-38 to Jason Donati, who comes from a family of local Democratic politicians and who works as the storm water/recycling educator for the Muncie Sanitary District. Donati has won election to the Muncie school board, and he ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner and chair of the local Democratic Party. He heads up the New Democratic Coalition of Delaware County.

“ … we've elected a lot of new faces and individuals that will bring a lot of new ideas and energy to the local party and its future,” Donati told me. “In my opinion, we've done what the chair should have done to be more welcoming and out there recruiting new people to participate.

“In order to root out corruption and unethical practices, we have to look at the very foundations of the local party and seek everyone's input, feedback and ideas. Only time will tell how this may unfold but we are well-organized, energized and ready to make a change. Many of us are tired of seeing election losses, candidates not running and a party that doesn't reflect our community and the values of the state and national party.”

(In this year’s Delaware County primary, no Democratic candidates ran for county auditor, recorder or district three county commissioner).

Where does the party go from here?

“Our next step,” Quirk-Hunter told me, “is to continue the good work and progress that we have made with our central committee in changing the attitude, culture, and reputation of our local party. 

“We are interested in including many people in our organization. We are interested in attracting good people as candidates for public office. We want to encourage new candidates to run for office as well. 

“We want to promote our Democratic Party candidates for this election and in the following elections. We believe that the best candidates for our community are those that promote and espouse the principles of the Democratic Party.”

David Williams, the newly elected committeeman in precinct 50 and chair of the reform group Team Democrat PAC, had this to say about the party’s direction:

“ … coming to an agreement as to the needed changes in the party is the most important next step. Preliminary to this, however, is developing the means of communication among the committeepersons to facilitate this agreement …

“Hopefully, the leadership will find it in their best interest to allow for open discussion about the ‘state of the party.’ This could reinvigorate a seemingly moribund party.”

Some changes should be non-controversial, he went on, such as creating a website promoting Democratic values and candidates as well as keeping the public aware of the party’s actions; and redevelopment of the party’s Facebook page (629 followers, compared to the local GOP’s page with 1.8k followers).

Other reforms that Williams would suggest might be more contentious, such as the
development of a code of conduct/ethics with enforcement mechanisms.

But “if we are to regain the trust of the public, we must demonstrate the party stands for the highest ethical standards and conduct,” Williams said.

Precinct committeeperson election results

Here are the results from the May 3 primary election for Democratic precinct committeeperson, including the precinct polling location (names in bold are reform-backed candidates):

Precinct 1, Gillespie Tower, 701 W. Jackson St. — Nicole Rudnicki defeated Shane Weatherly, 70-53.

Precinct 2, Lutheran Church, 4401 N. Wheeling Ave. — Linda Gregory defeated Phil Boltz and Linda Quirk, 33-17-25, respectively.

Precinct 3, Westminster Presbyterian, 2801 W. Riverside Ave. — Sarah Vitale uncontested

Precinct 4, The Haven, 3701 N. Marleon Drive — No race

Precinct 5, TRC Head-Start, 3900 E. Wysor Road — No race

Precinct 6, Holy Trinity, 900 W. White River Boulevard — Mike White uncontested (Heather Williams removed from ballot)

Precinct 7, County Fairgrounds — No race

Precinct 8, Oakwood Building, 2501 N. Oakwood Ave. — No race

Precinct 9, Southside Middle School — Mark Kinman defeated Joe Greer, 25-24.

Precinct 10, Oakwood Building — Nora Powell defeated Jean Marie Place and Maricel Driscoll, 13-11-4, respectively.

Precinct 11, Riverview Church, 2608 E. Willard St. — Jason Donati defeated Lynn Greiner Thornburg, 68-38.

Precinct 12, Buley Center, 1111 N. Penn St. — Yvonne Thompson defeated Wayne A. Scaife, Sr., 61-44.

Precinct 13, South View Elementary — Cory Matters defeated Stan Hellis, 27-18.

Precinct 14, Senior Center, 2517 W. Eighth St. — Brandon Garrett uncontested

Precinct 15, Ross Center, 1110 W. Tenth St. — David Foreman defeated Audie Barber, 28-23.

Precinct 18, Longfellow School — Monte Murphy uncontested

Precinct 19, Boys & Girls Clubs, 1710 S. Madison St. — Linda Raines uncontested

Precinct 20, Price Hall, 704 S. Madison St. — Kathy Carey uncontested

Precinct 22, Southside Middle School — Linda Templin uncontested

Precinct 23, Senior Center, 2517 W. Eighth St. — Vicki Woodson uncontested

Precinct 25, First Presbyterian, 1400 W. Riverside Ave. — Billie Sheppard uncontested (Molly Robertson removed from ballot)

Precinct 26, First Presbyterian, 1400 W. Riverside Ave. — Andrew Dale defeated Diane M. Frye, 40-17.

Precinct 27, County Fairgrounds — Dominic Bordenaro uncontested

Precinct 28, Riverview Church, 2608 E. Willard St. — Ralf Coykendall uncontested (Carol Bradshaw removed from ballot)

Precinct 29, Mansfield Park — Richard Lorrison uncontested

Precinct 33, First Brethren, 101 S. Morrison Road — Cameron Grubbs defeated Mike Miller, 68-43.

Precinct 34, Westminster Presbyterian, 2801 W. Riverside Ave. — Tania Said defeated Lou Denney, 89-8.

Precinct 35, North View Elementary — Jerry Dishman uncontested (Jayne Beilke removed from ballot)

Precinct 36, Northside Church, 1505 N. Tillotson Ave. — Ana Quirk Hunter defeated Scott Popplewell, 57-43.

Precinct 38, West View Elementary — Jennifer Rice-Snow defeated James Lutton, 57-23.

Precinct 39, Union Chapel, 4622 N. Broadway — Jonathan Serf uncontested

Precinct 40, North View Elementary — Courtney Jarrett defeated Lessia Meer, 39-27.

Precinct 41, Mansfield Park — Rick Edmundson defeated Michael Brand and Matthew Rhodes, 17-9-2, respectively.

Precinct 42, The Haven, 3701 N. Marleon Drive — Rob Ferguson uncontested

Precinct 43, Union Chapel, 4622 N. Broadway — No race

Precinct 44, Southside Nazarene, 3500 W. Fuson Road — Timothy Humbert uncontested

13-0.fPrecinct 45, Halteman Baptist, 4100 N. Oakwood Ave. — Betsy Fitzgerald defeated Penny Vore, 42-31.

Precinct 46, TRC Head-Start, 3900 E. Wysor Road — Marilyn Kay Walker uncontested

Precinct 47, Halteman Baptist, 4100 N. Oakwood Ave. — Michael Mayfield uncontested

Precinct 48, Union Chapel, 4622 N. Broadway — Roger Overbey uncontested

Precinct 49, Lutheran Church, 4401 N. Wheeling Ave. — Kirsten Smith defeated Michael Quirk, 13-0.

Precinct 50, Northside Church, 1505 N. Tillotson Ave. —David Williams defeated Stephen Bryant, 70-10.

Precinct 51, Daleville — No race (Jesse Landess removed from ballot)

Precinct 52, Daleville — No race

Precinct 53, Yorktown — Gary Campbell uncontested

Precinct 54, Yorktown — Melanie Wright uncontested

Precinct 55, Yorktown — Missy Hathaway defeated Kevin Purrone, 44-5.

Precinct 56, Gaston —Eric Hoffman uncontested

Precinct 57, Gaston — Traci Pittenger defeated Sharon Hines, 34-25.

Precinct 58, University Church, 2400 N. Nebo Road — No race

Precinct 59, Liberty Baptist, 9601 S. Cowan Road — No race

Precinct 60, Hamilton Township Fire Department — Richard Huff defeated Ari Hurwitz, 19-17.

Precinct 61, Eaton — Romanelle Marine uncontested

Precinct 62, Selma —No race

Precinct 63, Del Co Highway Garage, E. Jackson St. — Allie Craycraft uncontested

Precinct 64, Del Co Highway Garage — Julie Snider defeated David Markley, 31-14.

Precinct 65, DeSoto church — Jacob Dunnuck uncontested

Precinct 66, Albany — Randall Dunnuck defeated Brock Reagan, 30-16.

Precinct 67, Albany — Scott Hahn uncontested (Gretchen Binney removed from ballot)

Precinct 68, Albany — Cathy Cunningham uncontested

Precinct 69, Hamilton Township Fire — Mitch Isaacs defeated Bret Granger, 20-7.

Precinct 70, People of Praise, Kevin Nolan uncontested

Precinct 71, Yorktown — Pam Taylor defeated Chris Matchett, 32-16.

Precinct 73, Liberty Baptist, 9601 S. Cowan Road — No race

Precinct 74, University Church, 2400 N. Nebo —Katie Williams defeated John Hampton, 48-47.

Precinct 75, Del Co Highway Garage — Charles Spencer uncontested

Precinct 77, Eaton Kelsey Timmerman defeated Jerry Evans, 23-18.

Precinct 78, Gaston — Jack Neal (Beckie Adams removed from ballot)

Precinct 81, Missionary Church, 5601 W. Jackson St. —No race

Precinct 87, New Life Church, 8000 W. River Road — John Anderson uncontested

Precinct 88, Yorktown — Ralph Dowling uncontested

Precinct 90, Eden Church, 11205 N. Ind. 3 — Joe Orick uncontested

Precinct 91, Eden Church — Teresa Welsh uncontested

Precinct 92, St. Andrews Church, 2700 W. Moore Road — No race

Precinct 93, St. Andrews Church —No race

Precinct 94, Daleville — Marcus Scott uncontested

Precinct 95, New Life Church, 8000 W. River Road — Annette Craycraft uncontested

Precinct 98, Missionary Church, 5601 W. Jackson St. — Peggy Lewis defeated Mark Hill, 35-18.