COLUMBUS, Ind. — The Bartholomew County Election Board has decided to grant a challenge to the candidacy of Republican Joseph Jay Foyst for Columbus City Council District 6, meaning he is off the fall ballot for now. However, party officials indicated that there may be a way to get him back in the race.
The Bartholomew County election board issued the decision at a hearing Friday afternoon.
Foyst, 60, previously a salesman for 25 years and now a dump truck driver, was selected as the Republican Party’s nominee during a party caucus in July. The caucus was convened after no Republican filed to run for the office in the party’s May primary, leaving a vacancy in the November 7 general election.
Democrat Byan Muñoz ran unopposed for his party’s District 6 nomination in the primary.
Bartholomew County Democratic Party chairman Ross Thomas alleged in his challenge that the Bartholomew County Republican Party failed to file a required notice of the party caucus with the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office before a state-imposed deadline, which he argues makes Foyst’s candidacy “void and of no effect.”
He said that the Democratic Party is likely to “address” the matter if the Republican Party goes down this path.