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Westercamp Challenges Hill, Announces Bid For Attorney General

Brandon Smith
/
IPB News

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill will have a Republican challenger next year, if he runs for re-election.

Zionsville attorney John Westercamp announced his bid Thursday.

 

Hill is seen as vulnerable because of allegations he groped four women last year. Republican leaders have called on him to resign, though Hill remains defiant that he’s done nothing wrong.

 

Westercamp mostly sidestepped questions about Hill, except for this:

 

“I think the distractions around the [Attorney General's] office is not good for the state of Indiana and we need new leadership,” Westercamp says.

 

Westercamp’s platform is largely the same as Hill’s: he focused, for instance, on opposition to abortion and robocalls. But the 30-year-old Republican did try to differentiate himself.

 

“Indiana needs an attorney general that will take seriously the fiduciary duty to collaborate with state legislators and the administration," Westercamp says. "I intend to represent the state with integrity, judgment and loyalty.”

 

Westercamp works at the Indianapolis law firm Bose, McKinney and Evans. He's been practicing for about five years and has never run for public office before.

 

Republican convention delegates will decide next year who gets the GOP nomination.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.