In an interview with Fox59 this week, Mayor Joe Hogsett claimed that former chief of staff Thomas Cook “was not in contact with anyone who was directly involved” with his 2023 re-election campaign.
But six people with knowledge of the campaign’s operations told Mirror Indy that the mayor’s comments are untrue.
And five of them went so far as to describe Cook as an integral player in the mayor’s re-election efforts. Beyond simply advising the mayor, they said Cook interacted with campaign staff and volunteers, sought campaign endorsements and helped produce campaign videos. He also appeared at the mayor’s May 2023 political watch party.
The mayor’s interview came just days after the City-County Council released the findings of its monthslong investigation into the Hogsett administration’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against Cook.
The 55-page report from law firm Fisher Phillips concluded that the administration did not break any laws, but it also raised ethical concerns around Hogsett’s decision to allow Cook to remain a city employee for 68 days after he was asked to resign.
After ordering two investigations into Cook’s alleged behavior — and after the mayor said he asked Cook to resign in 2020 — Hogsett also allowed Cook to participate in the mayor’s 2023 re-election campaign. In the interview with Fox59’s Russ McQuaid, Hogsett downplayed Cook’s role, emphasizing that Cook was unpaid.
Even so, four of those interviewed by Mirror Indy said Cook led the mayor’s campaign. One called him the mayor’s “de facto campaign manager.”
Mirror Indy agreed not to use the names of five people because they feared retaliation for speaking publicly.
The sixth person, City-County Councilor Jesse Brown, told Mirror Indy about a meeting with both Cook and Hogsett campaign manager Blake Hesch in attendance. Cook and Hesch met with the councilor after his victory in the Democratic primary, Brown said, to discuss how the Hogsett campaign could work alongside his campaign.
Mirror Indy also obtained a copy of a March 2023 email thread in which Cook thanked volunteers for their work on the campaign.
Among the people who appeared to receive the email are Hesch and Hannah Thomas, a former city staffer who joined the campaign as communications director that month. Others on the email chain include top city employees working under Hogsett, including chief of staff Dan Parker and Aliya Wishner, who is now the mayor’s director of communications.
“I just debriefed with JHH,” Cook wrote in the email, referring to Hogsett. “He offers his ‘big kudos’ to (redacted) for representing the administration at the phone bank tonight. He’s looking forward to seeing more of you in the future, hopefully.”
Reached by phone by Mirror Indy, both Hesch and Thomas declined to comment.
Hogsett spokesperson Emily Kaufmann, in an email, declined to answer several Mirror Indy questions for this article, saying she “can respond to questions related to the city of Indianapolis and the mayor’s office.”
A Mirror Indy email to Hogsett’s campaign finance director, Emily Gurwitz, went unanswered.
Cook did not respond to Mirror Indy’s request for comment for this article.
Calls to resign
Hogsett’s interview with Fox59 also came after Councilor Andy Nielsen called for the mayor’s resignation.
Following the release of the council’s investigative report, Nielsen said the mayor “demonstrated a profound lack of judgment and disregard for fundamental ethics.”
Get the backstory
Nielsen became the second councilor to urge the mayor to step down. He joined Brown, another eastside Democrat, who first called for the mayor’s resignation in August. Months later, Brown was booted from caucusing with fellow Democrats on council.
Fox59’s McQuaid asked Hogsett about Nielsen’s comments. The mayor defended himself, saying that Nielsen’s statement “is now being made when everybody knows everything about the situation.”
During the interview, McQuaid pointed out that Hogsett allowed Cook to access the mayor’s campaign knowing that the mayor had already asked him to resign from city government, according to a portion of the interview transcript shared with Mirror Indy.
McQuaid: “In retrospect… was that a mistake to allow him to come back in your campaign?”
Hogsett: “He wasn’t employed.”
McQuaid: “Well, you allowed him access to your campaign knowing that you had separated him from the office because of this misbehavior.”
Hogsett: “Well, yeah, but those two things are completely separate. I mean, him offering advice as to campaign-related matters oftentimes over the telephone … he was not in contact with anyone who was directly involved in the campaign, so it was a fundamentally different situation.”
Hogsett’s previous statements
The mayor’s comments to Fox59 also appear to contradict his previous statements about Cook’s involvement in the 2023 campaign.
In a September 2024 press conference, the mayor’s first following the publication of investigative articles from IndyStar and Mirror Indy detailing allegations against Cook, Hogsett was asked why the mayor brought his former top aide onto his campaign.
Hogsett answered that Cook was “only allowed to supervise one person, and that person’s name was Blake Hesch.”
When asked what Hogsett meant given that Hesch was the campaign manager, Hogsett said Cook “wasn’t technically supervising” but serving as “an adviser.”
What’s next?
Democrats on the City-County Council are now considering whether to meet privately in advance of the June 9 council meeting to discuss how to move forward after an IndyStar article this week raised questions about the investigative report from Fisher Phillips, according to two people familiar with the council’s thinking.
For example, the IndyStar report contained late-night text messages the mayor appeared to send to two of his subordinates, which they described as making them feel “uncomfortable.” Those messages were not contained in the Fisher Phillips report.
The mayor did not deny the validity of the text messages in his response to IndyStar’s inquiry.
The council is expected to vote on a request for $300,000 in city funds to pay the firm for its six-month investigation, which would bring the total of the report to around $450,000.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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