Indiana Republican Party State Chairman Eric Holcomb is leaving his post next month after more than two years in the job.According to a campaign finance report, the Indiana Republican State Committee spent a small amount of money to boost Democratic U.S. Senator-elect Joe Donnelly.
The committee filed an October report with the Federal Election Commission stating it paid $26.55 to GoDaddy.com for a “Website Against Joe Donnelly.” But in the section where the committee must designate whether it supports or opposes the candidate in question, an X has been placed in the “support” box.
Pete Seat, communications director for the state Republican Party, said in an email the expenditure went for the creation of the website WrongTrackJoe.com, which “is clearly not favorable” to Rep. Donnelly, D-2nd.
Donnelly defeated Republican state Treasurer Richard Mourdock in the Nov. 6 election.
The check-off mistake made its way to data gathered by the Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that advocates for transparency in government. Its website lists the Indiana Republican State Committee as being among independent groups that supported Donnelly.
The same list also shows that the the committee spent $9,113 in support of Mourdock.
Jacob Fenton, editorial engineer for the Sunlight Foundation, said small errors in campaign finance reports “are fairly numerous” but it is the responsibility of political committees and candidates to correct them.
