Ethan Hatcher on His Experience w/ Indiana GOP Convention

**Nigel** (0:07)
Hello, my name is Nigel, Jason Hammer is back from vacation with a very special in-studio guest.

**Jason Hammer** (0:15)
One of the awesome folks that pinched Hit For Me When I Was Gone, Ethan Hatcher, host of Saturday Night on the Circle. Hey, Ethan.

**Ethan Hatcher** (0:26)
I'm very disappointed. I'm very disappointed. I'm very disappointed. We're going to have a Republican convention, but otherwise, we are off and running to another work week, working on the properties and getting the landlording stuff done.

**Jason Hammer** (0:36)
Sound like Crystal Hammer after a night of lovemaking. I'm very disappointed, I'm very frustrated, but we move on. All right, so walk me through what exactly happened, because you were a delegate. You were an elected delegate to go to the convention, but yet something happened. What happened?

**Ethan Hatcher** (0:59)
I'm elected.
I proceed to go to the Convention on the first day of the Convention Friday. I get there, you know, about 434, 45 thereabouts, go to the check-in counter, and I'm not in there. I'm not in the register. They're looking for a name. They're looking for like a signature comparison, and I'm not in the register. And so we start, you know, communicating with the state officials, and you didn't pay your delegate fee on time. And I said there was a deadline for that because I paid the delegate fee. It says nothing about this, any kind of deadline on the official party website. The only communication that I got.

**Jason Hammer** (1:38)
So they got their money.

**Ethan Hatcher** (1:39)
Yeah.

**Jason Hammer** (1:39)
It just wasn't in time.

**Ethan Hatcher** (1:41)
Correct.

**Jason Hammer** (1:41)
So did they refund your money then?

**Ethan Hatcher** (1:44)
I haven't been refunded yet. I'm told I just need to, you know, call the downtown office. But the number that called me on election day to inform me that there was a delegate fee, but they didn't tell me you had to pay it within seven days of your election or else your county chair could swap your ass out and replace you with somebody else, which that's another story. This is Natalie Goodwin, the local Marion County GOP chair for my district, and she swapped me out evidently with herself. I'm not sure I haven't seen specifically who she swapped me out with, but then she didn't even attend the convention.

**Nigel** (2:18)
Why do I know that name?

**Jason Hammer** (2:19)
Because she's the does nothing head of the Marion County GOP. Like Ethan's hat, which is sitting here with a feather in it, has done more for the voters of Marion County than Natalie Goodwin has.

**Ethan Hatcher** (2:32)
Literally, because she didn't even bother to run anybody in our district. Like the primary ballot was basically barren here in Marion County.

**Jason Hammer** (2:40)
I'm a Marion County resident, and don't threaten me with a good time.

**Ethan Hatcher** (2:44)
So it would have been more strategically beneficial for you and I to participate in the Democrat primary because we would have had more of a voice, more of a say in our local elected representation than voting in the Marion County Republican primary. But you have to do it. You have to vote in your Republican primary because if you don't, you could be a Republican not in good standing and then be precluded from running in any election, which 86% of the state is because of screwy rules like this that are designed by the insiders to keep the outsiders out and allow them to rig the system in their favor.

**Jason Hammer** (3:23)
And I hear what you're saying. I'm just going to be devil's advocate here, though. When you decided to run as a delegate, it's on you to learn all the rules, is it not?

**Ethan Hatcher** (3:32)
It's 100% my fault, man. At the end of the day, yeah, I got nobody to blame but myself. It was the position I ran for. I wish I would have gotten more communication as a first time person who has ever ran for a position like this and more support.

**Jason Hammer** (3:47)
Like in other cities, other counties, like does the county chair reach out to the delegates and say, hey, reminder, your fees are due.

**Ethan Hatcher** (3:55)
Yes, this happens in other in other, you know, districts across Indiana. And I was far from the only delegate that this happened to in this cycle.

**Nigel** (4:03)
Oh, OK.

**Ethan Hatcher** (4:04)
It's part of. Oh, yeah. There were there were dozens of people who also got kicked for similar reasons.

**Nigel** (4:09)
How much is the money? How much is it?

**Ethan Hatcher** (4:10)
It's one hundred and one hundred and fifty bucks, which I was staring down the barrel of a four thousand dollar plus balance of a property tax bill at the beginning of May. So, you know, I'm sorry that I wasn't enthusiastic to throw down another one hundred and fifty bucks right at that particular moment in time. I didn't know it was only a seven day deadline.