Bio
Jessica Bailey is the Democratic Party’s nominee for Indiana State Comptroller. She is currently serving in her eighth year as Porter County Clerk and has been named Clerk of The Year by The Association of Indiana Counties during her tenure. Bailey’s top priorities include improving access to the transparency portal, ensuring payments to local governments are made in a timely manner and providing independent oversight in the office.
Q&A
Why are you running for Indiana State Comptroller?
I am running for state comptroller to bring transparency and accountability to the state offices.
What would be your top priority if you were elected?
To help voters and taxpayers within the state of Indiana understand where their tax dollars are going. So currently, the comptroller, the treasurer and a governor appointee sit on the board of finance, and that’s where a lot of the transfers of appropriations, moving funds from one budget to another budget and things like that, are done. Their meetings are three minutes long, so you can watch the entire year in about a half an hour, and whatever discussion is being done on those transfers is happening behind closed doors. This is taxpayer money that’s being moved from one line item to another line item or being allocated as additional budgetary funds, and they deserve to be able to see what is happening in those meetings without having to drive to Indianapolis to be here in person. They should be able to watch them on YouTube or something, they deserve to be able to know what’s happening with that money. And if everything’s just getting rubber stamped and approved, there’s no discussion for them to know where that happens.
What in your background or experience do you feel has prepared you to serve in this office specifically?
So I’m in my eighth year as Porter County Clerk, and in that role we handle poll worker pay, which is similar to what the Comptroller does but at a smaller scale. The comptroller handles the state employee payroll and accounts payable. I have been maintaining one of the largest budgets in the county for the last eight years. I’m also results driven. I have been a fixer in Porter County, and I have the experience to back that up. When things get tough or there’s a difficult situation, by innovating the office and working with my team, we have gone from one end of the spectrum to a best practices office. I look forward to doing that at the state level, just as I have at the county level.
How will you ensure you execute the duties of the office fairly and insulate yourself from partisan influences?
I’ve been doing that for the last eight years. The clerk’s office is also a nonpartisan office. You represent the voters when you deal with free and fair elections, making sure everyone, regardless of their party, gets a fair chance to cast their ballot. When people come into the clerk’s office, they’re from all walks of life, and you treat everyone fairly and impartially and help them get the desired outcome that they need.
Do you think any changes should be made to improve public access to records of government spending or to help the public better understand those records?
Yes, I don’t think you can ever be too transparent when it comes to taxpayer dollars. So I understand that there’s the transparency portal on the state’s website. However, it is difficult to navigate and I think there needs to be some grace given within that system. You may not know the individual’s full name, or you may misspell it and I think that system should be able to pick up and correct a common misstep to make it more accessible to the average person. That would open up the transparency portal and allow people to find things more efficiently. When it comes to requests of public records, those are handled within the statutory guidelines, and making everything accessible to the taxpayers should be the ultimate goal.
Why should voters support you?
I have the experience of being a proven fixer and working across the aisle. Porter County is sometimes a red county and sometimes it’s a blue county. Currently, my council is almost all Republicans. I’m one of the few Democrats that’s elected in the county, and we work together to get done what needs to get done for Porter County residents. I have made a reputation of working across the aisle and working for what is best for taxpayers, regardless of what letter comes after their name. When you’re elected, you are elected to serve the entire state, not just whoever shares the letter after your name.
