Back in the spring of last year, Greg Zoeller announced that he would be running for attorney general, much to the ire of the Indianapolis establishment. He went on to trounce the establishment candidate in a convention floor fight, win a tough race in November, and is now Indiana’s attorney general.

In his announcement press release, Zoeller touted the support of two GOP district chairmen, Marsha Carrington of the 8th and Larry Shickles of the 9th. They (and many other supporters of Zoeller) were told that Indianapolis would be “keeping score.”

With district-level GOP reorganization set for this Saturday, the only two contested district races in the entire state are against Carrington and Shickles; it strains credulity to find this to be a mere coincidence.

In the 9th, Shickles is facing Erin Houchin, an Indianapolis political insider with close ties to the Governor and to the Indy establishment.

Houchin is also the vice chairman of the Washington County GOP; at a district-level meeting of county chairs and vice chairs held in Salem (in Washington County) two weeks ago (on February 28), she wasn’t even present. At that time, she had not declared her candidacy; word she was running did not come out until Tuesday evening (March 10). The filing deadline was Wednesday morning.

Speculation just one day before had been that former state legislator Billy Bright (who has been very involved in helping the House Republican Campaign Committee with candidate recruitment and other efforts in southern Indiana) might be mulling a bid against Shickles, but Bright did not run (and he’s not exactly a poster child for the Indy establishment, as a side note).

Then came the Houchin bid, which is apparently to be coupled with a bid by former Jackson County Chairman Dennis Carmichael to be the district vice chairman. Carmichael did not get reelected in last week’s reorganization in Jackson County; unless I am mistaken, he didn’t seek reelection for whatever reason (which makes one wonder why he’s running for district vice chairman instead, but I digress).

(Read more after the leap)

Carmichael is hoping to unseat Dee Dee Benkie of Ripley County, who is the national committeewoman for the Indiana GOP. Party rules specify that district chairs and vice chairs must be of opposite sexes, so a victory by Houchin would prohibit Benkie from being reelected.

To complicate matters, Erin Houchin was in the 2007 class of the Indiana Leadership Forum with 9th District Congressional candidate Todd Young, and is still involved in the state Young Republicans with him. Your humble correspondent spoke with Todd Young on Thursday evening and he indicated that he had tried to talk her out of running, so (if Young is to be believed) this at least doesn’t appear to have a Congressional race power play angle to it.

To the west in the 8th, Carrington is facing Randy Gentry, the vice chairman of the Indiana Parole Board (a political appointee of the Governor) and friend of Eric Holcomb (Mitch’s campaign manager). Gentry is also usually the photographer at events held by the State Republican Party.

As with a victory by Houchin, the gender rule means that a victory by Gentry would be killing two birds with one stone, as it would remove 8th District vice chairman Richard Bramer of Sullivan County. Bramer is Chief Counsel to Attorney General Greg Zoeller (again with the revenge angle on the Z4AG supporters).

Gentry is calling around telling people that he has the enthusiastic support of Secretary of State Todd Rokita and State Auditor Tim Berry (neither of whom are from the 8th District). Rokita is currently out of the country.

Randy Gentry was not the first candidate sought for the post of 8th District chairman. Previously, it had been rumored that Troy “Mr. Daylight Savings Time” Woodruff (also a Holcomb ally) was going to run for the position, but Woodruff (who was also rumored around that time to be considering a run for Congress against Brad Ellsworth) declined after finding little support among county chairmen in the 8th.

Saturday’s caucus is certain to be eventful. It will be a reprise of an ancient feud in Indiana politics between southern Indiana Republicans and the Indianapolis Republican establishment.

The ghost of Seth Denbo will be at the 8th and 9th District caucuses (and, yes, Seth can be at two places at once; he’s that good). But Seth won’t be lonely. The long arm of the Indianapolis establishment will be there, too, hoping to exact revenge for the thumpin’ it was given in June of last year when Greg Zoeller’s name was announced in the convention as the winner of the nomination for attorney general.

And it’s likely that one other aspect of the old feud will be reprised. Seth Denbo was once similarly targeted by the Indianapolis establishment, and he won resoundingly.

In 1984, Governor Orr and his chief of staff, Jim Knoop, tried to oust Denbo from the district chairmanship. They failed; Denbo won overwhelmingly. In an interesting irony, only the delegates from Lawrence County (which was then in the 8th District) voted against Denbo. Becky Skillman, who is today Indiana’s lieutenant governor, was Lawrence County’s vice chairman and cast one of the only two votes for Governor Orr’s man.

There’s a powerful streak of “Don’t Tread On Me” in southern Indiana that folks up in Indianapolis just don’t seem to understand. The ghost of Seth Denbo, and the division between southern Indiana and Indianapolis that always seems to simmer just below the surface, will never be buried until establishment types in the mile square stop meddling south of 40.