Mike Wolanin | The Republic Attorney Ross Thomas makes his arguments in his lawsuit against Joseph Jay Foyst and the Bartholomew County Election Board at the Bartholomew County Courthouse in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ind. — The next hearing for a pending lawsuit regarding a candidate for city council will be held Wednesday in Johnson County.
An evidentiary hearing is planned at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 25 for a half-day for Bartholomew County Democratic Party Chairman Ross Thomas’s lawsuit against Joseph Jay Foyst and the Bartholomew County election board. Thomas seeks to have Foyst, the Republican candidate for Columbus City Council District 6, removed from the ballot.
The venue for the hearing is still to be determined, but it will be held somewhere in Johnson County to accommodate Thomas, who is representing a client at a federal jury trial in Franklin. Nov. 1 has been reserved as a back-up date.
Foyst was initially selected as the Bartholomew County Republican Party’s nominee during a party caucus in July. The caucus was convened after no Republican filed to run for the office in the party’s May primary, leaving a vacancy in the Nov. 7 general election.
Thomas filed a formal challenge against Foyst, arguing that his candidacy was invalid because the GOP had failed to file its notice for a party caucus with the clerk’s office by the required deadline.
The election board upheld the challenge in August, but the Republican Party decided to hold another caucus and selected Foyst once again to fill the vacancy, pointing to a section in the Indiana Code that allows parties to fill a vacancy within 30 days under certain circumstances.
Thomas attempted to challenge Foyst’s candidacy again, but his request was denied by Bartholomew County Clerk Shari Lentz because the deadline had passed to file a challenge, prompting Thomas to file the lawsuit.
The outcome of the legal fight could determine which party wins the new District 6 council seat. If Thomas wins the lawsuit, Democratic nominee Bryan Munoz would have no opponent in the general election. And depending on how long the case continues during early voting, people could wind up casting votes for a candidate who may later be ruled ineligible.
Oct. 16 marked the first day of early in-person voting for the municipal election.
The pre-trial conference in the law suit took place that afternoon. At the conclusion, Special Judge K. Mark Loyd requested that Thomas provide legal points of authority for some of his arguments. He also requested materials from the defendants regarding the GOP’s second caucus in August.
Thomas filed his response to the defendants’ motion to dismiss and Loyd’s request on Thursday.
Loyd has said that he hopes to bring the trial to an end prior to Election Day.
