Republican secretary of state candidate Max Engling’s campaign said it will wait until after the election before filing a threatened lawsuit against Democrat Beau Bayh over a TV ad. Engling claimed in a televised debate, news conference, and news releases last week that he would sue for defamation over references in the ad that he had been convicted of reckless driving. His campaign said prominent conservative lawyer Jim Bopp was preparing the lawsuit, but no court filing has occurred after more than a week.
“With four days until the election, we will have to file after Nov. 3,” campaign spokeswoman Chloe Anagnos told the Capital Chronicle on Friday. “We will hold Beau Bayh accountable for his lies.” The Bayh ad features a uniformed sheriff’s deputy saying Engling “has been convicted and investigated at least eight times for reckless driving and reckless behavior.” It ran on Indianapolis TV stations for at least a week beginning Oct. 17.
Engling’s campaign acknowledged that his driving record includes eight speeding tickets from more than a decade ago “all traffic infractions, not misdemeanor charges or convictions.” Bayh has defended the ad and his campaign provided the Capital Chronicle with a timeline supporting its contentions that included an expunged misdemeanor criminal reckless case from 2007 in which Engling, who was then 20, threw eggs at passing vehicles from a U.S. 31 overpass in Carmel. That timeline includes no “reckless driving” criminal charges against Engling.
Bayh’s campaign did not immediately reply Friday to a request for comment. During a debate last week, Bayh criticized Engling’s actions. “It seems to me that going 87 miles an hour in a 60 would be reckless. Seems to me that speeding through a construction zone is also reckless,” he said. “It seems to me that throwing projectiles off of an overpass into oncoming traffic, where you could have killed someone, would also be reckless.”
Engling has countered by pointing to Bayh being initially charged in 2018 at age 22 in Brunswick County, Virginia, with misdemeanor reckless driving for driving faster than 85 mph. That charge was reduced to an infraction for defective or unsafe equipment and Bayh was fined, according to Virginia online court records. “Unfortunately, there’s only one person on this stage that has been charged with reckless driving, and that’s my opponent, not me,” he said during last week’s debate.
