County Democrats criticize GOP City Council candidate for offering voting party

The Monroe County Democratic Party is blowing its horn about what it thinks was illegal activity by a Bloomington City Council Republican candidate but the Republican Party said no laws were broken.

“It has come to our attention that a number of IU students may have been offered a reward to vote in the form of a party to be sponsored by Buffa Louie’s,” Monroe County Democratic Party Chairman Rick Dietz said in a statement.

He cited his information to the bipartisan absentee voting staff, who said students reported participating in a contest between greek houses sponsored by Buffa Louie’s.

The restaurant’s owner, Ed Schwartzman, is running for Bloomington City Council for an at-large seat.

Schwartzman said his intent was not to manipulate the system but rather to encourage students to vote.

He said he checked with both local and state levels to see if such a celebration for voting was acceptable and was told that it was. The party, offered to the greek house with the most voter participation, was an incentive to engage students to vote, not for students to vote for him, he said.

“Whether they voted for me is irrelevant,” he said, adding that kind of information isn’t made public anyway. “It had nothing to do with voting for me.”

Monroe County Republican Party Chairman Steve Hogan said what Schwartzman did was not illegal.

“It’s my knowledge he did not break any laws,” Hogan said.

Several sections of Indiana law were cited in the release, including encouraging votes through promise of compensation, which is a Class D felony.

By these laws, students aren’t necessarily responsible unless they accept the reward after the election, Dietz said.

At this point, the best thing for the Monroe County Republican Party to do is explain the situation and withdraw the promise of rewards, Dietz said.

“Every couple of years, there seems to be something similar to this come out of the Republican Party,” Dietz said.