VERNON
It was a brief week back in the political spotlight for Jennings County Democrat Michael R. Marshall.
Exactly one week after filing June 30 to run as an independent for mayor of North Vernon, the 63-year-old former Indiana state representative formally withdrew his candidacy Tuesday.
Marshall had served nine months behind bars after pleading guilty to two felony charges of voter fraud in 2013.
Early this year, Marshall and his attorney, Larry Wilder, appeared before Jennings Circuit Court Judge Jon Webster again to ask that the felony convictions be reduced to misdemeanors.
According to court records, Marshall frequently has expressed concern the felonies jeopardized the liquor license he needs to operate his business, Christopher’s Pub, on Fifth Street in North Vernon.
While Webster complied with the request by taking the felonies off the record, the judge’s Jan. 28 ruling included a stipulation that Marshall cannot run again for public office.
Although Marshall and others questioned whether that was within the judge’s power, Webster was only following state law, division co-director Brad King said.
While declining to comment directly on Marshall, King describes two Indiana statutes as being pertinent in the Jennings County matter.
According to one statute, a person who pleads guilty to a felony is disqualified from being a candidate for public office, while the other stipulates a subsequent reduction of felonies to misdemeanors has no bearing on the disqualification.
The same day that Marshall was sentenced, Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson — the state’s top election official who is in charge of King’s division — claimed that “for years, Mike Marshall was credited with turning out large numbers of absentee ballots to rig elections.”
Other mayoral candidates seeking to succeed Democrat Harold “Soup” Campbell, who is not running for re-election, are Republican Mike Ochs and Democrat Matt Hurley, both current members of the North Vernon City Council.
Marshall served in the Indiana General Assembly from 1983 to 1984 and is a former president of the North Vernon Utilities Service Board.