GREENFIELD — Ray Richardson spent five decades as Hancock County’s attorney, and he’s not ready to step away from government yet. The former state legislator is looking to add to his lengthy political resume by running for Hancock County Council.
“I’m not ready to retire, and I have all this information and institutional knowledge that should be very useful,” he said. “If somebody says, ‘hey, we ought to try such-and-so,’ if we’ve done that in Hancock County before I can tell them what happened with it.”
Richardson is one of five candidates running for three at-large seats in the Republican primary. Other candidates are incumbent Kent Fisk and Robin Lowder, Keely Butrum and Kirk Jocham. Stories about the other candidates appeared earlier this week in the Daily Reporter.
Richardson is a graduate of the School of Law at Indiana University in Bloomington. He chose to study law, he said, because of his interest in politics. He moved to Hancock County after completing law school in 1962.
“I got to Hancock County as soon as I found it,” he said.
Richardson’s career includes 24 years as a member of the Indiana General Assembly, from 1966 to 1990. Not long after his election, he also became the county’s attorney. He held that position until 2019, when the county commissioners voted to replace him with a new lawyer.
“It was a real learning process over many, many years. What I learned most was the ability to know where to go to find the answer to a question. Even after 50 years, there were still questions that I had to look up the answer to,” he said.
Richardson was honored for his service in the legislature by three governors — Otis Bowen, Robert Orr and Eric Holcomb. After leaving office, he served as a member of the Indiana University Board of Trustees.
As a legislator, Richardson said he focused on practical solutions to issues facing the state.
“I looked for problems and solved them, and that’s what I did on the IU Board of Trustees as well,” he said.
Richardson’s time in office started when the Indiana legislature, like many around the country, met only once every two years. After only one session, members of the House would have to run for re-election again.
“For some reason, leadership in the House picked me to go with a state senator to the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in Wisconsin to discuss the problems that states were having dealing with the workload,” Richardson said. “We resolved at the NCSL meeting that we would go back and try to meet every year for a longer period of time, and that happened in 46 out of the 50 states.”
The Indiana General Assembly now meets every year.
Other accomplishments Richardson said he was particularly proud of include helping to re-codify the Indiana code and advocating for a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
Steve Moberly, a former member of the general assembly from Shelbyville whose tenure overlapped with Richardson’s, said Richardson was a thoughtful legislator and an expert in state government.
“He was a very conscientious legislator and one who I would consider to be there for the right reasons,” Moberly said.
Richardson said he wanted to run for county council largely because he believes the county government does not spend enough time looking for solutions to its problems, especially budgetary ones, and is too quick to raise taxes.
“If the council was working smoothly I wouldn’t run, but they’re not,” he said.
Running for office at the state or local level has changed since he was first elected, Richardson said, mainly in the amount of money candidates spend on their campaigns. In his last election, in 1990, he said, he was vastly outspent by the Democratic candidate who unseated him, Sarah Wolf.
“I used to pay for my own elections at a cost of about $3,000 or $4,000. Now, I talked to a state representative from Marion County and it cost him — get this — $500,000 to get re-elected. This excludes most people, and therefore there’s very few contests,” he said.
In his run for county council, Richardson does not intend to accept donations to avoid being beholden to any donors.
Even after so many years serving as a legislator and a county employee, Richardson said he feels compelled to continue public service.
“That’s just been my passion all of my life, to be in government, to do things for people in government. And I can’t stop. I’m not going to retire onto my couch and watch TV for the rest of my life,” he said. “I’ve got to do something.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”The Richardson file” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Age: 82
Party: Republican
Office sought: County council (at large)
Political experience: 24 years in Indiana General Assembly
Family: Wife Paulette, two children, five grandchildren
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The Daily Reporter is presenting profiles of candidates whose names will appear on the primary ballot for county offices. These stories will run periodically over the coming weeks leading up to the primary election on May 5.
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