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Lincoln Party secretary of state candidate Greg Ballard picked up a notable endorsement Monday from former Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann.
“I’ve always been about good governance, and that has to be the top priority, even above a party. It has to be about good people who will do the right thing for Hoosiers,” Ellspermann told the Capital Chronicle. “Greg is absolutely that candidate.”
The longtime Republican served from 2013 to 2016 under then-Gov. Mike Pence before resigning to become president of Ivy Tech Community College for about nine years. She now serves on multiple corporate boards and lives in southern Indiana.
Ballard is representing the fledgling Lincoln Party and faces three other opponents — Republican Max Engling, Democrat Beau Bayh and Libertarian Lauri Shillings.
Ellspermann called Ballard a “proven leader, a proven high integrity public servant who made an incredible positive impact in Indianapolis as a two-term Republican mayor, who successfully worked across the aisle in a nonpartisan manner to get important, good things done for the citizens of Indianapolis.”
And she said she still considers herself a Republican.
“I believe that we should all, in our parties, be trying to support the elevation of great candidates. I think the Democrats have work to do in ensuring strong candidates who will serve all Hoosiers are elevated to these very important positions, and I didn’t see that happening in the Republican Party,” Ellspermann said.
She acknowledged that she could have just quietly voted for Ballard but wanted to make her support public.
Ellspermann also broke with many top state Republicans last year when she spoke out last year against the proposed Indiana congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Donald Trump.
Ellspermann said she is confident Ballard will draw a strong following from central Indiana, where she believes he is well known and respected.
“However, there’s more of Indiana than central Indiana. I live in southern Indiana in a rural area. His name is not known across the state,” she said.
“And so my hope is that if Hoosiers trust me, understand that I put a high premium on supporting high integrity, highly qualified, great public servants, then I’m hopeful that if they haven’t made their mind up, they will give Greg Ballard a really good look and get on his website and see what he stands for,” she said. “Look into his record and understand what a great candidate he would be and a great secretary of state he would make.”
A letter to the editor on her endorsement is in the Ferdinand News.
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