improperly accepted $60,000

A complaint to Indiana election officials alleges that Republican secretary of state candidate Max Engling violated state law by accepting a $60,000 campaign contribution from a dark money group associated with U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.

The Engling campaign said it had already returned all of that money before the complaint was filed Friday by Knox County Clerk David Shelton, who finished second to Engling in seeking the Republican nomination during last month’s state party convention.

The complaint pertains to a $60,000 contribution on June 30 to Engling’s campaign from Hoosier Leadership for America, which is registered with the state as a nonprofit corporation with a post office box address in the Allen County community of Huntertown.

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Shelton’s complaint asks the Indiana Election Commission to take action against the Engling for violating state law that limits corporations and labor organizations to a maximum of $5,000 a year in contributions to statewide office candidates.

Those limits don’t apply to individuals, limited liability corporations and political action committees that are required to disclose their sources of money.

The Engling campaign said Friday that the $60,000 was refunded on July 14 after being flagged during an internal review. The return will appear on the next report due in October. 

“We determined its entity type was unclear and thus refunded out of an abundance of caution. The donation was made via wire. Once a wire is made, we can’t stop it,” campaign spokeswoman Chloe Anagnos told the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Shelton said in the complaint that Engling wrongly recorded the Hoosier Leadership for America contribution as coming from a non-corporate source.

“Hoosier Leadership for America, Inc. has never registered as a political committee with the Election Division or the Federal Election Commission,” Shelton’s complaint said. “Any contention by (Hoosier Leadership) that it is not subject to the corporate contribution limit is therefore an admission that it operated as an unregistered political action committee — a status that would require it to register with the Election Division and publicly disclose all of its donors, past and present.”

Engling was the central Indiana regional director for Banks’ U.S. Senate office when he launched a late challenge in May with an endorsement from Banks against current Secretary of State Diego Morales.

The ad-tracking firm AdImpact reported Hoosier Leadership for America spent $5.2 million on broadcast advertising during this year’s primary campaign against Republican state senators who opposed President Donald Trump’s demands for Indiana congressional redistricting.

Hoosier Leadership’s status as a nonprofit organization allows it to keep the sources of its money secret, which is why such groups are commonly referred to as dark-money groups.

The $60,000 from Hoosier Leadership is the largest contribution that Engling reported to the state Election Division.

The next largest is $50,000 from former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s campaign committee. Engling worked for about five years as an aide to McCarthy in Washington before moving back to Indiana in 2023 for an unsuccessful run for Congress.

Democratic candidate Beau Bayh ended June with about $2.3 million in the bank ahead of what is expected to be an expensive fall campaign.

Engling’s late start gave him little time for fundraising and his campaign had about $150,000 as of June 30, according to Election Division reports.

Former GOP Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is running as the Lincoln Party candidate and Libertarian Lauri Shillings will also be on the ballot.