Joseph Bortka is trying to recruit a Republican to challenge incumbent State Treasurer Dan Elliott at Saturday’s GOP convention in Fort Wayne — an effort that, under the party’s own rules, has no apparent path to the convention floor.
One name being surfaced is Kim Livorno, a Johnson County Republican who has expressed interest in the race. The problem is timing, and it is not close.
Elliott is one of three statewide officeholders — along with the nominees for secretary of state and comptroller — whose nominations are decided by convention delegates rather than in the May primary. He was the only Republican to file for treasurer before the deadline.
That deadline is the obstacle. Under Rule 7-31 of the Indiana Republican State Committee rules, a candidate seeking nomination at the convention must file a declaration of candidacy and an economic-interest statement, and pay a filing fee equal to 10 percent of the office’s salary, with the state secretary no later than 5 p.m. 30 days before the convention convenes. For a June 20 convention, that window closed in late May — roughly three weeks before the recruitment effort began.
The rules also provide no mechanism to nominate a statewide candidate from the floor. For party offices such as district chairman, state chairman and national committeeman, the rules expressly allow floor nominations when no one files. Chapter 7, which governs the state convention, contains no equivalent provision. Delegates may choose among candidates who filed; they cannot add one.
The remaining openings are narrow. Rule 7-24 leaves motions outside the convention’s stated business to the discretion of the state chairman, and Rule 7-41 lets delegates suspend or amend the convention rules by majority vote — a step that would require a written effort filed 72 hours in advance and a majority of delegates willing to set aside the filing deadline for a single candidate. Neither is considered likely, particularly with delegate attention fixed on the four-way secretary of state contest.
The recruitment effort fits Bortka’s recent place in Indiana Republican politics. In 2024 he was the party’s nominee in House District 100, a heavily Democratic Marion County seat, and lost by more than 40 points, drawing 28 percent of the vote. He is the plaintiff in Bortka v. Simcox, a suit contending that convention delegates — not party leadership — hold ultimate authority over the convention floor; two courts have dismissed it, and a petition to transfer the case to the Indiana Supreme Court is pending. He also publishes the Oliver P. Morton newsletters, which press the party to close its primary and restore district caucuses. In party circles, he has acquired a reputation as a spoiler.
There is an irony in the timing. The rulebook now standing in Bortka’s way is the same one his litigation has spent more than a year challenging, and its opening line leaves little question where authority sits: “The State Committee is the supreme Party authority in this state.” The committee wrote the filing deadline. The deadline passed in late May. Barring an improbable floor revolt, Saturday’s treasurer vote will feature one name.
