The fight between members of the Marion County Democratic Black Caucus and the Marion County Democratic Party continued this past week and this time it was at the statehouse.
On Thursday, State Representative Cherish Pryor of Indianapolis introduced an amendment to an election bill that prohibited a County Chair from either holding a public office or being a candidate for a local office.
The amendment only applied to Marion County.
Pryor told her colleagues that the bill was necessary to ensure fairness in the County and prohibit a County Chair who would run a pre-primary convention from having a conflict of interest because they were also on the ballot.
State Rep. Ed Delaney encouraged his colleagues to vote no, saying lawmakers were singling out Marion County and there were a lot of counties where the county chairman was also an elected official.
The amendment passed 57-33.
Black Democrats have called for County Chair Kate Sweeny Bell to step down. Their complaints included accusing Bell of running an unfair pre-primary convention, saying she should not be running the convention while also being a candidate for office as well as county chair.
They say she has also discouraged African-Americans and Latinos from running for public office and precinct committeemen.
Lawmakers will have s final vote on the bill next week.
