INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A costly Republican fight for a state Senate nomination has been won by the candidate backed by several suburban Indianapolis mayors.
Scott Baldwin, the owner of a construction management company, won the GOP nomination over JR Gaylor, who is president and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Indiana and Kentucky.
Gaylor’s organization represents non-union contractors and was a major supporter of the Republican-backed 2012 law banning employees from being required to pay union dues or fees and the 2015 repeal of the state law setting wages for public construction projects. A construction union group funded anti-Gaylor TV commercials and mailings in hopes of boosting Baldwin, who was endorsed by the Republican mayors of Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville and Westfield.
Baldwin will be seeking to extend the longtime Republican hold on the seat that current Sen. Victoria Spartz gave up to run for Congress.
Meanwhile, the daughter of former Indiana House Speaker Patrick Bauer won the first step toward replacing him in the Legislature.
Maureen Bauer won a three-way Democratic primary for the South Bend seat that her father has represented for 50 years. The younger Bauer is an accounts manager for a corporate events organizer. If she wins the November election in the heavily Democratic district, she’ll become a third-generation lawmaker as her grandfather also served in the state Legislature.
Patrick Bauer is the longest-serving legislator in state history and was House speaker for six years between 2002 and 2010.
