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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In a bizarre political stunt, the Chairwoman for the St. Joseph County GOP announced the SJC Republican Party is making a donation to pay for the funeral costs of an alleged gang member who was killed in what appears could have been a gang related shooting earlier this summer.
GOP Chair Jackie Horvath made the announcement that she was planning to use $7,000 of Republican Party money to pay for the funeral expenses of 20-year-old Isaiah Walton-Davis during a news conference outside of the St. Joseph County Juvenile Justice Center on Tuesday. Walton-Davis, who used the street names Spazzout Zxe and Spazzout B Wackinshit, was shot and killed in July by an 18-year-old who had escaped custody from a Juvenile Justice Center program known as Bridge Link. Social media posts by Walton-Davis contain photos of him with various guns as well as pictures showing him throwing “Nation” gang signs along with East/Evil side hand gestures and what appears to be “Crip Killer” signs, indicating potential involvement in extreme violent gang activity.
Despite having all of these pictures themselves, GOP leaders at the news conference never mentioned gangs or gang violence and instead put the sole blame of Walton-Davis’ death on Democrat Probate Judge Jason Chichowicz, calling for his immediate resignation. Jackie Horvath along with her son Ben Horvath (who is the head of the Hoosier Conservative Voices PAC which Jackie Horvath founded), SJCGOP Vice Chair Joe Layne, Republican County Council Member Randy Figg and former South Bend City Council Member Henry Davis Jr. NEVER mentioned the victim’s alleged gang affiliation.
Further, it turns out the GOP never even contacted the victim’s family about the news conference or the Republican Party’s plan to donate thousands of dollars of party money for Walton-Davis’ funeral expenses.
“Very disrespectful.” Walton-Davis’ mother, Carlina Davis, wrote in a post on Facebook. “I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS PRESS CONFERENCE!!!!!”
Carlina Davis later questioned when and how she would get the money being donated.
“HEY when am I going to get the MONEY for the funeral expenses”
GOP GOES ALL-IN TO GET GOP CHAIR’S KID A JOB
The SJCGOP has gone all-in on the Probate Judge race this year, hoping to put Republican Candidate Loris Zappia on the bench, replacing Democrat Jason Chichowicz. According to sources within the party, Zappia has offered to give GOP Chair Jackie Horvath’s son, Ben Horvath, a Magistrate position if he were to win the election this November.
Ben Horvath recently graduated from Notre Dame Law and passed the Indiana Bar. However, he has not been able to hold down a job. RNM knows of at least TWO law firms that hired and then quickly fired Ben Horvath for his incompetence. Sources tell RNM, Ben Horvath is simply unhireable at virtually any law firm in the region.
Due to this alleged promise to employ her son, Jackie Horvath has dumped nearly all of the party’s resources into the Probate Judge race, essentially ignoring ALL of the other countywide candidate races for Treasurer, Recorder and Surveyor — all of which would have been considered much more win-able for the GOP.
The SJCGOP has also ignored several issues with Probate Judge Candidate Loris Zappia’s candidacy. As reported in multiple RNM investigations, Zappia killed a Brother of the Holy Cross with his car in the 1980’s and has spent decades lying about the circumstances surrounding that incident. Zappia was also recently involved in a domestic violence incident in which he viciously attacked a family member of his. The GOP later downplayed the domestic violence incident as a family “spat”.
RNM reached out to GOP Chair Jackie Horvath, GOP Vice Chair Joe Layne and Councilman Randy Figg for comment on this story. None of them responded.
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Apparently the St Joseph County GOP is trying to be as corrupt as the South Bend Dems.
Corrupt leaders propping up dishonest candidates instead of calling out the failed record of Chichowicz is a bad omen for the county party.
I do wish that the issues with Chichowicz would have been in this article too, because they are bad enough that Zappia is still a better choice.