A trial that could decide whether five Lake County politicians can continue to hold office likely won’t take place until at least Jan. 1, the same day the law they’re fighting goes into effect.
That means when voters go to the polls in November, they still might not know if the officials on the ballot will actually be able to hold the seats they’re running for.
According to a report filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Hammond, parties in the lawsuit say they will be ready for trial, which is expected to last one day, by Jan. 1.
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The lawsuit was originally filed in February by seven plaintiffs — Hobart city councilman Matthew Claussen, New Chicago town councilwoman Susan Pelfry, Hammond city councilman Michael Opinker, East Chicago city councilman Juda Parks, Lake Station city councilmen John McDaniel and Don Huddleston, and Scott Rakos, a candidate for Hammond City Council — and contests a recent state law that says elected officials cannot also work for the government they represent. The law automatically considers the officials to have resigned from their public jobs if they take office.
The purpose of the law was to end conflicts of interest of people voting on the budgets and benefits they receive, but the plaintiffs claim in their lawsuit that it violates their right to free speech.
McDaniel and Huddleston, who lost their primary races in May, have since dropped off out of the lawsuit.
The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and without a decision by then in favor of the plaintiffs, any who win election in November would have to choose between their job or their political seat.
A party caucus would then have to choose a replacement for anyone who decided to vacate the seat.
The defendants in the case — Gov. Mike Pence and Indiana State Board of Accounts members Mike Bozymski, Paul Joyce and Tammy White — also filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss the case. The motion argues that the law does not abridge the plaintiff’s right to speech and that it was their own decision to run for office, so the state has not taken anything from them.