Good morning. It is 93 WIBC, and you're listening to T.C. and Jim, and joining us on the line,

Nikki Kelly from Indiana Capital Chronicle. Let's talk about how Greg Ballard has announced that he

would like to be the next Indiana Secretary of State. Of course, when he was mayor of

Indianapolis, he ran as a Republican. Now he's saying he's going to run as an independent.

Why is he leaving the Republican Party now? You know, he hasn't said explicitly he's leaving the

Republican Party. I think what he would say is he's still conservative, but he is frustrated with the direction

of both parties and wants to give people like him another option somewhere in the middle.

Do you think running as an independent actually gives him a path to win statewide, or is this mostly just sending a message?

Well, you know, he quotes a poll that was done that said there's as much as

41% of Indiana Hoosiers who consider themselves independent.

So he considers that to be a path that could be, he could make it happen and says he's in it to win it. There is a little bit of

a, you know, in terms of ballot access, if he would get at least 2% of the vote, that would create

automatic ballot access for independence in the future. So that would probably be, you know, a side goal, of course.

So, Nikki, there was this group, or there is this group called Independent Indiana,

and it was kind of interesting because all of a sudden they pushed out on their Twitter

this poll on Monday that showed the Secretary of State's race, and Greg Ballard's name was

in there, which was interesting because he wasn't officially

running yet.

And then a couple of days later, he comes out officially for it.

Talk to me a little bit.

Can you explain a little bit about who this group independent Indiana is and how Greg Ballard may or may not be affiliated with them?

Yeah.

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