Mike Wolanin | The Republic Columbus City Council District 6 candidate Joseph Jay Foyst, from left, his attorney George “Jay” Hoffman III, attorney Peter King, representing the Bartholomew County Election Board, and attorney Ross Thomas take part in a pretrial hearing for Ross Thomas’ lawsuit against Joseph Jay Foyst and the Bartholomew County Election Board at the Bartholomew County Courthouse in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.
An Indiana appeals court has ruled that Columbus City Council member Joseph “Jay” Foyst was not a valid candidate in the 2023 municipal election and directed a lower court to declare his opponent the winner of the election.
On Tuesday, an appellate panel unanimously ruled that “Foyst’s candidacy never existed in the eyes of the law” because the Bartholomew County Republican Party failed to “meet a statutory deadline for filling a vacancy on a general election ballot” last year.
The appellate judges sent the case back to a lower court with instructions to declare Bryan Muñoz, the Democratic nominee for the seat, as the winner of the 2023 election.
Foyst — who had been in office for 197 days as of Tuesday — and his attorneys have 45 days to decide whether they will appeal the decision to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Barring a successful appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court, the decision would give the Democrats a 5-4 majority on the Columbus City Council.
Bartholomew County Democratic Party Chair Ross Thomas, who filed challenges and a lawsuit and appeal against Foyst’s candidacy last year, said he was “happy with the outcome.”
“We’ve said all along (that) it’s really just about following the rules, and the rules aren’t arbitrary,” Thomas told The Republic on Tuesday. “They’re not just put in place just for the heck of it. …I think this was just a misunderstanding of the rules by the other party. …No ill-will toward Mr. Foyst. I think he’s a good man. Unfortunately, him and his party were a little fast and loose with the rules — I don’t think intentionally at all. But rules are rules.”
When asked about the decision and the prospect of joining the Columbus City Council, Muñoz told The Republic on Tuesday that he is “excited about what’s to come.”
“I’m very appreciative of our Democratic Party Chair Ross Thomas for his commitment to ensuring that the integrity of our elections (is) upheld,” Muñoz said.
Currently, it is unclear whether Foyst will appeal the decision to the state’s highest court. Even if the decision is appealed, the Indiana Supreme Court is not obligated to hear the appeal.
When contacted by The Republic on Tuesday, Foyst declined to comment.
Anderson attorney David W. Stone IV, one of two attorneys who represented Foyst in the lawsuit, said no decision had been made on whether to appeal the decision.
Stone referred further questions to Franklin attorney George Hoffman, the other attorney representing Foyst. Hoffman did not return a message seeking comment on the decision.
The decision is the latest twist in a legal battle over Foyst’s candidacy that started this past summer over the Bartholomew County Republican Party’s efforts to fill a vacancy for the Columbus City Council District 6 seat in the 2023 general election.
Foyst was initially selected as the Republican nominee for Columbus City Council District 6 in the 2023 municipal election during a party caucus held in July 2023 after nobody filed to run for the seat in the GOP primary, leaving a vacancy in the Nov. 7 general election.
Bartholomew County Democratic Party Chair Ross Thomas challenged Foyst’s candidacy this past summer, arguing that local GOP officials failed to file a required notice of the party caucus with the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office before the state-imposed deadline. In August, the bipartisan Bartholomew County Election Board upheld Thomas’ challenge and removed Foyst from the ballot.
However, the Bartholomew County 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 allowed the GOP to fill the vacancy following “the successful challenge of a candidate.”
Thomas then 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 a lawsuit against Foyst and all three members of the Bartholomew County Election Board, including Lentz.
The case was initially assigned to Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin, who recused herself. The case was later turned over to Special Judge K. Mark Loyd. In November, Loyd dismissed the claims against the Bartholomew County Election Board, leaving Foyst as the lone defendant.
While the lawsuit was pending before the special judge, Foyst won the Columbus City Council District 6 seat in the 2023 municipal election, defeating Muñoz with 59.5% of the vote.
The dispute in the lawsuit largely centered around the interpretation of Indiana Code 3-13-1-7(b)(7) and the extent to which it applies to Foyst. The law states that a political party may take action to fill a ballot vacancy within 30 days following “the successful challenge of a candidate,” provided that the vacancy is filled more than 13 days before the election.
Thomas, for his part, argued that the provision does not apply to Foyst because he was “never a valid candidate” because the local GOP missed a filing deadline for the first caucus.
“Missing the deadline ends the game,” Thomas argued in court filings earlier this year. “…A ‘successful challenge of a candidate’ would only apply to someone that was at some point a valid candidate on the ballot, not a ‘candidacy that never existed’ because it was untimely.”
Foyst’s attorneys argued that removing Foyst from office would disenfranchise voters and questioned why missing a statutory filing deadline would invalidate his candidacy.
“(Thomas’) argument, if accepted, would serve only to thwart the will of the 454 voters who chose Mr. Foyst to represent them on the Columbus City (Council),” Foyst’s attorneys stated in court filings earlier this year. “…The county chairman expends much verbiage claiming that the vacancy could not be filled by Mr Foyst because his original candidacy filing was a day late. The obvious question is why not? There was a vacancy. There is no claim he did not meet the qualifications for the post.”
A couple weeks after Foyst was sworn into office, Loyd upheld his candidacy, ruling that the additional Republican caucus in which Foyst was elected to fill a vacancy for the party’s nomination for Columbus City Council District 6 met requirements under state law.
“This case involves mostly undisputed facts, and ultimately the legal conclusion turns on matters of statutory interpretation,” Loyd said in the ruling. “The legislature is presumed to act intentionally, and the analysis is nonpartisan.”
Thomas appealed the lower court’s decision.
The panel of appellate judges, for their part, sided with Thomas, finding that “Foyst’s candidacy never existed in the eyes of the law” and therefore could not be placed on the ballot during the second caucus.
“Foyst offers no persuasive rationale for reaching a different result in this situation, where the (Bartholomew County) Clerk was barred by statute from receiving both the notice of caucus and the certificate of candidate selection because both documents were not timely filed,” the appellate panel states in its decision. “Consequently, Indiana Code Section 3-13-1-7(b)(7) could not be used to place Foyst on the general election ballot; the statute presumes that a vacancy exists due to the successful challenge of a duly selected candidate, and Foyst was never a candidate. Accordingly, we reverse and remand with instructions to declare Muñoz the winner of the 2023 general election for the District 6 seat on the Columbus City Council.”
