House duties for Lucas changed

SEYMOUR — Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, was removed Friday from two study committees and demoted from a leadership position in a third by Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers.

The lawmaker represents District 69, which includes parts of Bartholomew, Jackson and Jennings counties.

The committee changes were announced in news release from Indiana House Republicans Friday. Huston did not make any public statement about why the changes were made relating to Lucas.

Lucas will no longer sit on the House Interim Study Committee on Elections or on the Interim Study Committee on Public Policy. He was demoted from vice chair to a regular member of the Standing Select Committee on Government Reduction.

The changes came four days after Lucas was accused of making a racist social media post on his personal Facebook page that generated controversy in the district and statewide.

“I can’t read the speaker’s mind. He had some changes he wanted to make,” Lucas said. “Keep in mind we have a super-majority in the House with a lot of new members they try to get moved around. I can’t speak for the Speaker.”

Lucas said he did talk with Huston this week about his social media post.

When asked if he regretted making the post, Lucas said, “Hindsight being what it is, absolutely. There was no intent whatsoever of racism. And that’s the most disgusting part. People that know me know that I’m a not a racist and that I would never, ever do that. I’ve explained that until I’m blue in the face, but that doesn’t matter. Once people have hate in their heart it’s all about destruction.”

Lucas, who said he has received death threats from across the world, deleted his Facebook account on Friday. He said the page became “a sounding board for hate.”

When the complaints began four days ago, Lucas said he would not take the post down.

“I encourage everyone that next time they see something they might find offensive to not turn it into an opportunity to destroy somebody you disagree with,” Lucas said. “I hate this for everybody. I want to make it crystal clear, I 100% accept responsibility. The sad part is that this started affecting other people that had nothing to do with it. I own this. I have definitely learned from it. Everybody needs to be careful of accusing people of horrible things.”

Lucas said that Facebook is a great tool for communication, but everyone needs to be very careful about what they post because the “littlest things” can be blown out of proportion.

“Racism is vile and disgusting. We have no place for it in society, but sadly it gets thrown around so much that I’m afraid we are detracting from actual racism,” Lucas said. “Hopefully we’re not setting that backwards. It’s like the little boy that cried wolf so many times. It just became ineffective. I hate to say that we might be heading there with this issue. That’s sad, because as vile and disgusting as racism is, I don’t want people to be tuned out to it because they hear it so much and that accusation is too easily thrown around any more.”