The Republican race for Indiana Secretary of State turned into a three-front brawl Friday afternoon, all inside of three hours: incumbent Diego Morales emailed delegates touting a “leaked” poll and declaring his critics are panicking, an anonymous newsletter and coordinated text message campaign attacked candidate Max Engling — and a third rival for the nomination, David Shelton, helped distribute the attack.

It all comes one week before Indiana Republicans convene in Fort Wayne June 19-20 to choose their nominee for Secretary of State from a four-way field that includes Morales, Engling, Shelton, and Jamie Reitenour.

The newsletter, published Friday at 3:45 p.m. on Substack under the byline “Concerned Conservative,” raises questions about 2007 Hamilton County misdemeanor records involving Engling and claims that data from years-old website breaches “appear to associate” identifiers tied to Engling with adult dating websites. The piece also includes a section favorable to Morales, describing the incumbent as “a known quantity,” and carries a disclaimer stating it was “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”

Around the same time, delegates began receiving text messages from a phone number with a New York area code featuring a graphic attacking Engling and linking directly to the Substack piece. The texts carry the disclaimer “Paid for by Olorin Consulting. Not auth by any candidate.”

Searches of the Indiana Secretary of State’s business entity database and the Indiana Election Division’s campaign finance records Friday returned no entity or committee named Olorin Consulting. IndyPolitics also could not locate a business registration under that name in any other state.

Indiana Code 3-9-3-2.5 requires communications expressly advocating for or against a clearly identified candidate to include a disclaimer that gives recipients adequate notice of the identity of the persons who paid for the communication, and provides that a disclaimer does not comply if it is presented in a manner that obscures that identity.

Whether a name with no corresponding business registration or committee filing satisfies that requirement is a question for the Indiana Election Division.

For what it’s worth: “Olorin” is the name the wizard Gandalf bore in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium before he was sent to Middle-earth — a fictional name for a figure who operated in disguise.

Shelton Forwarded the Piece to Delegates

Email records obtained by IndyPolitics show the newsletter arrived in the Shelton campaign’s inbox at 3:45 p.m. Friday. Beginning at 3:50 p.m. — five minutes later — Shelton began forwarding the piece to individual convention delegates from his official campaign email account, sending at least four separate forwards by 3:52 p.m.

Morales Campaign Emailed Delegates Hours Earlier

Two hours before the newsletter published, the Morales campaign emailed delegates under the subject line “They’re Panicking. Here’s Why.” The 1:42 p.m. email characterized recent criticism of Morales as desperation and cited what it called leaked results from a survey by Gotham Polling and Analytics showing Morales with 57 percent statewide name identification compared to 6 percent for Engling.

The graphic accompanying the email credits the figures to a survey of 1,837 likely voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percent.

The full text of the email reads:

Good Afternoon Delegates,

If you’re asking why the attacks have become more frequent and more desperate… there’s your reason above – recent poll results leaked and they are panicking.

Our name ID with Indiana voters statewide is over 57% while our opponent is practically an unknown and would be a non-factor in the general.

That’s all it is.

Facts matter and they are losing – We are winning and will win big in November.

Thank you for not believing the lies and understanding that politics can be a dirty game.

Let’s focus and let’s win this together,

Your friend and Secretary of State,

Diego

Name identification measures whether voters recognize a candidate’s name; it is not a head-to-head ballot test. The convention nomination will be decided by state convention delegates in Fort Wayne, not by the statewide electorate the survey measured.

The Underlying Claims

The newsletter displays what it identifies as Hamilton County court records showing misdemeanor charges of criminal recklessness and criminal mischief involving Engling, disposed of in October 2007. The records do not indicate in the newsletter how the cases were resolved.

The newsletter’s claims tying Engling to adult websites rest on screenshots of data attributed to website breaches dating to 2011 and 2016. Cybersecurity experts have long cautioned that the appearance of an email address in breached data does not establish who created or used an account. The newsletter itself acknowledges the records “aren’t a sworn confession.” The screenshots published in the piece also include personal identifying information, including a partial Social Security number, home address, and date of birth, which Indy Politics is not republishing.

Engling, a former congressional staffer and a late entry into the race, has drawn endorsements from Congressman Jim Banks and Attorney General Todd Rokita.

The Republican state convention convenes Friday in Fort Wayne.

Indy Politics has preserved copies of the newsletter, text messages, and email records referenced in this story.