This post at Brown County Matters.
Candidate Challenge: Election Board Hearing, Feb 19, 2026
Rich Stanley plans to challenge the Election Board’s decision in circuit court. This legal step is necessary to build a case—if required—for a potential hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding alleged violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. (1)
Individuals can still run as Independents if they meet requirements established by both the parties and the state. In practice, winning as an Independent is similar to trying to get rich by buying a lottery ticket.
Justification? The irony is that Rich was removed from the Republican ballot because of his wife’s donation at a fundraiser for Independent candidate Greg Taggart. But the underlying reason was most likely his criticism of Mark Bowman’s leadership as Party Chair.
Taggart’s fundraiser was supported by leaders in the Republican Party despite concerns that it violated Rule 1-25. The precedent is that county partys’ within the state have banned candidates for up to 10 years for violating this rule. At a 2024 League of Women Voters forum, Taggart publicly stated that he was not a Republican and was defeated in the general election by Tim Clark, the Republican candidate.
Rule 1-25 states: “The term “Republican in Good-Standing” shall be defined as a Republican who supports Republican nominees and who does not actively or openly support another candidate against a Republican nominee.”
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Scott Rudd (Commissioner)
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Pearletta Banks (Clerk)
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Greg Taggart (Washington Township Trustee)
Rule 1-25, in practice, can be overridden by “unwritten rules.” The written rules may be selectively applied—enforced for some and ignored for others.
The “unwritten rules” described by Republican Party leadership include the fact that Individuals may be deemed in “bad standing,” and therefore ineligible to run as Republicans, for criticizing party officials, previously supporting (no time limit) a non-Republican candidate, or for other perceived infractions.
A system perceived as corrupt risks undermining the ethics and integrity of those who operate within it—sometimes without them even realizing it.
Footnotes:
- Rich Stanley, along with Tim Clark, is challenging a previous ruling that they are not in Good Standing with the party and cannot run as Republicans for five years. This decision was challenged in federal court, which ruled in favor of the Party and is also being challenged.
- Clark, Stanley lawsuit dismissed in federal court, Brown County Democrat. “Clark and Stanley have now formally appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, asking the higher court to reverse the decision and allow their case to proceed.”
