HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM BY BECOMING A SUBSCRIBING MEMBER. YOU CAN ALSO MAKE A ONE TIME DONATION HERE.
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. — A REAL News investigation has uncovered disturbing trends in how donations are being spent by a statewide Political Action Committee known as Hoosier Conservative Voices (HCV). HCV was founded by current St. Joseph County GOP Chairwoman, Jackie Horvath, and her children in 2020. It turns out, nearly HALF of all of the donations received by HCV have been used to line the pockets of Horvath, St. Joseph County GOP Vice Chair Joe Layne and their families.
According to publicly available numbers gathered by the watchdog website known as TransparancyUSA.org, HCV has spent 42-percent of its donations on cutting checks to Jackie Horvath, Joe Layne and their families. Only THREE PERCENT of all donations since 2020 was spent directly on candidates.
According to expenditure reports, since 2020, HCV has paid $133,029 to a woman by the name of Jacqueline L Stout, which is Jackie Horvath’s current legal name — Her son, Ben Horvath, who is an unemployed attorney, has received $75,665 — While St. Joseph County Vice Chair Joe Layne and his family have been paid a total of $20,237. Payments made directly to candidates total $18,240.
“It’s disgusting.” One HCV donor who wished not to be named told RNM. “I expected my money (donation) to be spent helping candidates. Instead it looks like it’s being used as a paycheck for Ben (Horvath) and a pension plan for Jackie (Horvath). Everyone knows Joe (Layne) has had his financial issues as of late too.”
“It looks like Jackie thought she could get away with it by using a different name in the financial reports.” Another donor said.
Want to keep seeing the news the legacy media just won’t report? REAL News Michiana relies on member subscribers to keep going. As a subscriber, you’ll get an RNM mug and invites to special events. Help us continue to expose corruption and report on the news conservatives care about by subscribing here.
