A former head of the Indiana Republican Party has denied a report that he offered “unlimited” campaign cash to legislative Republicans if they stopped a proposed gay marriage ban in the state legislature.
House Speaker Brian Bosma (pictured) had said publicly that he was offered unlimited support to prevent the ban from passing, and Jim Kittle had been named by anonymous sources as the person who made the offer.
But Kittle, who led the state GOP from 2002 to 2006, told the Associated Press Tuesday that Bosma had “misjudged” what happened — though he admitted that he did meet with Bosma to encourage the speaker to stop the ban and had offered some kind of support if Republicans who voted against it faced primary challenges.
“To offer support to individual legislators if they do happen to get primaried or they’re running certainly is not illegal, immoral or anything else,” Kittle said. “I respect the fact that Brian’s got himself kind of in a jam here. He misjudged what was happening, period, on this.”
Kittle had also donated money to Freedom Indiana, a business-allied coalition working to stop the proposed constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage. Through parliamentarian maneuvering, the legislature put the issue off until at least 2016.
According to the AP, the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, has asked the Indiana attorney general to investigate the matter. When contacted by TPM Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI office in Indianapolis declined to comment.
