National Socialist petitioning to run for Elkhart mayor

1/19/2015

Dale Duncan, who’s unemployed, needs 171 eligible signatures on petitions to get on the November ballot.

Dale Ray Duncan is petitioning to run for Elkhart mayor representing the National Socialist Movement. Here, he displays his Nazi Party flag in his apartment in Elkhart on June 10, 2013. (J. Tyler Klassen/The Elkhart Truth)

ELKHART — A National Socialist who believes in the separation of races is petitioning to run for mayor of Elkhart.

Dale Duncan said Thursday, Jan. 15, that he’ll be seeking sufficient signatures to get on the November ballot as a representative of theNational Socialist Movement. The Detroit-based group describes itself as a white nationalist organization, while the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national civil rights group, calls it a neo-Nazi group “notable for its violent anti-Jewish rhetoric, its racist views.”

“I’m fighting for the white race, yes, but I’m not against other races,” said Duncan, 60, who’s unemployed and relies on Social Security disability payments. He was vague on his vision if elected but singled out the education system, saying it “needs to be redone.”

Duncan lives in an east Elkhart apartment complex and generated the ire of neighbors in 2013 after he flew a Nazi flag from his unit’s balcony April 15, 2013, the day of the Boston Marathon bombing. He also flew it a few days later on Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Neighbors complained, and managers of the complex subsequently started enforcing a rule prohibiting flying flags outside individual units.

As a minor party hopeful, Duncan’s required to get 171 signatures of eligible voters in Elkhart to get on the ballot in the race, according to Chris Anderson, chief deputy in the Elkhart County Clerk’s Office. That figure represents 2 percent of the votes cast in the Indiana secretary of state race last year in the precincts that make up Elkhart.

Duncan, who acknowledges his bid is a long shot, has until June 30 to gather the signatures, which the Elkhart County Voter Registration Office would have to verify.

Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore, a Democrat, is seeking his third stint in the post. Two Republicans are also running, Tim Neese, a former state lawmaker and Elkhart City Council member, and Dan Boecher, executive director of Downtown Elkhart Inc.

Follow reporter Tim Vandenack on Twitter at @timvandenack or visit him on Facebook.

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