Wabash Township Board candidate moved to Florida last month

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — At the very time that General Election votes were tallied on Nov. 8, Wabash Township Board candidate Sam Haughey posted on Facebook that he was moving to Panama City Beach, Florida.

"... I accepted (a job) even though it means I am flying to our new city in 12 days ... with my family to follow by the end of the year," Haughey wrote in the 7:31 p.m. Election Day post.

"Hello, Panama City FL," he continued. "Good bye IN."

The vote count ended a few hours after Haughey's Facebook post, and he won election.

“I’m sorry that I can’t serve the community like I wanted to," Haughey said during a phone interview Thursday, "but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put my family in a better situation.

“It was not in the plan,” he said about the move to Florida and the new job. “It was one of those things. I been thinking about moving down there for a while.”

Haughey said he couldn't turn down the opportunity to be a corporate trainer, which came with a healthy salary.

Haughey said Thursday he has not spoke with Tippecanoe County Democratic Party Chairwoman Jacque Chosnek or Tippecanoe County Clerk Julie Roush, whose duty it is to supervise the election process.

Who fills the empty seat?

Chosnek reached out to Roush Monday in an email about Haughey's decline of the office. Since the emails were between Chosnek and a public official, the correspondence is open for public inspection. The Journal & Courier requested copies of those emails, which it received from Roush.

"I have yet another unique situation!" Chosnek wrote. "Sam Haughey was elected to the Wabash Township Board but has since moved out of the jurisdiction and will not be taking the oath of office. I reached out to (Indiana Election Division) for guidance because the Indiana Code did not seem to address this situation."

Chosnek indicated she communicated with Angie Nussmeyer, the Democratic Party co-director of the Indiana Election Division of the Secretary of State's office.

Chosnek wrote, "If he has moved or will move before January 1 and legally change his residency, then he should not take the oath and the person currently in the position will holdover for a new term of office under our state’s holdover provision in the Indiana’s Constitution.

"If the current officeholder does not want to continue beyond the current term, then the clearest path under state law is for the person to take the oath and assume office on January 1 and resign effective January 1," Chosnek wrote. "Then an elected office vacancy is created once the resignation is filed with the county clerk and you follow IC 3-13-11 to be fill position. The individual could also take the oath and then file a resignation now for it to be effective on Jan 1, which would allow the chair to fill the elected office vacancy and the new person assume office on January 1. Or the 30-day clock starts on Jan. 1 once resignation is filed with clerk and clerk gives notice."

Roush, however, is still seeking advice from state officials about how to fill the vacancy.

Haughey says he's already rented a house in Florida

Haughey, who said Thursday he just returned to West Lafayette for a weekend visit, noted his first day on the job in Florida was Nov. 21. He just rented a house in Panama City Beach on Dec. 5 and plans to put their rural West Lafayette house on the market by the end of the month.

Roush called Haughey Friday and asked him to come in to take the oath of office, which he did, Roush said Friday afternoon.

Then Haughey resigned from the board, creating an issue of filling a resignation, as opposed to an abandoned office, as Chosnek was advised.

This allows the Democratic Party precinct leaders in Wabash Township to elect someone to fill the office.

Constitutional vs statutory issues

In an interview Thursday, Chosnek said that since Haughey never will take office because of his move to Florida. Filling the vacancy, therefore, is written into the state's constitution about how to replace a victorious candidate who moves before taking the oath of office.

This is the issue of abandonment, as Roush described.

“Someone continues to serve in office until their duly elected and qualified successor assumes office,” Chosnek said. “Since that will not be the case in this particular circumstance, and Sam has already moved and is unable to take the oath, that triggers the Indiana Constitution provision."

In this instance, Chosnek noted, that current board member Brendan Betz is the person who must continue to serve since Betz's duly elected success is not qualified to assume office because of the move to Florida.

Chosnek wrote, "I spoke with Brendan Betz and he indicated he is inclined to holdover into the new term. So, I think all that is necessary on my end is to have Sam send you an email confirming that he has moved and will not be taking the oath of office."

Filing the office is not a statutory issue of replacing a board member after an officeholder resigns, Chosnek said.

That might have changed on Friday.

Because Roush had Haughey take the oath off office on Friday and then resign, Roush believes filling the vacancy falls back to the statutory law of how to replace an officeholder after the person resigns — in this case, a caucus.

Over the past four years, resignations from the Wabash Township board required several caucus meetings of Democratic Party precinct leaders to select replacements after board members resigned.

Betz actually is the only remaining board member elected in the 2018 General Elections. The other positions are filled with people elected by caucus to fill board members who resigned.

The Journal & Courier left voicemails Wednesday for Valerie Waycha and Mathew Kochevar, the Republican and Democratic attorneys for the Indiana Election Division. Neither returned the call.

Board and trustee's officeholders do not change

Wabash Township has been embroiled in turmoil since the 2018 election, resulting in the conviction earlier this year of the trustee.

Haughey was to be the new member of the township board that has turned over several times because of resignations since 2018. The resignations often were tied to the trustee's uncooperative behavior with the board.

After learning Friday afternoon that the board position might be filled by caucus election, the Journal & Courier called Betz to see if that changes his inclination to serve.

Betz is still inclined to serve on the board, he said Friday in light of the new information, but he said he will have to size up the caucus election before throwing in a bid for the seat. Betz said he has received encouragement and support to stay on the board from the township's firefighters.

Whoever fills Haughey's seat will join board members Ian Pytiarz and David Tate, both of whom the caucus elected earlier this year to fill vacant board positions. Pytiarz and Tate both won election in November to serve a four-year term on the township board.

In 2023, Valentín will begin his first four-year term as trustee since being elected by the a caucus in February after former Trustee Jennifer Teising resigned on Jan. 5 after being convicted of 21 counts of theft.

Teising sold her West Lafayette house in June 2020 and lived in her travel trailer, which was parked most of the time in Anderson or in — ironically — Panama City Beach, Florida.

Valentín, who was board president during Teising's upheaval in the township during 2021, learned of Haughey's move from the Facebook post. He later learned that Betz likely will remain on the board.

“From my perspective," Valentín said, "it’s a good thing to be able to continue to have Brendan serving as a board member.

“He was instrumental in helping us address a lot of challenges we faced in the last couple of years as a township.

“Sam would have been a good board member, as well,” Valentín said. "I understand his career took him somewhere else. It happens.”

Many of the candidates elected in November will take the oath of office on Dec. 19, Roush said earlier this week.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: West Lafayette township board candidate moved to Florida last month