Decision to enable challenger has Musgrave calling for Duckworth's resignation

EVANSVILLE — The scorched-earth war between Vanderburgh County Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave and her own party's leader continues nearly a year after her bid for Evansville mayor was squashed in the Republican primary.

Weeks after Republican Chairman Mike Duckworth gave his permission for a candidate who voted in the 2022 Democratic primary to challenge longtime incumbent Musgrave in this year's Republican primary, Musgrave called for Duckworth's resignation.

Musgrave accused Duckworth — who has acknowledged he would not support her for mayor because she didn't support him for county commissioner in 2018 — of being "a divider pursuing his own personal agenda." She also accused him of overseeing and enabling a top-to-bottom defeat for Republicans in last year's city election. Duckworth fired back that it is Musgrave who hasn't supported GOP candidates and that she has taken it a step further by actually supporting Democrats against Republicans.

More: County Republican chair supports Amy Canterbury's run on party's ticket despite challenge

But Musgrave went beyond trading political punches with Duckworth in a statement released Thursday, including images of news stories about questionable incidents from the GOP chairman's past.

"These troubling incidents serve as the foundation of my lack of faith in Mr. Duckworth's integrity, leading me to the conclusion that he is unfit to hold any elected office," Musgrave said in a written statement.

'Deputy Duck' controversy

In 1991, the Evansville Courier reported that Sheriff Ray Hamner criticized Duckworth for submitting more than 1,000 hours of overtime for his live appearances, inside and outside the county, as "Deputy Duck." Deputy Duck was the feathered mascot for the Vanderburgh County Sheriffs' youth program.

"Hamner declared that Duckworth's free rein as department youth mascot is over, that his heavy focus on personal appearances as Deputy Duck has been costly and self-serving and that a 'large majority' of his appearances as Deputy Duck don't accomplish the department's educational goals," stated one story.

When the issue came up in 2018 race for county commissioner, Duckworth said being Deputy Duck was just part of his job.

"That was all compensatory time and time that I worked at grocery stores, fairs and daycares as the Deputy Duck," he said then. "That's no different than somebody that worked overtime during an accident."

Hamner had said Duckworth turned in for overtime his Deputy Duck appearances at such events as the Jerry Lewis Telethon and a Fraternal Order of Police Christmas party.

Another story Musgrave included highlighted Evansville Press coverage of Duckworth in 1984. The newspaper reported that year Duckworth and two other officers were under the influence of alcohol in an unmarked police car during their off hours when they knocked over a traffic pole on Diamond Avenue. The trio also hit two parked cars on Stringtown Road that night.

After the incident, Duckworth and the other officers allegedly filed false police reports about the accident, according to the Evansville Press.

Initially, all three men were charged with obstruction of justice and suspended for 60 days without pay and placed on one year of probation by the merit board. Later, Duckworth was convicted of false reporting, fined $200, was required to help pay for the cars' damage and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.

Duckworth's false reporting charge was overturned in 1985 by Indiana's First District Court of Appeals.

Duckworth chuckled when told Musgrave had cited the incident.

"Well, this happened almost 40 years ago, that accident did," he said. "I’m not a perfect person, but I have been a very loyal Republican for over 50 years and I’ve been around the Vanderburgh County GOP for 50 years, and (Musgrave) does not meet the criteria as a loyal Republican, in my opinion."

Duckworth texted to the Courier & Press images of Musgrave supporting her two former Democratic colleagues on the Board of Commissioners, Ben Shoulders and Jeff Hatfield, in their 2020 and 2018 campaigns, respectively. Duckworth lost the 2018 campaign to Hatfield by just 224 votes out of nearly 58,000 cast.

More: Political stunners may shift Vanderburgh landscape

Shoulders in 2020 defeated Republican Zac Rascher, whose wife, Natalie, in turn defeated Musgrave in the 2023 Republican primary election for mayor. In her statement Thursday, Musgrave said Duckworth's pursuit of a Republican challenger to her in 2023 "tore the party apart and handed Evansville city government to complete Democrat control."

More: By the numbers: What really happened in Evansville's mayoral election

Dottie Thomas: 'It's not my decision'

Dottie Thomas, Duckworth's top GOP lieutenant as vice chairman, sighed when asked about the party infighting that may now extend into the May 7 primary election.

Thomas, Vanderburgh County's elected treasurer and a supporter of Musgrave, had hoped GOP leaders would not again try to take down the veteran county commissioner from within her own party. Hard-fought intraparty contests hurt party unity, Thomas said.

More: Here's the backstory behind Cheryl Musgrave's devastating GOP primary loss in Evansville

On Thursday, Thomas bemoaned Duckworth's decision to allow United Way CEO Amy Canterbury to challenge Musgrave in this year's Republican primary election. Duckworth's permission was necessary because Indiana's "two-primaries" law requires that a candidate's two most recent votes in Indiana primary elections must have been cast in primaries held by the party he or she seeks to represent.

More: Controversial law is at heart of threat to Evansville mayoral candidates' eligibility

Canterbury voted in the 2022 Democratic primary. She voted in Republican primaries in 2018 and 2016.

"As much as I didn't want (Duckworth to give Canterbury his blessing), it's not my decision," Thomas said.

More: Musgrave may not face another intraparty battle in Vanderburgh

Musgrave does have a record of defeating Democrats.

In the course of winning all eight countywide election campaigns she has waged, she has ousted three Democratic officeholders — Assessor James Angermeier in 1994 and County Commissioners David Mosby and Steve Melcher in 2004 and 2016, respectively. She defeated a sitting county sheriff, Ray Hamner, in her 1998 re-election campaign as assessor.

Musgrave's Thursday statement referred to Canterbury as "a liberal Democrat" — but Duckworth insisted Canterbury helps Republicans.

"I’m waivering her because I know she’s a good person and I know she’s worked extremely hard in the community," he said. "She’s from the West Side and in looking at our (election) results, we need to reach out to that voter base, and that’s what we’re doing. That’s not an endorsement; that’s allowing her to run."

In fact, local Republicans underperformed in nearly every corner of the city in 2023. The Courier & Press reported in January that GOP mayoral candidate Rascher actually lost four precincts to Democrat Stephanie Terry that 2020 Republican candidates for two key local offices had won with at least 60% of the vote each.

In other heavily Republican precincts where local GOP candidates won by huge margins in 2020, Rascher prevailed by substantially smaller margins.

In all, Rascher received slightly less than 40% of votes cast.

Duckworth said if Musgrave doesn't like his decision to allow Canterbury to challenge her, that's her tough luck.

"Unfortunately for her, my opinion as chairman is kind of what makes the decision on whether or not to allow someone that I think has a bright future, that has been a good community member, has voted two out of the last three primaries Republican — so I made the call to allow Amy Canterbury to run," Duckworth said.

"So (Musgrave) is just going to have to deal with it."

Reporter Jon Webb contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Cheryl Musgrave says Mike Duckworth should resign as GOP chairman