Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is pushing back against attacks by one of his challengers, Todd Rokita, who alleged that Hill had misused taxpayer funds to renovate his office.
Hill sent an email to his supporters, on June 23, focusing on rebutting some of Rokita’s attacks, although he did not refer to Rokita by name.
“I am proud of the campaign we are running, staying above the fray and away from the politics of personal destruction. Lately, my opponents have attacked me as being fiscally careless in my first term in office, accusing me of spending too much on statehouse office renovations that were desperately needed,” Hill wrote. “They seem fixated on the used chandeliers we purchased for $75 a piece as an example of outrageous spending. Of course, they failed to mention that no tax dollars were used on this project. Nor did they mention this historic restoration’s inclusion of prison inmates and their rehabilitation in this project. We didn't undertake this work for me, but rather for the people of Indiana. This office was built in 1888 but was not part of the centennial Statehouse renovation in 1988. It was badly needed for future generations, so it can stand for another hundred years."
Hill received the most votes in the history of state elections in 2016.
Top Republican operative Andrea Bozek notes that while Rokita might be a dynamic campaigner with a strong base, those factors may not help him, and that he is an “average candidate that hasn’t won a competitive general election in nearly 15 years.”
She also said that in Indiana, a generic Republican may have an advantage, but Rokita is a former congressman for “one of the safest Republican congressional districts and didn’t particularly get much traction in the 2018 Republican primary for Senate. So despite being in politics for decades, he really hasn’t gotten to experience a modern general election campaign with the mainstream media amplifying every piece of opposition research that Democrats send their way.”
Not only that, but when Rokita hurled smears against Hill, he failed to acknowledge his own history, or to mention that he had spent roughly $3 million on mass communications – mailers and radio spots – from his position in Congress, during election seasons.
When Rokita ran for Senate in 2018, the Associated Press reported that “over the past 12 years, Rokita has spent roughly $3 million in public money on media campaigns, mailers and other forms of mass communication, usually ramping up the spending before appearing on a ballot. That figure reflects spending by Rokita that occurred both when he was Indiana's secretary of state and during his time in Congress.”
During the 2018 campaign, his actions certainly didn’t match up with statements he made to the press in 2011, as reported by the Indianapolis Star.
"With every vote I take in Congress, I am working to cut spending, whether it's millions or trillions," Rokita said in a 2011 news release. "Every dollar we save today is one less our children and grandchildren will have to repay."