Ex-Pence aide seeks Indiana elections office that ousted him
Former Rick Scott campaign manager and top aide Joe Rademacher is asking Indiana officials to appoint him to a vacant seat on state Elections Board, hoping to replace the one that ousted him last month.
A request to fill the vacancy on the board, where Rademacher served as a volunteer between January and his firing, was made in a post on the group’s Facebook page, according to an aide to Rademacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of losing his job.
“It is with great sadness and frustration that I have to request that an appointed vacancy on the Indiana Election Board be created so the voters of the state of Indiana may have their voice heard,” the post said.
The post went on to say the appointed position would be filled by a Republican and that “the Republican Party of Indiana will be nominating Joe for election as a state employee in the open position, effective March 1, 2017”.
Rademacher was fired last month after state law enforcement officials opened an investigation into his campaign’s spending. Investigators said campaign officials in that year’s Republican primary spent $100,000 on a TV ad campaign in his race against Democrat Ron Kind.
The post has since been deleted. However, it had already received more than 3,500 shares when it was published on June 6.
Rademacher, who was the campaign manager for Gov. Scott in 2012, became a staffer on the governor’s campaign in 2012 and then worked in both the campaign and Scott’s office.
He has had a number of campaigns before, including in 2008, when he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohio. He also ran for state treasurer in Ohio in 2010.
Scott spokesman Brian Burghart praised Rademacher for stepping down, saying he “continues to serve in his capacity as an unpaid volunteer adviser.”
The former campaign manager joins several other former Scott aides to seek a seat on the Elections Board. Among them is former chief of staff Charlie Baker, who was fired