Centrist group endorses Chambers for governor in GOP primary

In the glare of the morning sun, a worker finishes installation of ReCenter Indiana’s billboard on I-465 on the Indianapolis northeast side Tuesday, April 16. The bipartisan centrist organization says Indiana’s system of open primary elections enables “even Democrats” to vote in the Republican primary.

The political action committee of ReCenter Indiana is endorsing Brad Chambers for the 2024 Republican nomination for governor.

At the same time, the bipartisan centrist organization is launching billboards in three more population centers – Fort Wayne, South Bend and Bloomington – urging “even Democrats” to vote in this spring’s Republican primary.

“We weren’t sure we would be endorsing anyone” in the six-way Republican race for governor, said Adrianne Slash, a Republican on the ReCenter PAC’s board. “But we decided we need to make the same decision we were asking our fellow primary voters to make – to choose the candidate who best aligns with our anti-extremist values.”

The endorsement reads, in part:

Too many politicians, including others in this spring’s crowded Republican primary, are pounding on inflammatory cultural issues that divide – rather than help – the people of this state.

Not Chambers. The veteran businessman is focusing instead on boosting the state’s

economy, thus improving the lives of Hoosiers.

“We don’t all see eye-to-eye with Chambers on everything,” says Democrat Linda Heitzman, a member of the ReCenter PAC board. “But all of us are deeply troubled by other Republican candidates’ pandering to a narrow, intolerant, divisive fringe. And if we want to bring our state’s politics back toward the middle, where polls tell us most Hoosiers are, the place to start is in the GOP primary.”

The ReCenter Indiana PAC’s endorsement of Chambers adds:

His opponents in the primary are appealing to the most extreme voices in the GOP. Unlike them, Chambers proposes to follow in the footsteps of more traditional Republican leaders – President Ronald Reagan and Gov. Mitch Daniels. …

ReCenter Indiana is endorsing Brad Chambers in the Republican primary as the gubernatorial candidate who has best demonstrated the capacity and commitment to move Indiana forward.

ReCenter’s billboards advise that “Even Democrats can vote in the Republican primary.” The displays refer to https://www.recenterindiana.org/, where the endorsement appears. There, Hoosiers can also read available information on candidates in a handful of contested primary races for the Indiana legislature.

New this week are billboards:

• In Indianapolis, on I-465 just west of the White River bridge, between North Keystone Avenue and Allisonville Road, on the south side of I-465, facing east.

• In Fort Wayne, at 9212 Lima Rd. (State Road 3), facing north; and

• In Bloomington, on the State Road 45/46 Bypass just west of North Kinser Pike, facing both east and west.

The South Bend billboard is coming to South Bend Avenue at Napoleon Street, facing northeast. For more than a week now, ReCenter billboards have been greeting motorists:

• In Evansville, on North Green River Road just north of State Road 66 and across from Eastland Mall;

• In Merrillville, on Broadway just north of U.S. 30; and

• Also in Merrillville, on U.S. 30 just east of I-65.

In addition, social media users are seeing video ads from the ReCenter Indiana PAC on Instagram and Facebook. It’s all to advise Hoosiers that, unlike some other states, Indiana’s primary elections are “open.” This means that registered voters may simply request a Republican ballot when they prepare to vote this spring.

In the 2020 race for governor, only 24 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the primary. “We can do better than that,” says Azher Khan, a Republican member of ReCenter’s PAC board. “For the sake of all our futures, we need to do better than that.”

Early voting continues through May 6. This year’s Indiana primary is May 7.