Politics panel says Morales, Engling are frontrunners INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Candidates for secretary of state said they would prioritize election security and cracking down on shell companies. Current secretary of state Di ego Morales is running for a second term. He faces three challengers: Knox County Clerk David Shelton, conservative activist and 2024 governor candidate Jamie Reiteonour, and Max Engling, a longtime aide to Sen. Jim Banks. Morales has faced extensive criticism during his tenure for buying a luxury SUV with state funds, hiring relatives, handing out large spot bonuses to staff and taking numerous overseas trips while claiming they were for economic development, which is not in the secretary of state’s purview. News 8 invited all four candidates to appear on “All INdiana Politics” ahead of the Indiana Republican Party convention on June 20. Engling and Reitenour accepted. Morales did not return multiple requests. Shelton turned down the invitation. Max Engling Engling said he entered the race at the urging of Republican delegates who told him they were becoming concerned about the ability to field a candidate who can win in November, especially in the event Beau Bayh won the Democratic nomination, which turned out to be the case. “It wasn’t folks in leadership coming to me to say, hey, we have to have you,” he said. “It was the delegates at the grassroots level saying, ‘We need another option. We have to win in the fall. We’re not willing to let our elections and the secretary of state’s office fall to the Left.'” Engling said he would do more to prevent noncitizens from voting. Federal law has long prohibited noncitizens from voting, but Engling said he wants to see more preventative enforcement at the application level, such as requiring driver’s licenses to indicate if a person is a legal noncitizen, such as a lawful permanent resident. Engling also said he strongly supports paper audit trails for voting equipment, which are already required by state law. Beyond the voting issue, Engling said he would crack down on trucking companies that create multiple shell companies in order to avoid scrutiny. He said it’s not unusual for truck companies with abnormally high numbers of violations to have several shell companies. As the state’s chief business licensing officer, Engling said he would screen carefully for shell companies and forward suspicious ones to prosecutors or the attorney general for further review. Jamie Reitenour This is Reitenour’s second attempt at statewide office, following her bid in the Republican primary for governor two years ago. She said she entered the race because she believed the office is a good fit for her background as a compliance officer and because she wants to return Indiana’s elections to the way they were run as originally envisioned by the framers of the 1851 state constitution. Reitenour said she would end early voting under most circumstances and require all elections to use hand-marked paper ballots, with results tabulated by hand. She errors can be prevented by having multiple people checking every count. “When it comes to just the early voting window that we opened, we lean back on the constitution and say, it’s supposed to be on one day. It’s supposed to be a priority on one day where everybody in the state of Indiana is participating. It drives that momentum,” she said. Reitenour said she, too, would look into the problem of shell trucking companies. Although the office’s power is limited, she said she wants to improve transparency in the licensing process and work with longtime office employees to address the issues they see at the ground level. Reading the tea leaves Two members of Indiana’s best political team said Engling and Morales are the favorites going into the convention. Hamilton County Republican Party Chair and “All INdiana Politics” contributor Mario Massillamany said Morales has deep connections to the delegates and remains on good terms with many of them. He said he expects at least 2-3 rounds of voting by the delegates before the party has a nominee. He said results will become extremely unpredictable after the first round because at that point, the lowest vote getter is eliminated and delegates can vote for whomever they want. Democratic strategist and “All INdiana Politics” contributor Lindsay Haake said she, too, thinks Engling and Morales are the candidates to beat. Haake, who has served as a Democratic Party delegate in the past, said delegate math can change minute-to-minute in a convention setting. She said the candidate with the best chance against Democrat Beau Bayh in November might ultimately be whoever can match his fundraising. The Indiana Republican Party convention takes place on Saturday, June 20 in Fort Wayne. “All INdiana Politics” airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV. ...read more read less