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What is occurring with the Indiana secretary of state race, election?
Indiana secretary of state candidates embrace Diego Morales, Max Engling, Beau Bayh, Blythe Potter, David Shelton and Jamie Reitenour. Who will win?
Secretary of State Diego Morales has been usually critiqued for what some view as extreme journey. But a latest reimbursement receipt exhibits that at instances, state taxpayers have been additionally paying hundreds for his spouse Sidonia Nicolae’s journey, a violation of state coverage.
In a number of circumstances, the journeys have been paid for by the workplace’s Chief Legal Counsel Jerry Bonnet out-of-pocket and later reimbursed by the state, data obtained by IndyStar present. When the journeys appeared within the workplace’s annual journey report required by a 2025 state regulation, they weren’t itemized, obscuring the truth that a part of the fee was for Morales’ spouse.
Bonnet finally paid again the state for journey and different bills, however solely years later, after they have been flagged as “improper.” The greater than $5,000 compensation got here in May, precisely someday after a reputable Republican candidate entered the secretary of state’s race final minute, siphoning away help from large names like U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.
The years-old receipts have been dropped at the eye of the state examiner, Paul Joyce, by an nameless tip earlier this yr, he instructed IndyStar. Upon reviewing the receipts, Joyce mentioned he discovered that the bills have been “improper” as a result of they have been for individuals who weren’t state workers — a violation of coverage.
Neither Bonnet nor a spokesperson for the Office of the Indiana Secretary of State straight answered an inventory of IndyStar questions.
“Unfortunately, at the moment our office is heavily engaged in ongoing recount proceedings, requiring significant staff attention and being rushed today due to concerns about an impending weather emergency,” spokesperson Lindsey Eaton mentioned on June 17. “As a result, we need additional time to research your questions to provide accurate and thorough responses.”
The cash Bonnet returned to the state included the price of three separate flights and three convention registration charges for Morales’ spouse, in 2023 and 2024, listening to aids for Bonnet and convention registration charges for 2 non-employees, together with one with the final identify Morales, in 2023. The secretary of state’s workplace didn’t reply a query in regards to the workplace’s relationship to the 2 non-employees.
But an IndyStar overview of dozens of receipts submitted for reimbursement throughout the workplace discovered different bills that critics discovered regarding.
Morales has lengthy confronted criticism for his journey, together with an unannounced journey to India in 2025 and a go to to Hungary for the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023. Morales has mentioned that neither journey was paid for by taxpayer {dollars}.
But the secretary has been a giant spender with regards to taxpayer-funded journey as nicely, topping the record for essentially the most spent of any state official in fiscal yr 2025. It’s a part of a string of controversies which have led high GOP leaders to drop their help for Morales’ re-election bid in favor of a relative newcomer, Max Engling, and could possibly be a consider a possible Republican conference upset June 20.
“This follows the pattern that we have been raising concerns about for the last three years at least,” mentioned Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, who serves as an alternate on the State Budget Committee.
Records make clear 2024 journeys
Receipts and expense data obtained by IndyStar present that Morales typically traveled along with his spouse when conducting enterprise for the National Association of Secretaries of State, the place Morales served as co-chair of the securities committee from July 2023 to July 2024.
In an electronic mail requesting reimbursement for a visit to Washington, D.C. for a NASS convention in February 2024, Bonnet wrote that Nicolae and Morales’ then-chief of workers, Elina Kupce, wanted to accompany the secretary as a result of NASS “expects wives and staff of the members of its executive committee…to fulfill assigned roles facilitating conference administration.” Bonnet used that declare, together with security-related considerations, the necessity to accommodate different conferences and overlap with one other journey, as justification for not going by way of the Indiana Department of Administration’s journey division.
But whereas NASS instructed IndyStar in an electronic mail in June that spouses and workers are inspired to attend the conferences, the group mentioned they aren’t required to assist facilitate.
Records additionally present that Kupce, who left the workplace in April and has since change into the topic of criticism for registering to vote as a non-citizen, was reimbursed for a sequence of Uber rides throughout D.C. through the convention. She seems to have traveled to addresses related to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative suppose tank, and embassies for Italy, Latvia and Hungary. The workplace didn’t share if Morales and/or his spouse accompanied Kupce on these journeys or what state enterprise Kupce was conducting that made the expense reimbursable. The Uber reimbursements haven’t been flagged by the state as improper.
The go to to the Hungarian embassy got here almost a yr earlier than Nicolae turned honorary consul of Hungary in Indiana.
Julia Vaughn, govt director of the federal government accountability nonprofit Common Cause Indiana, mentioned Kupce’s visits gave the impression to be political in nature and never linked to the official enterprise of the secretary of state’s workplace, making it an “obvious misuse of public resources.”
The latest reporting on the citizenship standing of Kupce, who was born in Latvia, solely will increase Qaddoura’s concern about whether or not nationwide or state safety was compromised on the visits, he instructed IndyStar. He mentioned the complete particulars of these visits needs to be disclosed.
Later in 2024, Morales and Nicolae returned to D.C., data present. In an electronic mail requesting reimbursement for flights, Bonnet writes that Morales and his spouse every had official diplomatic features to attend, and that Nicolae additionally wanted to help Morales with scheduled NASS and Department of Homeland Security briefings.
Nicolae’s October flight was one of many three flights Bonnet repaid to the state in 2026. But the state additionally paid $4,000 for a four-night resort keep for Morales and a second, unknown visitor, data present, despite the fact that Morales’ flight receipt and social media point out he was solely in D.C. for the primary two nights of the resort reserving.
His spouse’s return flight, nonetheless, was two days later, on the checkout date for the resort reserving. The secretary of state’s workplace didn’t reply a query about what sort of state enterprise Nicolae, who is just not a state worker, might have been conducting through the two days in D.C. with out her husband. The workplace additionally didn’t share the id of the second visitor within the room, and the expense has not been flagged by the state.
The third flight for Nicolae that the state paid for was a July 2024 journey to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the summer season NASS conference.
When requested about Nicolae’s journey, Vaughn mentioned that Hoosiers shouldn’t be footing the invoice for Morales and his spouse’s “getaways” and questioned what profit Nicolae’s presence supplied to taxpayers.
State workers are required to comply with Indiana Department of Administration coverage when reserving journey, although individually elected officers outdoors of the governor’s administration like Morales have extra discretion than typical workers. IDOA coverage stipulates that workers can solely be reimbursed for well-documented, cheap bills incurred through the course of state enterprise.
Morales’ workplace didn’t say why the workplace paid for what was later deemed “improper.”
“As a general matter, the office’s policy is that expenses are paid on behalf of employees conducting official state business,” Eaton mentioned in an announcement. “However, there are circumstances where exceptions may be made for reasons such as urgency, logistical coordination, emergencies, safety issues, cost savings, and operational efficiency.”
The state can get well reimbursements if it was paid out as a result of fraudulent documentation of the expense or “the mistaken belief” that the expense complied with IDOA coverage.
Vaughn mentioned extra could possibly be carried out to extend accountability with journey bills, together with an unbiased ethics company. It’s potential that lawmakers, who had tried to extend transparency with their 2025 journey stories regulation, might revisit the problem.
Morales faces Engling, Knox County Clerk David Shelton and former gubernatorial candidate Jamie Reitenour on the June 20 GOP conference. Whoever wins will face Democrat Beau Bayh, Libertarian Lauri Shillings and Greg Ballard, as long as he secures sufficient legitimate signatures, on the November poll.
Contact breaking politics reporter Marissa Meador at [email protected] or discover her on X at @marissa_meador.
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https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2026/06/18/diego-morales-wife-travel-taxpayers-secretary-state-indiana/90574212007/
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