Indy Student

Gubernatorial Candidate Rupert Boneham: For Marriage Equality

2012-02-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Rupert Boneham, who is seeking the Libertarian nomination to run for Governor of Indiana, has come out in favor of marriage equality for the LGBT community. Boneham also specifically says he will fight against the marriage discrimination amendment and advocate for a repeal of Indiana's Defense of Marriage Act.

Boneham, a fan-favorite and winner of the reality television show Survivor, is the first gubernatorial candidate in Indiana history to come out for marriage equality. He's also the only candidate in recent memory to even talk about Indiana's DOMA, which seems to be universally ignored when the marriage amendment gets discussed.

This is a welcome departure from the typical "government shouldn't be involved in marriage" line of thinking that my libertarian friends all too often engage in. Politics is the art of the possible, and the expansion of marriage to the LGBT community is much more possible than completely dismantling civil marriage as a feature of government.

Hat tip: Bilerico Project.

Full Council Meets 1/30: What's Going On?

2012-01-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council will have the full council meet for the second time this month on Monday, January 30 (agenda). The proposed smoking ban (which I discussed over at Indy Politics) and a handful of other proposals (which Pat Andrews has addressed here) will be voted on by the full council.

But what I found interesting are the several appointments to government boards, some of which are being voted on that evening and some are being referred to committee.

Aaron Haith served as the council's attorney when Monroe Gray was Council President. He also served as Gray's personal attorney at the time. He's been before the Indiana Supreme Court ethics arm twice and, at one point, had his license to practice law suspended for a year due to a DUI arrest. Haith is nominated to be on the Indianapolis Housing Agency Board.

Interesting choice, I guess?

Marion County Sheriff John Layton and County Clerk Beth White are proposed to be re-appointed to the Information Technology Board. Doing a brief search through social media, most (if not all) board members have no background in IT and are heavy on government work. And this is the board that is in charge with negotiating major IT contracts!

This is not a specific slam against either Layton or White or how they run their respective county offices. But it is important to make sure those who do or have worked in IT be represented on the board so that they can work in-conjunction with those familiar with the IT needs of city-county government. With both properly represented on this board, they'd be able to negotiate better contracts and give taxpayers the best buy for their buck.

People who followed the 2011 council races might recognize a couple of names among the various appointments. Scott Coxey and Regina Marsh both ran as Democrats in 2011 in noncompetitive districts. Coxey is being appointed to the Telecom and Video Services Agency Board, while Marsh is being appointed to the Board of Public Safety.

And on a final note, I made a joke about councilor Brian Mahern imagining himself as Mayor in four years in front of a Democratic friend of mine. And that Democrat believes that's exactly what's going on. My friend noted he's upping his profile in various ways, including attending more community meetings and starting a Facebook page shortly after the November 2011 elections.

That's all for now. Tonight's meeting should be fun!

UPDATE: Proving that I have some of the smartest readers' out there, they directed me to this municipal code that apparently dictates who is supposed to be on the IT board. It pretty much is set in stone and the appointment process seems to be mostly ceremonial.

Who Are The Lunch Pail Republicans?

2012-01-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

I usually watch MSNBC in the mornings and over the last few weeks, I've noticed these 30-second ads by a group called Lunch Pail Republicans. The Lunch Pail Republicans are a political action committee formed by David Fagan to work against the legislation that is going through the Indiana Statehouse often called "Right-To-Work".

RTW bars employers from requiring employees to join a union as a condition of employment and can't force the collection of union dues. Advocates of this legislation say that if a union provides a good service, they won't be affected and also claim that several RTW states are more heavily unionized than Indiana is. The labor advocates say that it is an attack on workers' rights and also note that it does little, if anything, to encourage economic development.

Fagan sides with labor advocates and believes Republican leadership in Indiana has "lost their way". He says he's actively recruiting candidates to run against RTW supporters in the 2012 primary. And he also wants these candidates to run on

What I find interesting is that Fagan is finding a lot of support from somewhere because these ads are being played constantly on the television and radio. A standard practice for PACs is to produce an ad, slap it on the web, make a very limited ad buy and hope that political talk shows will pick it up. And maybe if it's a particularly well produced ad, it'll go "viral" on the Internet.

But that isn't the strategy with Fagan. In addition to seeing several of the ads on MSNBC, I've heard radio versions aired on 93.1 WIBC in the 12 noon-3pm time slot. Considering that's when Rush Limbaugh is aired, it means Fagan is getting money from somewhere.

And filing deadlines and petitions for ballot access are due really, really soon.

So we'll see how serious Fagan and his group is on primary challenges to Republicans who vote for Right-To-Work.

Introducing the MittBuck

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

One of the good folks over at the Something Awful Forums has set up a meticulous site that lets you into the world of former Governor Mitt Romney. He's the kind of guy who casually makes $10,000 bets as if it's $5 you'd find on the street.

So if you type in your paycheck and how often you get paid, it'll translate your income into how much money it would take for Mittens to relate to you.

You can try out the MittBuck calculator here.

What is Mike Pence's View on Illegal Immigration?

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Doug Masson mentioned that Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) has had none of his sponsored bills passed into law, and only a handful have gotten out of committee. I don't really agree with the point he's making, but it led to an interesting discussion on what Pence (who is also running for Governor) had sponsored and proposed.

Masson dug up a newspaper scan that showed one of the bills was to grant amnesty to an illegal immigrant that had resided in his Congressional district.

I suspect that if I was a Republican, my view on immigration and how it needs to be fixed would be in the minority. But I think Hoosier Republicans, who passed an immigration enforcement law in the 2010 legislative session, deserve answers from Pence.

Is Pence still not going to talk policy until after the primary?

Did Ron Paul and Mitt Romney Cut a Deal?

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

NBC News will be hosting the 53rd Republican Presidential Primary debate later tonight at 9pm EST.

And we've been able to see a bit more of the interactions between candidates as the field has narrowed with five debate mainstays (Perry, Huntsman, Bachmann, Cain, Pawlenty) with only Congressman Ron Paul, former Governor Mitt Romney, former Senator Rick Santorum, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich still remaining.

And as those in the debate have narrowed, the verbal scuffles candidates get into become more pronounced.

Everyone seems to be fighting with everyone. Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul each took jabs of all the other candidates on stage, and Romney has highlighted inconsistencies in Gingrich's and Santorum's respectful records.

But what I've found interesting is that Governor Romney has largely left Congressman Paul alone. Even when Paul attacks Romney, it's toned down when compared to how he takes on Santorum and Gingrich.

And Romney has not just not attacked Paul, but has even been exceedingly kind to him. During last Thursday's CNN debate, I remember him even deferring a question to Paul due to his medical training. While Gingrich and others have said they couldn't support Paul as a nominee, Romney has said he would.

Have these two struck a deal? Or does Paul maybe see him as the most receptive to work with the movement he's building?

Just something to ponder as we all stare in disbelief as Gingrich's campaign has gotten a third life...

SOPA/PIPA: Throw The Bastards Out!

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

As anyone who has been online the past 24 hours is probably aware, there are two bills making their way through Congress right now. SOPA (House) and PIPA (Senate) both have the overall goal of curbing copyright infringement by holding website owners criminally liable, up to and including jail time, fines, and shutting down the entire web site. In the case of web sites that are hosted outside of the United States, the Attorney General is able to force search engines to filter the site out and would get other methods at his or her disposal to prevent people from visiting the site.

Let's be clear: The movie and music industry have discovered that it isn't profitable to sue individuals and organizations. So they're essentially getting the government to do it for them.

This has caused an odd coalition of political conservatives, Internet entrepreneurship, and liberal groups to organize against the bills. And while there are a lot of ideas floating about, I think Erick Erickson over at Red State has the best idea.

Every single sponsor and co-sponsor of these bills needs to have a primary challenger.

It doesn't matter if it's a freshman TEA Party member or a former Presidential nominee or a senior member of the Senate.

Every single one of these people, many of whom have no CLUE how to operate a computer and rely on staff to manage Twitter and Facebook, needs to have a primary challenger and be defeated.

This is a clear assault on our free speech rights and must be defeated. Especially because President Barack Obama has only spoken mild criticism of the bills. Since Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which gave the US military the ability to indefinitely detain American citizens, I have no reason to believe he'd actually veto SOPA if it reached his desk.

I'm pleased to report that none of Indiana's Congressional delegation are sponsors at this time. But they still need to be informed and pressured to vote against these horrendous pieces of legislation.

Your 5th Congressional District Candidates Are...

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

I spent my Saturday morning in Kokomo, Indiana. At the invitation of the Howard County Republican Party, several of the candidates for the 5th Congressional district met for breakfast and discussed the issues facing the country. The candidates that attended were all Republicans running in the primary. In addition to the ones outlined in my last post, attorney Jack Lugar also attended. Incumbent Congressman Dan Burton declined to attend the event.

County Chairman Craig Dunn read from a prepared statement about Burton's non-attendance, which he had several dozen copies of to give out to anyone interested. I've transcribed it exactly as written.

Howard County Republican Chairman Craig Dunn statement on non-participation of Congressman Dan Burton in the Fifth District Candidate Forum

The 2012 Congressional and Senate elections will not be about politics as usual. With a $15 trillion National Debt, high unemployment, Presidential abuse of power and lack of transparency, voter dissatisfaction with government and numerous National Security threats, any serious candidate for office must participate in a fair and open discussion of the issues. No candidate, be they an incumbent or a challenger, has the luxury or privilege of failing to address these issues before the voters in a manner that allows adequate comparative opportunities.

Each publicly announced Republican candidate for 5th District Representative was invited to participate in this forum. Congressman Dan Burton declined to participate. The Howard County Republican Party and the Republican voters of the 5th Congressional District are deeply disappointed by his failure to participate.

I think it's important to emphasize that this is above the typical inner-party turmoil and clashing of egos. This isn't something that happened behind closed doors and got leaked to the media. This is something read out loud at an event open to the general public.

Chairman Dunn also repeatedly emphasized how important it is to elect precinct committeemen rather than have them be appointed, and made it very clear (both during his opening and closing statements) that he'd like to have 100% elected precinct committeemen.

The candidates each presented an interesting alternative to Burton, though only one of them ever mentioned Burton by name. Dr. John McGoff, who previously ran against Burton in the 2008 and 2010 primary, made it very clear that the 5th district deserved better than what it has gotten over the last several years. McGoff joked that he was the only non-lawyer on the stage, and that his role as a medical doctor would be valuable in the ongoing debate on healthcare. He's also the only veteran running, having served in both Iraq and Afghanistan under the Air National Guard.

It seemed that he had been following Congress with great interest, especially with the election of over 80 freshman being introduced to Congress in 2011. He commented that many of the freshman class have "already rolled over and given up". He specifically pointed to Congressman Larry Bucshon (R-IN 8th), a fellow medical doctor. He said Buschon's expertise as a medical doctor isn't being utilized in legislative efforts related to healthcare and doesn't sit on committees that related to healthcare. If elected to Congress, he thinks he'd best fit on a healthcare related committee or the Armed Services Committee. If elected, he'd limit himself to no more than three terms, but might stop at two.

David McIntosh, a former Congressman, presented himself essentially as Not-Dan-Burton. He was quick to mention that, having been a former Congressman, he'd still have his six years of seniority if elected. The only unique issue that McIntosh talked about was the Federal Reserve, talking about how the printing of more money would lead to the rise of inflation. McIntosh says he'd take a similar three term, six year pledge that he took during his first round of service in Congress.

Susan Brooks has a long history of serving in appointed positions, including Deputy Mayor of Indianapolis under Steve Goldsmith and US Attorney General for the Southern Indiana district from 2001-2006 under President George Bush. She walked a careful line from being an establishment and outsider, talking extensively about how the tax code needs to be restructured so that the base becomes broader but taxes also become flatter.

She said she'd like to take a term limit pledge, but also recognizes that it might take a few years to learn the ropes of Congress. She mentioned that she'd like to see freshman Congressman serve in leadership positions, and that's something she'd like to do before leaving Congress.**

**Full disclosure: Susan Brooks and I go to the same parish, St. Monica Catholic Church, and my family has known her for several years.

Jack Lugar was short on specifics, but presented himself as an outsider. He was passionate in how he spoke, and seems to be aiming for the Tea Party-esque vote.

Many of the candidates tackled the issue about possibly splitting up the "Not Burton" vote. Brooks provided the best response, noting that chunks of areas where Burton got a lot of votes in the primary are no longer part of the district, and that there are several new areas to the district "that are not eager to have Dan Burton as their Congressman." A McGoff supporter told me that their campaign estimates that Burton's support tops out at about 21% and that should provide plenty of wiggle room for other candidates to have a competitive race without having to worry about Burton getting a plurality.

Talking to attendees, they were impressed with all the candidates and the message was pretty clear: Anybody But Dan.

Blogger/lawyer/teacher Abdul-Hakim Shabazz moderated the event and posted audio over at his blog, Indiana Barrister.

On a final note, McIntosh's site has the 5th district outlined on Google Maps. This should prove useful to my Indianapolis readers, especially if you live on the north side of Marion County.

Meet the 5th District Candidates

2012-01-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

I'm attending a candidate forum tomorrow morning for candidates in the 5th Congressional district. Attending will be the following:

Susan Brooks: previously US Attorney General and married to Marion County GOP power broker David Brooks
David McIntosh: Former US Congressman from Indiana. May not yet live in Indiana.
John McGoff: Former Marion County coroner, medical doctor at Community East. He's previously run against US Congressman Dan Burton twice.

All of the candidates above are running in the Republican primary. The incumbent, Dan Burton, isn't expected to attend.

I'll try to grab a few words with the candidates after the debate.

I'll be making comments/pot-shots live on Twitter and Facebook. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to get them answered to the best of my ability.

Republican Establishment: Stop Talking About Mitt Romney's Record

2012-01-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Governor of Texas Rick Perry, making their last stand in the South Carolina primary, have recently been targeting former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney in the (likely short-lived) Republican primary race for the Presidential nomination.

And lately, they've been targeting Romney's time at Bain Capital, an investment firm that invests in start-up companies and failing companies. In more than a few cases, they invested in failing businesses, drive them into the ground, and sell off the assets.

So now Perry and Gingrich have both targeted Romney's time at Bain Capital. Perry called some of what the company did "vulture capitalism" and Gingrich's SuperPAC released a 28 minute film with ominous music and dark images which basically paint Romney as the Grinch.

And ever since then, the Republican establishment, including a lot of conservative talk radio and Fox News hosts, have come out and said that they need to stop talking about Romney's time at Bain (even though it's a central part of Romney's platform), that this is an attack on capitalism, that this sounds like an Occupy Wall Street rally, and on, and on, and on.

I think it's important to point out that Gingrich and Perry are not promoting federal laws to make what Bain Capital does illegal. What they are saying is that this is bad for a Republican nominee to have and it's baggage that could be avoided by nominating someone else.

I like how Gingrich has been putting it lately. You can't talk about Romney's time as governor (where he was a liberal Republican), you can't talk about his time at Bain, so what can you talk about?

I guess it's true what they say about Presidential nominations: Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line. What we're seeing right now is that the Republican establishment, including many supposedly non-establishment media figures, falling in line. Will the Republican base do so as well?

Lugar Might Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory

2012-01-12T08:00:00.001-05:00

I get a lot of mailings from campaigns and I usually don't even bother reading them. They're usually stuff I've already heard about, so it's no big deal.

But the other day, I got a mailing from Senator Richard Lugar's re-election campaign. In the e-mail, David Willkie, the political director for the Friends of Dick Lugar, wrote very little and basically just copied and pasted several sentences from a recent puff piece that Indianapolis Star political columnist Matthew Tully wrote.

Reading that e-mail made me question what Mr. Willikie and Lugar know about the GOP primary voters, and most voters in Indiana outside of Indianapolis.

Yes, the Star is the most read paper in the state. But there is a perception that Tully is a liberal (I don't think he is, but that's the perception). And, outside of central Indiana, there is a distinct "anti-Indianapolis" attitude. Bragging about this pseudo-endorsement isn't going to help him win over GOP primary voters. In fact, it might hurt him.

What should he have done?

Run away from it. Not even mention it. Hold a campaign rally where he burns a copy of the Star and then bites a head off a bat!

Okay, that last one is a bit much. But you get my point.

Lugar needs to run right during this primary. That means his campaign should probably stop talking up endorsements from Star endorsements.

What's Going On With Kessler Boulevard?

2012-01-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

Sometime last week, I left my house to go about my day at around 10am. My neighborhood exits out onto Kessler Boulevard, a two lane road with trees and houses on both sides. When I came back on that same day, I saw several trees that were taken down by the lane that heads south-southwest towards 38th street and I-65. In several of the yards, the stumps and several parts of the body of the tree still remained scattered in the yard. The next morning, I could easily see several more trees with marked with an X, and one tree in particular with a red-orange fence around it, meaning even more will be cut down.

Honestly, I was stunned with the efficiency. About a dozen trees cut down within a single 12 hour period? I'm impressed.

But I had absolutely no idea what was going on. So I fired off some e-mails and eventually found out that it was due to a Citizens Water project. At this time, I'm still trying to track down details from an official source on the specifics of the project.

Sunday afternoon, I talked with a neighbor who was doing yard work who had one tree cut down and has an orange fence around a tree that is due to be cut down. Like many of the other neighbors, the tree stump of the cut-down tree is still there as well as several large logs.

He told me that, when he was originally told about this project by the city two years ago, their property wasn't going to be included in the project and none of the trees in his yard would be touched. Over the past two years, the plans seem to change often, but as of last week, he thought the trees in his yard would be untouched by the project. When he came home last week, a non-indigenous tree that was 16 inches in diameter was cut down, and the other tree in his yard is fenced off and is going to be cut down soon. He complained that, over the past 17 years, the city has cut down many trees for projects and often doesn't replace them.

He also expressed concerns about how this project will affect his property value, noting that the non-indigenous tree that was cut down was worth several thousand dollars. He told me that other neighbors, who had indigenous oak trees, would be getting theirs replaced, but his wouldn't be.

I also asked if he's tried contacting the neighborhood association and he said it wouldn't do any good since the project is approved.

If you ask me, someone has some explaining to do.

Rumors! We've Got Rumors!

2012-01-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

Are you sick of me writing about Presidential primary politics? Well, I am too.

During this Christmas (academic) break, I went on a "mental vacation" and opted to write about the low hanging fruit, that being national politics.

But later this week, I'm completely back! And I'm tracking down some rumors about the upcoming 2012 Superbowl! Specifically, how it's going to affect residents of downtown Indianapolis.

Hopefully I can write a bit about it later in the week. Stay tuned.

Governor Buddy Roemer: The OTHER GOP Candidate YOU Don't Know

2012-01-07T15:00:00.002-05:00

Buddy Roemer is a former Congressman and Governor from Lousiana, serving in Congress from 1981-1988 as a Democrat, and 1988-1992. In the middle of his one term as Governor, he party-switched as a Republican.

Now, I won't pretend I'm an expert on Roemer's accomplishments as a Congressional representative or as a Governor. He's said in interviews that unemployment was high when he was elected as Governor and that the system was corrupt (I guess his predecessor was charged with theft?). And when his term ended, unemployment was low and, as he puts it, "other states send their Governors to jail, not Louisiana."

The last several years Roemer says he has managed a regional bank that, he proudly points out, took no federal bailout money and hasn't foreclosed on any mortgages that they hold.

Being a long-shot candidate, Roemer has intently focused his message on one issue. And his message is an interesting one.

Get the money out of politics.

Roemer says he's built his political career off of no money from political action committees. In this election cycle, he's taking no money from PACs, SuperPACs, no contribution over $100, and full disclosure. He proposes something similar for the first bill he pushed for if elected. PACs are allowed to exist, but they must be truly independent from candidates and not run by former staff or family members. And all candidates must fully disclose donations within 48 hours. He's also said he'd veto every other bill that came to his desk until this was done.

In an election season where a former pizza chain CEO has been included, Roemer's resume seems impressive. There are Governors, and there are Congressmen and Senators, and Roemer has been both! You'd think he'd be an obvious shoe-in at least for the early debates, where the standards typically are a bit lower to appear.

Nope. Roemer hasn't appeared in any of them.

Not only that, but he seems to have been blacklisted by most media outlets, getting the most airtime on MSNBC newscasts and their evening programs anchored by liberals like Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.

In every cycle, there are candidates that run who are clearly jokes and typically only appear on 1-2 ballots. They run on issues like vampireism or Star Trek or something like that.

If the Republican Party were interested in fixing the issue, they'd allow clearly qualified candidates such as Roemer into at least the first few debates. The Republican National Committee could even host it's own debates to ensure all GOP candidates are heard from at least a few times.

He also, by far, has the best Twitter account of all the GOP candidates. After a Politico writer jokingly used the hashtag #Roementum on Twitter, noting that Roemer had gained 1% in a New Hampshire poll, Roemer himself has started using it.

To find out more about Roemer's campaign, you can visit his web site.

UPDATE: Last night, on The Rachel Maddow Show, Roemer said he'd have an important announcement at 4pm, Thursday in New Hampshire. Press corps shows up and everyone is assuming he's going to drop it. But nope. Roemer trolled the press. He announced he won't drop out, he'll soldier on, yada. And then the mysterious 501(c)(4) Americans Elect shows up in their shiny new tour bus and asks if he'll run on their ticket. Roemer said "It's an option", and he's previously said he's looking into it.

Fred Karger: A Republican POTUS Hopeful You Haven't Heard About

2012-01-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

While I haven't been completely dismissive of the batch of Republicans running for the party's nomination for President, the whole media circus certainly has painted the process as a bit of a clown show. I've already written a lot about the mainstream candidates that are still or at least were running at some point, but there's a handful of GOP hopefuls who are running that haven't been covered a whole lot.

Fred Karger is someone who hasn't run for political office, but has been involved in politics for most of his adult life as a volunteer, aide in the Ronald Reagan White House, and more recently, a consultant. He's semi-retired since then, but has recently come back into the limelight to fight California's infamous Proposition 8, which would restrict marriage in California to only heterosexual marriage via a state constitutional amendment.

Karger is a bit of an oddball in the Republican Party. He's pro-choice, Jewish, openly gay and supportive of LGBT equality, but has expressed strong support for Congressman Paul Ryan's proposed budget which would cut many federal programs by large margins.

He's also the only candidate that has aggressively targeted the Mormon religion. Karger said, in an interview with the UK publication The Guardian that "If a President Romney got a call from the president of the (Mormon church), he has no choice but to obey. It is obedience over family and country." While Karger's statement boarders a bit on the inflammatory side, it likely has a bit to do with how the LSD church kind-of-sort-of supported efforts to pass Proposition 8 in California.

Karger, who has never run for public office before, knows that his chances are slim. He's mostly self-financing his campaign, he's openly campaigning not just as someone who is gay, but even worse *gaasp*, a moderate. But I heard him say on a radio show that he hopes to get into at least one televised debate to show to the gay youth in the US that anything is possible, including running for President.

For more on Karger, you can visit his website.

Next, I'll be covering that OTHER (serious) Republican Presidential candidate that no one is talking about.

A Tale of Good Public Service

2012-01-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

I wrote about my experience regarding the Broad Ripple Village Taxi company I had on New Year's Eve not too long ago. What I didn't report was that I fired off an e-mail to the Director of Code Enforcement, Rick Powers and one of his deputies. I also CCed my council representative, Council President Maggie Lewis. I sent this e-mail at about 2:40pm on January 1, 2012.

On January 2 at 6:21 AM (there's one of those in the morning????), I got a response from Lewis telling me she'd look into it and forwarding the concerns to Councilor Ryan Vaughn, who represents the Broad Ripple area on the council.

I later got an e-mail the evening of January 4 from Adam Collins, one of the administrators within the Department of Code Enforcement. He wrote that normally, taxi complaints require knowing the vehicle's cab number, but they'd still investigate my complaint by asking the company to identify the vehicle or submit all vehicles for inspection. Collins also wrote about some of the process that taxi code enforcement has undergone since DCE's creation, that through 40 random inspections every week, each cab is checked aesthetically at least twice a year and that random mechanical inspections are done weekly.

Collins also wrote that DCE has set up a specific e-mail (taxi@indy.gov) and phone number (327-TAXI) for taxi complaints.

Kudos to all involved in this.

Local Media Firm Hired by Ron Paul's Presidential Campaign

2012-01-05T19:03:00.000-05:00

The Englehart Group, owned by my good friend Blair Englehart, has recently been hired by the presidential campaign of Ron Paul to do some video work for the campaign. Staff of the group will be leaving tomorrow morning to join Paul's presidential campaign in New Hampshire. Paul is campaigning in New Hampshire prior to the state's Presidential primary, which is the first in the nation. Paul placed a repsectable third in the recent Iowa caucuses.

You can monitor The Englehart Group's Facebook page where the videos will be posted over the next several days.

Congratulations to my friend, Blair, and all of the folks at the Group. They work hard and do great videos and will be competing with some of the best out there.

Random Thoughts As I Watch Iowa Caucus Returns

2012-01-03T22:20:00.000-05:00

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has the most depressing job in national politics. She isn't able to talk up a lot of great Democratic policies that are insanely popular, because those don't exist. She's essentially paid to go on Sunday news/talk shows and go "But...but...BU$H!" and "A zillion months of private sector job growth". Sorry, Congresswoman Shultz, but those job stats mean nothing to the millions of Americans who are jobless and the millions more who are underemployed.

Four years later, President Obama can't run a re-election campaign on blaming his predecessor. David Axelrod and the other head honchos at Team Obama would do well to keep Shultz at arm's length during the election season.

And on the reverse, the eventual GOP nominee would do well to dig up every clip of Shultz possible, Tivo future appearances, and hope she takes an active role in the election season.

Iowa! Iowa! Iowa!

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Later today, the first votes will be cast in the election for President of the United States when the two major parties will hold their respective caucuses in Iowa. The entire GOP field, sans former Governor Jon Huntsman, is competing in Iowa to win the caucus. And even though there is no serious primary challenge to President Barack Obama, it's my understanding that Democratic caucuses will still be held and votes will be cast.

Anyone who has followed the polling and the media circus over the past several months knows that former Governor Mitt Romney, in most state national polls, has hovered around 22%. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.

Throughout the campaign, various candidates and non-candidates have surged past Romney in national and state polls, gaining several points and tying or going past Romney's poll numbers. Quite literally every candidate competing in Iowa has benefited from the "Not Romney" bump at some point, currently being enjoyed by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

Keep in mind that many states have moved their primary dates or caucuses, de-emphasizing the "Super Tuesday" primaries and spreading out over several months so the nomination process might go on for several weeks, if not months, before a clear winner can be found. The question is if these candidates can last that long.

JON HUNTSMAN: Huntsman, a former governor of Utah, decided not to compete in Iowa and is focusing squarely on New Hampshire. Huntsman, intentionally or not, started his campaign as the moderate of the field, but his record as a governor of a red state shows a very conservative record that would resonate well with Republicans in Iowa. At the very least, his name recognition would've been helped if he got the "Not Romney" surge at some point. His decision not to compete in Iowa may be his downfall.

The only benefit Huntsman might get from the Iowa caucuses is unintentional. If Romney's placing in Iowa is perceived as "weak", look for Romney supporters in New Hampshire to look for a new home.

Michele Bachmann: I continue to maintain that Bachmann as a candidate is performing very well in the past few weeks. She's been one of the only candidates to be both assertive and aggressive during the debates, going after Gingrich on a number of issues and going toe-to-toe with Congressman Ron Paul on Iran. Her interviews have been spot on, she's no longer saying crazy ass shit like "HPV vaccines might kill you". Even though her political views line up heavily with establishment Republican views, she's painted herself as an outsider very well.

That all being said, similar to Santorum, her campaign is on fumes. Of the four candidates running in Iowa as "Not Romney/conservative", she will be hit hard if she finishes in the bottom of the pack. If she finishes bottom three in the caucuses, look for her to scale back in South Carolina, if not completely drop out.

Newt Gingrich: The former Speaker's poll numbers have taken a HUGE dive from the Romney/Paul/Perry Super PACs' negative ads. But he's spent relatively little money on his campaign so far, so if he wants to, he can limp to North Hampshire and campaign there. I think he'll easily be in the bottom three along with Bachmann and Huntsman.

Why New Hampshire? Gingrich received the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union General, a conservative newspaper in New Hampshire. If he doesn't campaign there to be Not Romney, the newspaper may very well endorse someone else!

Rick Perry: Governor Perry is one of four Governors in the race, but his campaign, like Huntsman, has been badly managed. He got in much later than almost everyone else. His debate performance has been, at best, disappointing. There have been persistent rumors that he is quite literally on drugs due to major back surgery he was recovering from before he entered the campaign, which would explain his erratic behavior in debates and interviews.

And his message has sucked too. He started by campaigning on the "Texas miracle" of job creation, and has suddenly ditched that and campaigned heavily on social conservatism.

That all being said, he is still one of the best positioned candidates to survive and carry on to South Carolina. He seems to be running a serious campaign with a good ground game. He's got access to Texas money, something many of the non-Romney candidates lack. Unlike other candidates who have to really stretch on how they relate to those who work for a living, Perry grew up poor as dirt. He has more electoral experience running state wide, in a big state, than anyone else in the race.

I've been saying for a while not to count Perry out. On paper, he seems like the perfect candidate to bring the Republican establishment and the conservative-Tea Party-ish base together. He should easily finish fourth, but it'll be hard for him to overcome the Santorum surge and the base support that Paul and Romney have.

Rick Santorum: Santorum is the current "Not Romney" pick, but he's essentially lived in Iowa for a year. His campaign has little money, and he's hitching rides with volunteers. His campaign is running on fumes and he has no presence elsewhere and it isn't likely he'd be able to build a multi-state campaign even if he came in first.

But Santorum can easily be in the top three in the Iowa caucuses. Even liberal MSNBC host Ed Schultz says that Santorum is personable and answers questions directly and doesn't settle for bullet pointed answers. A recent Public Policy Polling poll shows he has a 60% favorability rating, meaning a lot of people would LIKE to vote for him!

Santorum coming in at three essentially hinders the other "conservatives" in the race and helps to further divide the four candidates competing for the title of "conservative".

Mitt Romney: Romney's overall support isn't really all that much then the votes he got in 2008. But he seems to have a good campaign going, he's appearing in Iowa (finally), and his base is motivated enough to show up for the polls. He should easily finish in the top two.

Ron Paul: Paul's supporters are fanatics and if there's one primary or caucus he can flat out win, it's this one. Look for them to go all out. But like Romney, Paul's support has a cap. He has limited appeal to Republicans and, similar to President Obama in 2008, is relying a lot on first-time caucus voters to make up his base.

Paul finishing in the top two won't do much to boost his own campaign, but will greatly hurt anyone else lower on the ballot.

On a final note, Paul's son, Senator Rand Paul of Tennessee, has been campaigning with his father lately. I think Ron won't run as an independent if only to not hurt his son's reputation with the Republican Party. His son's reputation has been he's more willing to play ball within the body of the Senate, and because of that, might be able to get into a leadership position or a Presidential appointment. I think they both realize that the best bets to make change in politics is within the Republican Party, and going third party will guarantee anything they've worked for will mean nothing.

Predictions for the Iowa caucuses:

7. Jon Huntsman

6. Michele Bachmann

5. Newt Gingrich

4. Rick Perry

3. Rick Santorum

2. Mitt Romney

1. Ron Paul

Elections! We Discuss Elections!

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

I appeared on the Internet show Civil Discourse Now, anchored by attorneys and bloggers Mark Small and Paul Ogden. I appeared with Jon Easter, who writes the Indy Democrat blog. We discussed the several state and local elections happening here in Indiana and across the nation. We touched on the U.S. Senate race in Indiana, the U.S. House of Representatives races in Indiana (as well as redistricting), the open Indiana Governor's race, and the Presidential GOP primary race. Jon Easter also briefly touched on the Indiana state Senate race, where a number of high profile Democrats from the lower chamber are gambling on more favorable Senate districts instead of less friendly House districts.

It was a great time, and I'm kind of glad some of the off-air banter wasn't captured!

Shady Behavior from Broad Ripple Village Taxi

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

I was walking towards Broad Ripple Village last night and I was about to cross a small street when I hear this creaking and squeaking sound. Usually it means it's some crappy car that a 20-something year old owns. But to my surprise, it was a taxi cab from Broad Ripple Village Taxi. As it passed me by, I noticed several dents in the vehicle as well on the driver's side.

Interesting note: Broad Ripple Village Taxi was one of several cab companies that failed to have their license renewed back in August, 2010. I guess they've worked out those issues since then.

And Speaking of Michele Bachmann...

2011-12-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's because she's barely hitting double digits in polling, but I think Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) has achieved some type of Zen-like state. Maybe when you know there's nowhere to go but up, you can really speak and act freely on the GOP Presidential primary field.

Because I've been impressed with her campaign performance recently.

I thought she had an excellent debate performance a few nights ago. I know Republicans like to talk about Reagan's 11th Commandment, forgetting that Reagan ran against an incumbent Republican President in a primary and almost won, but she did something that few of the other candidates have been willing to do themselves: differentiate from the other attacks, and attack.

And she did both in the same night. Several times.

And I think that helps people take her seriously as a candidate.

I don't think it's because any of her policies have changed. But she is skipping the easy bullet points in the debates and going for the substance. She's giving interviews to media outlets that aren't necessarily considered "friendly grounds" to Republicans. and she is doing well. She's working these fairly large crowds on her Iowa bus tour from early in the morning until late at night.

Compare that to former Senator Rick Santorum who is still going for the easy applause lines in the debates. Who, from what I've heard, isn't all that much of a people person. Who, despite practically living in Iowa since 2010, is polling comparably with former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman in the single digits.

Huntsman, by the way, isn't campaigning in Iowa at all and is exclusively focusing on New Hampshire.

I don't think this resurgence of Bachmann is going to get her the nomination. That is a steep hill to climb. But I do think she'll be able to bow out having run a good race, and I think that will at least put her on a Vice President list for the eventual nominee.

It's Not Often I Defend Michele Bachmann, But... Part II

2011-12-16T21:06:00.000-05:00

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was 100% right about Speaker Newt Gingrich's activities as a ~~historian~~ lobbyist during Thursday's Republican POTUS candidate debate. Bachmann correctly attacked him for cashing big, fat checks from Freddie Mac, an institution that lives off of taxpayer money.

Gingrich has previously said that politicians who take money from Freddie Mac should be jailed, but he made an exception for himself because he wasn't an elected official.

But Bachmann shot back, saying you don't have to be a registered lobbyist to peddle your influence.

This wasn't the only thing Bachmann knocked Gingrich over the head with. Bachmann attacked him for his support for government sponsored enterprises and for campaigning for pro-choice Republican congressional candidates. At one point, an irritated Gingrich viciously said to Bachmann "Ms. Bachmann doesn't have her facts straight."

The Friday morning punditry are even accusing Gingrich of sexism, saying that he wouldn't talk that way to any of the male candidates. And I agree. He has gentlemanly disagreed with everyone else in the debates, but has given snark responses in past debates to Bachmann.

I think Bachmann has gotten a raw deal, both from the Republican Party establishment and from the news media as part of these phony debates.

Don't mistake this as an endorsement of Bachmann. She's FAR out there on a number of issues that I passionately disagree with her.

But at least she's a serious candidate. Gingrich, someone who has been a part of the Washington establishment for 20+ years, is on a damn book tour.

Save The Star? What's There to Save?

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Blogger and former Indianapolis Star journalist Ruth Holladay has extensively covered the Indianapolis News Guild's fight against cutbacks that have been mandated by Gannett, the Star's corporate owner. These cuts include a reduction in overall staff, pay cuts, pay freezes, and probably a whole lot of other things that makes it harder for the largest newspaper in the state to cover local and regional news.

And the guild's demands are not unreasonable. Despite it being a very tough time for the traditional print media, the Star is still overall profitable, and Gannett is taking in tons of cash. But they're largely doing it by cutting newspapers to the bone, outsourcing everything that isn't the kitchen sink, fluffing papers with wire stories and...well, that's about it.

So why am I reluctant to write about this? Why am I not out in the streets chaining myself to one of those new electronic parking meters that are on Pennsylvania right outside of the Star building?

Basically, what's the big fuss? This has been going on for years.

I'm often critical of The Indianapolis Star, what they do (and don't) report on, and what they editorialize for and their logic in their editorials. But I also know there are a lot of passionate employees who work at the Star, including their reporters and photographers. I know this because, if I make a factual mistake in critiquing the Star, I hear about it. Straight from them.

And when the Star wants to commit resources to covering a story, they can do an excellent job. They've been right up there with television media and blogs with coverage of the LiTEBOX and Duke Energy scandals.

But all too often, "coverage" of a story will be reduced to being trivialized in the Behind Closed Doors gossip column, such as was done with the coverage of Councilor Ryan Vaughn's conflict of interest in the parking meter ~~scam~~ sale. Or it'll be casually dismissed in a sentence within an editorial or a Tully column, as was done with criticisms of the water utility sale.

And this isn't something that developed over the last 6 months. This has been persistent over the last 2-3 years, at least.

So if I can be convinced that, if the Guild gains these concessions then the reporters will be able to pursue more stories, more aggressively, more often, rather than the sporadic appearance they are now, I'll be out there with a megaphone leading the charge. If that means whatever barriers are stopping reporters now will be lifted, then count me in as a supporter!

Until then, I'll just watch, observe, and hope for the best.

Can Ron Paul Win Iowa?

2011-12-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

The latest numbers, with full metrics disclosed, have come out of Iowa in the upcoming Republican caucus contest to nominate a POTUS candidate.

And what's the headline Public Policy Polling leads with?

"Paul closes in on Gingrich".

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is the latest "Not Romney" front runner of the pack, but it appears his support is very soft. He's lost five points total, and his favorability numbers are down as well as support among those who describe themselves as members of the Tea Party movement.

Congressman Ron Paul, however, has not only gotten his 10-12% rabid and fired up, but built upon it. His favorability numbers are up, and Public Policy Polling notes he's doing well with young voters, first time voters, and non-Republicans. PPP notes this is a similar path that now President Barack Obama took when he won the Iowa caucuses in 2008.

Paul's supporters are also more committed to him, with only 54% of Gingrich supporters saying they'll stand by their man.

So what can we expect from here on out?

Expect Paul's campaign and related political action committees, as well as former Governor Mitt Romney's POTUS campaign and PACs, to keep hammering Gingrich with negative ads. For three weeks. Watch Gingrich's numbers sink like a rock. Watch Paul activate his ground game in Iowa, which really was never abandoned since his 2008 run, and the other candidate's numbers will sink because none of them besides Romney have a ground game in Iowa.

Even though Romney is trying to win Iowa, I suspect there is one candidate that he wouldn't mind winning. He'd absolutely LOVE it if Ron Paul won Iowa. That would kill the campaigns of most of the has-beens in the GOP field. Texas Governor Rick Perry and Gingrich might be able to limp along to South Carolina and Florida, but being defeated by Paul would be a miserable way to start the primary season.

Meanwhile, Romney, like Paul, is looking at the primary fight further out than just the first handful of states, and both have the money and infrastructure to work it well into March.

As I've commented before, don't count Governor Perry out just yet. But if he wants a viable shot, he needs to not be beaten by Ron Paul.

Politco Discovers the Blatantly Obvious: Newt Gingrich Isn't Serious

2011-12-14T21:09:00.001-05:00

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is the latest "Not Romney" to take the lead in national polls and most every state for the Republican POTUS nomination, including Iowa. But Gingrich is quite literally being attacked by all sides. Senator Tom Coburn and any Congressional Republican who could get in front of a camera have taken to the airwaves to talk about how they can't support a Gingrich campaign exactly because they know how horrible of a leader he is. Former Governor Mitt Romney, Congressman Ron Paul, and Governor Rick Perry are all running ads against Gingrich in Iowa, a key state that Gingrich needs to win to carry on to later primary states. Radio show host Michael Savage has offered Gingrich $1 million to drop out, saying that Gingrich will be seen as a "fat, old man" against a debate with President Barack Obama, and would lose against Obama.

So looking at Gingrich's actual campaign, the folks at Politico have wondered what anyone with a brain has known for some time. Newt Gingrich is not a serious candidate for the Republican POTUS nomination. He is on a tour to up his speaking fee, sell his books, and hock his movies.

His entire campaign staff in Iowa quit months ago, and upon that happening, he went on vacation. His campaign has no money. His schedule is erratic and he isn't spending time where he needs to. He has no ground game and isn't planning any media buys. He won't be campaigning aggressively in Iowa until December 27, 2011. His hand-written naming of potential delegates of New Hampshire falls short of the 40 really needed when even the low polling Jon Huntsman could name 40 people who supported him.

Nevermind some of his disastrous policies. At least the other guys and gals are seriously campaigning because a part of them wants to be the President of the United States.

But Gingrich doesn't. He wants to up his speaking fee and sell books. He wants to cash in on his public service, something he's been doing every day since he was forced to resign by his own Republican caucus in 1999. I think it's absolutely disgusting that someone can abuse campaigning for the highest elected office in the country in this way. He should refund every dollar to any conservative who thought he was seriously running, because he has deceived them and conservatives and Republicans deserve better.

Broad Ripple Parking Garage Becomes Hot Mess

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, the Powers-That-Be had decided that Broad Ripple needed a parking garage. And if you had talked to anyone from Mayor Greg Ballard's office, outgoing Council President Ryan Vaughn (Broad Ripple lies in the council district he represents), or the Broad Ripple Village Association, they were all singing the praises of how amazing and awesome this garage would be. It'll bring a much needed police sub-station to the community, a little more retail, and almost 300 new parking spaces. Sure, we're kicking in $6.3 million dollars for a garage that we get no revenue from, no ownership of, or really no control at all. And sure, similarly sized parking garages (that look nice, if I may say so myself) contain more spaces and cost less than this $15 million proposal. And yes, the contract between Keystone Group and the city has never been made public.

But hey! New parking spaces! Electric car charger! Safe bike parking!

Man, how times change.

Now the Broad Ripple Village Association's Land Use Committee is refusing to support the proposed parking garage because it's changed drastically compared to the plans they first saw and used to convince BRVA members of how awesome it is. Two businesses near the proposed site, including a veterinarian clinic, are remonstrating against the garage and the several zoning variances they're hoping to avoid.

The vet's specific complaint is that the bank drive-thru exits directly into a small alley, which the vet's employees use to walk dogs. It's a very small alley that I doubt sees a lot of traffic and a bank drive-thru would greatly increase that.

And before anyone mentions the current Chase drive-thru located in the same area, it's designed so any cars exit onto College rather than the alley.

Retail space has expanded from 14,000 square feet to 25,000, so maybe Broad Ripple will get a Wal-Greens after all! At the same time, they want to make spaces much smaller, and aren't even trying to hit the promised 350 spaces.

It also looks like the structure is going to expand and overflow from the property so that some of it will be above the sidewalk. This just sounds like it's going to be a big, huge structure that will be an eyesore for what is considered the "entrance" to Broad Ripple.

Also, it looks like the electric car charger and internal bike parking have been completely removed from the re-designs way back in October.

If we're absolutely determined to blow $6 million on this, how about we start from scratch and make sure it isn't a boondoggle?

For more information:
Indy Star article
Advance Indiana
Had Enough Indy? (which has links to several other relevant posts)

Rick Perry's Iowa Ad: My Thoughts

2011-12-10T17:16:00.000-05:00

Governor of Texas and Presidential candidate Rick Perry was one of the few serious contenders in the Republican presidential field who currently holds political office, and the only one who currently serves as governor of a state. The political pundits were spouting off about he was planning to campaign on the Texas miracle of job creation (of course, I'd say if you put a bunch of oil in my backyard I'd be able to create jobs too, but I digress). He seemed to be the candidate who could bridge the Republican Establishment and the Tea Party/grassroots in Republican politics. Of the three candidates the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama was watching before the primary really kicked off, one of them was Rick Perry.

Perry, whose high point in the polls as "Not Romney" essentially was the day before he officially entered the race, has been plagued by problems on the campaign trail. His overall debate performance has been horrible, his gaffes (especially for someone who has been in elected office for most of his adult life) numerous, and his ability to do "retail politics" almost non-existent. This is in stark contrast to what has reportedly been his history in Texas, where everyone and their mother SWEARS he's actually a really good campaigner.

So what does the "jobs" candidate put out in his first big ad push as some likely caucus attendees are starting to pay attention? Well it's about dem gays and school prayer!

Are these the issues Iowa Republicans really care about? Will this ad help motivate someone to go to a school gym or a church basement and attend a caucus for a couple of hours while they may still be nursing a New Years' hangover on January 3, 2012?

Well, maybe.

Iowa is one of the few states that has legalized same-sex marriage. In Varnum v. Brien, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that essentially the state has no business restricting marriage licenses to same-sex couples but recognizing and issuing them to opposite-sex couples. That 2009 decision was unanimous. In the following 2010 retention election, all three justices who were on the ballot were dismissed by voters due to active campaigning from religious organizations such as the National Organization for Marriage. Republicans in the state legislative branch have introduced constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage (and essentially overturn the court decision), but it has been blocked by Democrats who have, since 2009, controlled at least one house of the state legislature.

And if the GOP voters care about that, they may also have the misconception that prayer has been "banned" from schools.

I know every liberal pundit in the world has been going "lol most disliked YouTube video ever", but in the age of the Internet, we need to remember that these political ads are being made for the early states, not for the entire nation. Also, YouTube users are idiots.

And right now, this ad (I couldn't find the other where he's wearing the same jacket) "re-introduces" Rick Perry. It's folksy. It has some good background music. It's just him. If he can run this for a week, then put something with some bite in it before Christmas that REALLY lays it into Romney/Gingrich, then air something positive (maybe about his jobs or economic plan?) between Christmas and January 3, I think he has a shot of at least keeping his campaign alive long enough to go for a win in South Carolina. Especially if Newtmentum ends of self-destructing.

Sting Operations Nabs Former Politician?

2011-12-07T16:55:00.001-05:00

Word on the street is that a sting operation nabbed a former high ranking political figure. He was allegedly caught soliciting a male prostitute in a downtown Indianapolis hotel. The sting took

place around 2pm today. As I get more details, I'll make a new post.

And usually December is a lull in juicy political gossip.

UPDATE: The only notable name that seems to appear in yesterday's sting operation is a Brian Hasler. There's a former Democratic state representative who also goes by that name who is now a lobbyist.

More on Redistricting: Don't Trust David Brooks

2011-12-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

I've previously talked about the details of the actual effort of redistricting in terms of the actual process. Now I want to tell you why David Brooks, the man charged with proposing maps for precincts and Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council districts, is not trustworthy.

David Brooks was contracted by outgoing Council President Ryan Vaughn (R-District 3) to make maps for new precincts and new council districts to the tune of $225,000. This contract was not open for bid and was not approved by the full council or any other body. To the best of my knowledge, no one else was even consulted about the contract, including the rest of the Republican caucus and Mayor Greg Ballard (R).

According to the Rules of Professional Conduct, an attorney is essentially an advocate for their client. They are supposed to represent their client's best interest. They aren't allowed to do anything illegal, but they are under no obligation to have your best interests at heart unless you're cutting the check.

Even if you're a member of the council, the body that has the authority to redistrict, he is under no obligation to give you good advice. He is only there to represent the interests of his client, Council President Vaughn.

I'd highly encourage members of the council, advocacy groups, and citizens to to take Brooks' opinions on redistricting with a grain of salt. He is hired to serve his client's interest, not yours.

First Thoughts on Council Redistricting

2011-12-02T14:00:00.001-05:00

Though I've commented on other forums, I've been hesitant to comment on my own blog because I really wanted to fully educate myself on the issue of council redistricting and the adjustment of precincts. I mean yeah, they released these half-assed in the early afternoon two days before Thanksgiving, and four public meetings have been called sporadically and pretty much only posted about on a handful of websites.

But I digress.

Say what you will about Mayor Greg Ballard and his major initiative pushes such as the water company sale and the parking meter deal, but I think he had some pretty good marketing people. Even though I was harshly critical of both deals, I always had councilors and contacts on the 25th floor who would answer my questions and engage me in civil discussion. Both of those big pushes were stretched out over several months. Yes, it was mostly a dog-and-pony show in public forums, but at least they existed and it appeared at least some people appeared to be think they were genuinely working for the people.

In this case, this is a completely political move from this "non-political" mayor, Greg Ballard, and Council President Ryan Vaughn.

Let's first establish this. David Brooks, the attorney that Vaughn unilaterally hired to do the reprecincting and redistricting, is a blatant political figure. Brooks, a longtime figure of Marion County GOP politics, is the chairman for Center Township. Ironic, considering he lives in Hamilton County.

He also doesn't come off as very friendly, or someone who has spent a lot of time in public life. I don't know what area of law Brooks practices in, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's an area of law where he spends a lot of time pouring over thick legal books in some office. He got a bit testy tonight to some Democrats in the audience, as well as representatives of Common Cause Indiana and the League of Women Voters. Say what you will about the Ballard folks, but most of them have been able to keep their cool even when being questioned. They might DODGE the question, but they don't resort to sighing loudly or try to completely ignore the person asking the question.

Oh, did you want to see specific maps of the districts? With like, streets and stuff? Then come on up to this HUGE table with a bunch of folders...that's kind of confusing and intimidating. It might be a bit confusing, because it's based on the old precincts. Or it's based on the new precincts, but those aren't approved yet. Or something. I kind of got lost. Brooks also doesn't really know how to project his voice, so it was hard to make out what he was saying at times.

I asked a question both about the legality and the timing of this.

I quoted Indiana Code, which states (emphasis by me in bold):

IC 36-3-4-3
City-county legislative body; division of county into districts; composition of body; election; petition for division of county
Sec. 3. (a) The city-county legislative body shall, by ordinance,
divide the whole county into twenty-five (25) districts that:
(1) are compact, subject only to natural boundary lines (such as railroads, major highways, rivers, creeks, parks, and major industrial complexes);
(2) contain, as nearly as is possible, equal population; and
(3) do not cross precinct boundary lines.
This division shall be made during the second year after a year in which a federal decennial census is conducted and may also be made at any other time, subject to IC 3-11-1.5-32.

So I asked him if it's legal. Brooks simply responded "Yes, it's legal" and then was silent for a few seconds and was looking for a sign that I was satisfied with that answer. I wasn't, and I don't think anyone else in the room was either. So he expanded on it saying that it can be done this year, but it also must be done next year. He theorized that it could be as simple as re-affirming what happened this year.

I also asked about the timing. Yes, I wanted to ask about the $225,000 payment he got, and how much work he actually did, and all that jazz, but I'd be hitting a stonewall. So I went for the quick argument. They introduce this thing at 1pm two days before Thanksgiving, schedule four meetings in various parts of town at the last minute, are introducing this Dec 5, and are expecting a vote Dec 19th from the full council. And at some point, a committee hearing is going to be held as well. Maybe that's a bit too close for the Holidays? Maybe some councilors will be out of town? Maybe some citizens who'd like to pay closer attention would be out of town?

Brooks suggests that the council could review this and take it under advisement, but that's simply not true. Dec 31, 2011, at 11:59pm, all legislation pending in the council dies as the clock hits midnight, including this redistricting if it doesn't pass.

One of the first questions Brooks was asked was why Irvington was broken up into three different council districts. After this was mentioned. Brooks had this stunned look on his face, as if he was just now learning about this information.

Oh, and this was preceded by a bunch of banter about keeping "communities of interest" together. Apparently, "communities of interest" is code for packing a bunch of Democratic leaning voters together in a handful of districts, but splitting up neighborhoods that, if done right, can lean Republican.

Also, why am I talking about Brooks so much? He isn't an elected official. He can't really address the legislative aspect of redistricting. But not a single elected Republican was there. Only one councilor, Brian Mahern, bothered to show up. Though honestly, a lot of the bickering between Mahern and Brooks lacked substance. One extended debate was about access to the redistricting software, and Brooks mentioned he only had a one-use license. Software licensing is really expensive, and purchasing a multi-use license for something you only use once every four years might not be the wisest fiscal move.

But Mahern does get credit for getting Brooks to admit that he met with absolutely no one while redoing the precincts and redistricting the districts.

Overall, this was a complete waste of time to attend. I'd encourage anyone who was planning on attending next Tuesday's event to just go to your favorite bar and have a few drinks. You won't have learned anything about how redistricting works, but hey, at least you'll be a bit drunk.

State House Republicans: Let's Drug Test Dem Poors

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Two Indiana statehouse Republicans plan on introducing a bill in the upcoming three month 2012 legislative sessions on drug testing welfare recipients (or more specifically, those getting money benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Presumably, those who would test positive would be disqualified from these benefits.

Believe it or not, this has been done before in Florida. Governor Rick Scott, who owned an investment in a chain of urgent care clinics in Florida which he later sold under political pressure, pushed hard for this legislation to pass. Scott has claimed that "Studies show that people that are on welfare are higher users of drugs, than people not on welfare".

Funny, because only 2% of those tested in Florida failed, while another 2% didn't or refused to take the test. The article linked to above kind of goes back and forth on the OTHER argument, that if it actually saved any money by kicking these people off of TANF, but let's save that for the other time.

Let's go with the argument that dem poors do more drugs than us civilized folks.

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Florida's overall rate of illicit drug use is 8%.

Last I checked, 2% is less than 8%.

So poor people aren't more likely to use drugs, and the financial savings on it are questionable at best. So why are we in Indiana considering this?

I think this will kind of turn into one of those pieces of legislation that isn't intended to pass and when Democrats vote against it, you'll see it on direct mail pieces in October 2012 saying "Liberal elitist Ed Delaney voted to GIVE A BLANK CHECK to HEROIN ADDICTS who want to RAPE AND EAT SMALL KITTENS!" Basically, they want to turn those damn poor people into the new Republican boogie man. The older one, gays and lesbians...I'm sorry, "protecting traditional marriage", has to wait to be played until at least 2013.

So with this being a time where the so-called middle class is decreasing, and more and more are relying on TANF and other forms of public assistance, is this really a wise move?

And what's the real point in all this? To kick people while they're down? To save a few thousand bucks, if that? What about the other leeches in government? Lobbyists, contractors (especially the lawyers who send invoices for hundreds of hours of work that aren't even audited and are essentially cut a blank check), the elected officials themselves? There's no shortage of juicy gossip of what goes on after hours in some of the hotels downtown while the legislature is in session.

So while I'm overall against drug testing in theory, let's put it into practice. Anyone, corporate welfare, political welfare, or regular welfare, give us a hair sample and piss in a cup.

Yeah right, who am I kidding. That'll never happen. That's way too logical and fair.

ICVA Releases Horrible Super Bowl Ad "Promoting" Indy

2011-12-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

You'll want five minutes of your life back after you see this.

The Indiana Convention and Visitors Association posted this clip on one of their YouTube channels. The word on the street is it was intended for a trade show of some sorts. But I don't think that makes me feel any better.

This clip basically epitomizes every single complaint I've ever heard about ICVA and Indianapolis Downtown Inc and all the other similar organizations all rolled into one. That they're frankly not only downtown focused, but primarily focused in the "Mile Square" and everything else is on their own.

The overall message I got from this ad was:

We have like, six hotels, total.
If you aren't staying at one of these downtown hotels, you're probably a loser.
Use the Skywalk so you don't have to see or watch or hear or feel anything unseemly, like snow or cold or salt on a sidewalk.
Don't ever go outside.
Eat at in-house restaurants.
We can't stress this enough, don't ever go outside.

One very reliable source, who generally holds ICVA's media work in high regard, is telling me that this little clip cost $35,000. ICVA released a statement saying

This clip seems to have gone "viral", with even many of my non-political Facebook and Twitter friends commenting on it. At the time I'm writing this, there are 146 "Dislikes" on YouTube compared to 62 "Likes".

Finally, ICVA uploaded this comment to their video:

To reiterate, this video was produced to pre-promote a trade show in Chicago for convention and meeting planners. The goal was to showcase our hotels and convention center and have some fun with the fact that we're hosting the Super Bowl. As a parody it was not intended to be taken too seriously and, by no means, was it meant to encapsulate all that Indianapolis has to offer. It didn't cost a dime and nobody was hurt in the filming of this video.

Make of it what you will, though I personally don't buy the whole "didn't cost a dime" line.

UPDATE: The video has since been yanked. You can read this blog entry from the ICVA blog and see their train of thought and how they're obviously lying through their teeth. I love how they keep repeating that it was for a trade-show and only intended to them, but then people point to their Twitter and Facebook feed where it was ALSO posted. One commenter even notes that the Facebook posting says, specifically, to "Share It".

On the one hand, if this is the worst screw up that happens during the Super Bowl, we're lucky. On the other hand, if these marketing geniuses don't know how to use the "Unlisted video" option on YouTube, or how to embed a low quality video in an e-mail, then I question if they can handle marketing Indianapolis during the Super Bowl.

The sports blog DeadSpin was particularly brutal.

Susie Day and Mike Speedy Think Lincoln Plowman Should Serve Sentence at Home

2011-11-28T17:00:00.001-05:00

State Representative Mike Speedy (R) and outgoing councilor Susie Day (R) recently wrote letters to Judge Larry McKinney. The subject matter: Pleading their case so that convicted felon Lincoln Plowman could serve his sentence outside of prison. Plowman, a former Republican councilor and high ranking IMPD officer, was recently convicted on federal charges of bribery and attempted extortion.

I think it's absolutely disgusting that Day and Speedy wrote these letters just so their friend won't have to go to jail. I think it's sickening that people like Day and Speedy see nothing wrong with Plowman using his power and influence within his government jobs to enrich himself and his "clients".

I think it says a lot about our elected officials' moral compass that someone can betray the public trust, use government resources for their own personal benefit, and cost taxpayers thousands of dollars, and they think it's appropriate for that corrupt person to sit at home as punishment. I can't help but wonder if they'd give the same type of leniency to someone who steals $100 from a gas station. That's far less money than what Plowman stole.

If you were on Facebook at the time Plowman was convicted, you'd see members of the City-County Council talking about what a great, moral, awesome, kind, compassionate, amazing person Lincoln Plowman is. That this isn't the Plowman they know. That they can't believe he did this. That he's just a swell guy.

I've got news for those councilors: Your friend was convicted in a federal court of abusing the public's trust. It took a jury of his peers only a few hours to convict him. And I think it says a lot about you, personally, that you guys continue to defend this man.

If you feel like contacting Mike Speedy and Susie Day to tell them how you feel about this issue, here's how to reach them:

Mike Speedy:

Personal Facebook page

Facebook Campaign page

Indiana House Contact page

Susie Day:

Personal Facebook page

Twitter page

317-787-2417

It's Not Often I Defend Michele Bachmann, but...

2011-11-23T09:30:00.000-05:00

Recently, Presidential candidate and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. When she was introduced, Late Night's house band, The Roots, played her out with "Lying Ass Bitch", a song by ska-punk band Fishbone.

To his credit, Fallon conducted a good interview and Bachmann must've found her Zen place or something, because she's been doing well on the campaign trail the last couple of weeks.

But it was absolutely shameful that she was introduced with that song and I can't believe how some people on the Left, who would be screaming misogyny if Nancy Pelosi or Michelle Obama was introduced with a song like that, are brushing this off as humor. You'd see the nut jobs from Democratic Underground and other fringe organizations gathering signatures and Occupying NBC and it'd be the outrage of the year.

It's too bad. I actually really like The Roots, but this'll make me think twice before I buy concert tickets to see them.

The Ongoing LiTEBOX Drama

2011-11-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

And before anyone says, yes, LiTEBOX is the way all the company's officials have been using it.

LiTEBOX's Twitter account is really quite bizarre. I mean, at first, it just looks like it posts whatever their Facebook page posts. But sometimes they get into Twitter debates and stuff like this slips out.

Apparently, someone from LiTEBOX thought that there'd be some great, awesome puff piece in the Saturday edition of the Indianapolis Star.

Then when, surprise, nothing appeared in the Star about LiTEBOX the Saturday before the election, this bizarre tweet was posted along with a link to a (now deleted) Facebook post.

Then the much talked about job application was posted with these great, awesome, easy-to-follow instructions. Kind of odd that this job application is one page long, asks for a Social Security number, doesn't ask for work history, personal or professional references, or really ask for much. Also, it's hosted at "freepdfhosting.com" because I guess LiTEBOX's website couldn't handle the awesomeness of a job application!

Oh, also, you aren't actually applying for a job at LiTEBOX but you're applying for a job through CFA Staffing, which is a company that seems to largely handle temporary work.

Oh, also, remember those detailed, easy-to-follow instructions that LiTEBOX typed out, such as "fill out this form" and "click the submit button." They follow it up with this Facebook post that essentially says "Don't do any of the stuff we previously said and, in fact, do the opposite". Then they talk about a SEVENTEEN PAGE JOB APPLICATION that will be posted at some point, which I think kind of screws over the people who've already applied, but I digress.

And this is the business that our man Mitch described as "visionary"? If he's head over heals in love with this, then I've got a bridge he might be interested in.

Republicans Blame Everyone But Themselves for Council Losses

2011-11-12T13:30:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday, the citizens of Indianapolis-Marion County elected divided government. Mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican, won his bid for re-election. At the same time, the At-Large seats on the City-County Council went from two Republicans, one Democrat, and one Libertarian to all four being held by Democratic representatives. The only other switches were in two district races, where a Republican gained a seat held by a Democrat, and a Democrat gained a seat held by a Republican. That gives Democrats a three vote edge.

Recently, Republicans across social media and blogs have decided to simultaneously dismiss the Libertarian party as useless and also call them "spoilers." Jon Elrod, a former representative in the Indiana state legislature, pens a post over at Capitol & Washington on the race between Republican Jack Sandlin and Libertarian Ed Coleman in council district 24. You can read it for yourself, but it essentially boils down to "Haha! Looooosssseeerrrrrrs!" This isn't Elrod's only rant against Libertarians. His Facebook page is literally filled with them.

But then I started seeing some other people on social media and in the blogs (particularly Paul Wheeler, better known as Patriot Paul) saying the Libertarian At-Large candidates were "spoilers" for the Republican At-Large candidates. While not outright stating this, the logic is that if Libertarians didn't run people in a certain race (in this case, the At-Large City-County Council race), then enough of the votes would've gone to the Republicans so they'd win. That essentially these votes "belong" to the Republican party.

Let's just assume that the notion that all the votes that went to the Libertarian candidates (especially Bill Levin's, who ran a bit above the other Libertarians in that race) would've otherwise gone to other candidates.

Why else would the Republicans lose the At-Large council seats?

I think one reason might be because there was a lot of new blood among the At-Large Republican council candidates, which is odd considering they won three of the four seats in 2007.

Over the years, their incumbents went from three to one. Only Barbara Malone ran At-Large in the previous municipal cycle. The other three, while they all have a history of working within the Republican party, hadn't done much in terms of running for political office. I've also heard from several sources that Malone had been dodging attending community events that she previously either committed to attending or had a history of attending.

I also think the Republicans faced stiff competition from the Democrats. The Democrat At-Large candidates essentially ran as a team, and it showed. Leroy Robinson, Pamela Hickman, Zach Adamson, and John Barth were often seen together at candidate forums and community events. All too often, only 1-2 (if any) Republican At-Large candidates showed up, even in areas and groups that tend to trend Republican.

Anyone else see the irony of the party that supposedly stands for personal responsibility and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps is trying to blame everyone but themselves for their political losses?

Do the Democrats Have a Real Majority on the Council?

2011-11-10T08:00:00.003-05:00

Over the last two and a half years, when Mayor Greg Ballard had a major initiative that required a council vote, sometimes a Republican or two would dissent and vote against it. And almost always, like clock work, the precise number of Democrats needed to pass it would abandon their caucus and vote for the deal.

Paul Bateman and Jackie Nytes, both incumbents who won't be on the council next year, crossed over and voted for the water utility sale. Bateman crossed over and voted for the parking meter sale as well, likely due to the promise of minority contracting.

And while those two were the most reliable votes to cover up Republican dissenters, other Democratic councilors showed that they'll be there to back Ballard if they have to.

José Evans voted for the infamous City Way/North of South deal where we'll be giving Eli Lilly a $100 million loan to build a huge new campus that they couldn't get financing for anywhere else. This vote was shortly after Evans abandoned his mayoral ambitions, where he often said that "Indianapolis needs a mayor who cares about the neighborhoods just as much as he cares about downtown." Ironically, this vote was for a huge downtown construction project which, well, only benefits downtown.

Finally, Vernon Brown was there to vote to re-confirm Frank Straub as director of the Department of Public Safety. Never mind that Brown's full-time employment is with the Indianapolis Fire Department, but I digress.

I think if the Ballard people can twist the right arms, they can probably get most of their legislative agenda through the council. It'll be a razor-thin margin on most votes, but it can probably be done.

I guess the old saying might be true. "I'm not part of an organized political party. I'm a Democrat."

The Morning After: Indy Municipal Thoughts

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

I'm furiously refreshing the "unofficial" results at the county clerk's site as I type this.

While the details are still being hashed out, it looks like my prediction of a 17 seat council majority for the Democrats is holding true. They're headed to capturing all of the At-Large seats and gaining at LEAST one district seat as well with none of their incumbents in danger. The Republicans, however, are losing the At-Large seats and might be losing Christine Scales seat in district 4.

Democratic mayoral nominee is trailing in the votes to Mayor Greg Ballard and it looks like he'll get by with 52 or so percent of the vote (also as I predicted).

Unfortunately, the Republicans are holding onto the southern district 24 seat with Jack Sandlin. Ed Coleman and the Libertarian Party gave it a good shot, but the power of incumbency and a major party are really difficult to overcome.

A few more interesting notes: My friend Jeramy Townsley was actually ON THE BALLOT in district 9 as an independent. He got over 300 votes placing him at just under 5%. Congratulations to him. I know my friend Curt Ailes (who writes for Urban Indy) had some nice things to say about him, and it's always hard running against two major party candidates.

Finally, it looks like my friend and fellow blogger Josh Featherstone broke 5% and 300+ votes running in the near-eastside district 21. Congratulations to him! He ran way ahead of the Libertarian baseline. I'd sure like to know how he did that.

Now that I pointed out what I found interesting, here is my analyses.

MAYOR

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: There is a perception that Ballard is just some average guy trying to do good in the world, that he focuses on the nuts and bolts, that he isn't political, and that is part of his appeal. I know my Democratic friends will disagree, but that perception exists, even among people who normally vote for Democrats.

That can basically be summed up in "Welp, Ballard hasn't screwed up."

Kennedy, however, was rarely critical about specific policies of Mayor Ballard. Sure, she said the city should be a "better negotiator", but she never said she'd cancel the parking meter privatization, and was virtually silent on the water utility sale. She also never said what she'd do differently, outside of the area of education.

Because she couldn't demonstrate that Ballard screwed up, and couldn't give voters a reason to vote for her, she lost. I believe more than a few Democrats crossed over, supported their council candidates, and voted for Ballard.

COUNCIL

The Democrats played the better game in terms of campaigning. Even the candidates that didn't have a ghost of a chance, like Jackie Butler in district 5 and Scott Coxey in district 23, probably wore through a few pairs of shoes in how much they canvassed their districts. Those efforts didn't pay off in their districts, but it did thrust the At-Large Democrat candidates to victory.

For the most part, Democrats put in quality candidates in the council races and put forth a lot of effort, and it shows. They won in a landslide in most of the districts they were defending and At-Large. As more precincts come in, Leroy Robinson's 4th place had enough of a buffer so 5th place finisher GOP Barbara Malone wasn't much of a threat. It also helps that Robinson is a fierce campaigner and Malone has skipped out on several candidate forums during the election cycle.

While having a council majority isn't very sexy for Democrats (councilors aren't big fundraisers, Mayors are), I think it gives them a lot more power to leverage if they choose to use it.

SOUL SEARCHING

Democrats: They need to soul search and find out why reliable Democratic voters supported Ballard. In four years, they need to find a candidate that can articulate how a Democratic mayoral administration will be different than a Republican mayoral administration. Kennedy failed to do that, in detail, and that's part of the reason why she lost.

Republicans: They need to soul search on how to win council races. Ballard won, but he had no coattails, suggesting that independents and Democrats supported him but didn't support GOP council candidates. The powers of incumbency are great, and it'll be easy for Democrats to defend most of these seats. How do Republicans win any of them back? Frankly, I have no idea.

GOING FORWARD

I remember back at HobNob, Jim Shella theorized that Ballard could win re-election, but he might win it while Democrats take back the council. Ballard just insisted "No, we'll carry the council", and said it again when Shella questioned him. I don't know if Ballard has had to work with Democrats yet. He'd be wise if he scheduled a meeting with the new caucus, and soon. Otherwise, expect a lot of his agenda to hit a brick wall come 2012.

2011 Election Open Thread

2011-11-08T07:05:00.000-05:00

Today's the day. Not only are there municipal elections in Indiana, but Ohio has a ballot initiative concerning the limitations placed on collective bargaining for public employees and if to keep that law on the books or not. Mississippi has a proposed constitutional amendment to define "personhood", which I guess is some pro-life/anti-abortion thing? Sounds pretty silly to me, but I digress.

You can check out my Indy predictions, without context or analysis, on Twitter.

Now get out and GO VOTE! Indianavoters.com if you need any further info.

Candidate Profile: Vop Osili (D-District 15)

2011-11-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

Vop Osili is no stranger to Indianapolis or politics. He was the Democratic nominee for Secretary of State in 2010, gaining a majority of votes in Marion County ensuring the Democrats get placed first on general election ballots for the next four years. Before that, he has a lengthy resume of activism within the Democratic party and the Indianapolis community, including being a member of the board of directors at the Children's Museum.

I was discussing my interview with some Democratic friends of mine last weekend, and I commented how Osili jumped straight to the point with no beating around the bush. What usually takes about half an hour to get to, he took 15 minutes, so my interview with him was more like a conversation than anything else (Which is how good interviews should go, but I digress).

I'll admit that choosing to write about Osili's candidacy seems a bit off at first. After making it out of a contested primary, district 15 (which consists of most of downtown and the Haughville area) is heavily Democratic, so it's pretty much a guaranteed win. But district 15, more contemporarily, has one issue that interested me more than anything else: It's had three council representatives over the past four years. Of those three, one was forced to resign after it was revealed that he didn't live in the district, and another was MIA for several weeks without explanation.

How does that affect Osili? He's seen by some as a potential rising star in the Democratic party, not just in Indianapolis-Marion County, but in Indiana. I asked Osili directly if he can commit to a four year term. He reflected a bit on the question and said that, during the primary, he really felt that this race was exactly what he should be doing at this time as a public servant and he said he can commit to four years.

When asked what issues are a priority for district 15, he pointed out two issues that I haven't heard many candidates talk about: homelessness and employment for non-violent ex-convicts. He explained that the homelessness problem shouldn't just be viewed as a way to clean up the streets and make downtown more appealing, but as a humanitarian effort. In both cases, he points out that vocational training can help so they become more desirable to employers. I asked him about some municipal initiatives that the Ballard administration has undertaken to employ ex-convicts, and he said that the government can't employ everyone, but it can create an environment to make them more employable.

Asked about a comprehensive smoking ban, Osili made it clear that he's in favor of a comprehensive one. But he said he'd vote against any proposed ordinance that would provide exemptions.

Osili and I talked a bit about the politics of the race, and he asked how things look in his district. I mentioned it heavily leans toward Democrats, and after a Democrat candidate makes it through the primary (Osili faced two challengers during his May primary), it's smooth sailing from there. Osili mentioned at one point that he once read that district 15 is the most diverse districts in terms of ethnic diversity, and I'd agree with that. But I'd also point out that almost every other part of the county is becoming more diverse as well, and that's causing a lot of the county to trend Democrats with only a few pockets here and there that trend Republican.

But I quickly mentioned that this doesn't mean a win for Kennedy. I told Osili that there is a perception (regardless if it's a "true" perception or not) that Mayor Ballard is seen as an average guy who is working on the nuts and bolts issues of the city and people appreciate that, and typical Democrat votes might cross over for him. When I said there's also a perception that Ballard isn't a "political guy", Osili repeatedly loudly tapped his Starbucks cup and had a bit of a grin on his face.

After meeting with Osili, I really appreciate his passion that he has for Indianapolis. I hope his passion can transfer into getting some work done if he's elected. Because right now, there is a real lack of leadership on the City-County Council.

Candidate Profile: Benjamin Hunter (R-District 21)

2011-11-07T14:00:00.001-05:00

EDITORS NOTE: This is the first in a series of candidate profiles for the upcoming municipal election. While I do have my own opinions, I believe the purpose of this blog is more to inform than to opine. While I don't "softball" interviews, I want the candidate's answers to speak for themselves so my readers can make an informed decision at the polls.

The first candidate profile is Benjamin Hunter, the incumbent Republican councilor in district 21. District 21 is an east side district that contains the Irvington and Cumberland areas.

Meeting at the Lazy Daze Coffeehouse, Councilor Hunter and I started off with some issues that we had started discussing on Facebook.

During the Public Safety Committee budget meetings, Hunter and Councilor Vernon Brown (D-District 18) talked extensively about "chargebacks" within the Animal Care & Control budget. Asked to explain what a chargeback is, Hunter says it's essentially when another city department uses it's own resources to assist another department to carry out it's needs. When that service is provided, one city department essentially charges the other for the service, and eventually the city department in need of the service reimburses the city department providing the service. Hunter singled out Corporate Counsel (City Legal) and information technology as the two biggest issuers when it comes to chargeback.

Since chargebacks can't exactly be predicted, they are included in a section of the budget for estimated costs. Several times, Hunter said he "isn't a fan" of chargebacks and joked that some departments could practically hire an entire law firm with what they currently pay in costs to Corporate Counsel. The trick with chargebacks, as far as Hunter is concerned, is if you need someone in a field for a specialized task, that money still needs to be there in those cases. But he hopes to tackle these issues further in future city budgets.

In a discussion about consolidation over the last several decades, Hunter segued into the topic of how time consuming council work can be and talked about how, initially, he wasn't planning on running for re-election. But after talking with fellow Republican and council president Ryan Vaughn (District 3), he agreed to run for one more term. He also said he thinks it's funny that some people think he's only on the council to run for Mayor in a few years, which he ruled out.

He talked about what he sees as accomplishments the council and the Mayor Greg Ballard (R) administration has made during his term, such as the sale of the water company, the infrastructure improvements on both the "wet" and the "dry" side of the city, and the long-term parking meter lease. Hunter said that while it's worth having a discussion on how these were structured, he believes that ultimately it was the right decision to pass them due to the noticeable improvements.

Hunter says that the big issue that faces the east side is still an image problem because of its association with crime. He thinks the media could use some education on what the east side really is, while at the same time the city needs to continue to cultivate the environment that has led to development in areas such as Irvington.

He also talked a bit about the police reform package that he authored that passed the council. "I didn't have someone from Corporate Counsel write it for me," Hunter said. He felt that his experience as an officer in the Indianapolis Police Department gave him experience to back up where reform was needed.

A lot has happened since Hunter proposed a comprehensive smoking ban in 2009, which ended up being tabled by the full council. The state legislature took up a smoking ban in the 2011 session, and Governor Mitch Daniels even said he'd sign it. But the ban died in the state Senate when advocates for the ban refused to add exemptions. I questioned Hunter what his views are on a smoking ban considering what all that has happened and he stated "My views haven't changed." He explained that it's just one of the things that will give Indianapolis an edge in attracting young professionals and businesses. When asked, he said that he would introduce a comprehensive smoking ban if re-elected.

One of Hunter's final remarks was about the size of the council. He mentioned "nine councilors, full time" would be a good fit for Indianapolis-Marion County. Currently, the council is a part time job and has 29 members (25 districts, 4 At-Large).

Hunter is often thought of as a moderate within the GOP, but I found it interesting that he described himself as a conservative at least once. It shows how political beliefs and philosophies can really be diverse at the municipal level of government.

Later in the day, I'll finish my piece on candidate Vop Osili, the Democratic nominee running in district 15.

Guest post: The Case for Kennedy

2011-11-07T12:01:00.001-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: I have reached out to the mayoral campaigns to make their case to the readers of my blog. These guest posts only reflect the author's view in their role as an official within their respective mayoral campaign. This in no way should be viewed as an endorsement from me, either of the candidate or any opinions expressed within the guest post.

The follow is a guest post by Jon Mills. Mills is the communications director for Democratic mayoral nominee Melina Kennedy.

I have 2 small children, and we often talk to them about the “choices” they have when making decisions. Tomorrow, our community faces a choice. To some, the choice of who to vote for might seem of little consequence because both Mayoral candidates seem like fine individuals. But even if both candidates are “good people,” this choice is important because it will shape Indianapolis’ future and will impact whether Indianapolis is a City in which our children want to live and raise their families when they grow up.

When I think of my kids, here’s what the election comes down to for me. We need a mayor with a vision for the future. We need results. We need a mayor who focuses on today’s challenges and tomorrow’s solutions, not the past. We need a mayor who understands that the choices we make today will have tremendous consequences for tomorrow. We need Melina Kennedy.

The incumbent frequently talks about how bad things used to be. And while I believe he has not made much progress on a variety of fronts, from joblessness to crime to education, I’m most concerned by his lack of vision for the future. Paving streets is fine, but it is not enough.

Sadly, Indianapolis used to be known as a regional leader; over the past four years we have fallen behind our peers. Take jobs and wages, as an example. The IBJ recently reported that, over the past 4 years, Indianapolis has lagged behind Cincinnati, St. Louis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Louisville in jobs and wages. We can do better.

Melina has put forth a plan that focuses on job creation where it most frequently occurs: small businesses and local entrepreneurs. Melina understands that attracting national and foreign companies to Indy is important, but unlike Mayor Ballard, she has specific plans to help local businesses grow jobs right here as well. She understands that we need to create an environment that inspires our brightest minds to stay and open their own businesses here.

Melina also “gets it” when it comes to education and improving educational outcomes of our children. She understands the link between success in school and success in life, and the impact quality schools can have on our neighborhoods, poverty, crime, and jobs. We also can’t afford to have more families leave the city out of concern for our schools. As just one significant part of her plan, Melina would take almost 1/3rd of the proceeds from sale of the water company and invest it where our educational leaders agree it will do the most good: quality early childhood education. When children arrive at school ready to learn, it pays long term dividends to our entire community in reduced crime, less poverty and better jobs.

I also agree with the police, the prosecutor and the sheriff, who have endorsed Melina because they believe she will do a better job reducing crime. My wife and I feel less safe today than we did four years ago. We are worried about car break-ins and home invasions in our neighborhood. We need a mayor who will work better with neighborhoods to reduce crime and make us feel safer. Candidate Ballard promised 750 new officers – Mayor Ballard never delivered them. Kennedy has a specific, achievable plan to put 100 officers back on the streets and return to true community policing.

The incumbent may be a decent guy who is trying hard, but we can do better. We need a leader like Melina who listens, inspires and leads with vision. Tomorrow we have an important choice – and I know that if we elect Melina Kennedy to be our next Mayor, we will be positioning this City well not just for tomorrow, but for the long term.

Guest Post: The Case for Ballard

2011-11-07T08:00:00.007-05:00

The follow is a guest post by Megan Robertson. Robertson is the campaign manager for the re-election campaign for incumbent Mayor of Indianapolis Greg Ballard (R).

In 2007, our city faced many serious challenges. A review of the Indianapolis Star in October of 2007 outlines the problems facing our city back then – rising crime, abandoned homes, skyrocketing property taxes AND an increase in income taxes, crumbling streets and sidewalks and no plan to address it all.

Then we witnessed the biggest political upset in Indianapolis history. Mayor Greg Ballard, a 23-year veteran of the US Marine Corps, came to office, rolled up his sleeves and took on all those challenges. He started by putting taxpayers first, bringing fiscal responsibility and sound financial management back to city government.

Mayor Ballard acted quickly to bring responsibility for public safety back to the Mayor’s office. Four years later, overall crime is down 7%; property crime is down, and violent crime is down. In fact, 2009 and 2010 had the lowest number of murders in 15 years. With a military background and experience in recruitment, Mayor Ballard is leading the most comprehensive and important reforms of IMPD – implementing long overdue performance evaluations and merit-based promotions to professionalize the police department, as many departments across the country have done for years. Mayor Ballard is committed to community policing and is investing in high-quality police officer training and new technology to help fight crime.

While other cities across the country have raised taxes, cut services or laid off police officers and firefighters in this tough national economy, Indianapolis stands in contrast. We have improved city services and protected our public safety budget – all while property and income taxes are lower.

Four years ago, Greg Ballard campaigned for property tax reform, and as Mayor, he led the charge at the city level by publicly supporting property tax caps at the statehouse. Governor Mitch Daniels has applauded Mayor Ballard’s role in this critical issue. With property tax caps now in place, 98.5% of city homeowners’ property taxes are lower than in 2007, with the average homeowner seeing a one-third reduction.

Despite the worst national economy since the Great Depression, in 2010 we had the single greatest year in attracting new job commitments and capital investment to our city. Indianapolis attracted more new job commitments in one year than Melina Kennedy recruited in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 combined – and that was in a good economy. We are setting the stage for job growth and nearly 13,000 more people are employed in our city since January.

Our potential for growth is receiving national attention. Forbes recently named Indianapolis the #1 Next Big Boom Town in the Midwest, the Wall Street Journal ranked us in the Top 7 cities for business start-ups and Newsweek says we are among the Top 10 cities best poised for economic recovery.

Fiscal responsibility and a commitment to improving our infrastructure help position Indianapolis for the future. Through RebuildIndy, neighborhoods are benefiting from significant improvements to streets, sidewalks, and bridges. We are also removing thousands of unsafe, abandoned homes and buildings, including Keystone Towers and Winona Hospital. The value of these projects is not only about better infrastructure, but it is also public safety. Additionally,we have increased connectivity, created a bicycle-friendly city and we are becoming more sustainable.

Mayor Ballard has expanded charter schools to meet the demand and provide better opportunities for more students in our city. He supports education reforms which put the students first and bring greater accountability to our schools because everyone deserves a good education.

We have made a lot of progress but there is more work to do. That’s why I ask for your support for Mayor Greg Ballard on Tuesday, November 8.

Municipal Hodgepodge

2011-11-05T16:55:00.002-04:00

I'm taking a break from my pseudo-election guide (IE I have barely written any of them), but I've got a few tidbits kicking around here and there.

YARD SIGNS

I've got to hand it to two candidates for City-County Council for the worst yard signs. They go to candidates Len Farber (D-District 3) and Jackie Cissell (R-At Large).

I've only been seeing Farber's yard signs recently, even though he had a primary challenger and the baseline Democratic vote in district 3 makes it a competitive district. This might indicate the lack of support his campaign has gotten from the Democratic party and Democratic donors. Onto his sign, a good chunk of it is white. Yes, white. It has a blue streak that leads to his name.

I found the white background made it hard to quickly read anything on the yard sign and I'm fairly certain I missed several of them on Kessler before finally seeing one.

Cissell's sign is this type of bright orange, similar to what a road construction sign might look like. It isn't as bad as Farber's, but it's not so easily readable like Ballard's or Kennedy's are.

In another part of the Yard Sign wars, I'm just not seeing a lot of Barbara Malone yard signs. Malone is the only incumbent Republican At-Large councilor running for re-election that was elected in 2007. I've heard from several traditional and new media outlets that she is dodging media requests or refusing interviews. She has the power of incumbency, but can she pull off re-election?

SPEAKING OF REPUBLICANS...

If you're an average voter who only kind of pays attention to politics, you'd probably have no idea that two Republican At-Large councilors aren't running for re-election. Kent Smith resigned when his National Guard unit was called up for active duty, while Edward Coleman party switched and is running as a Libertarian in district 24 on the south side of Indianapolis.

So how would you find out about the new At-Large GOP candidates?

I don't know if you would.

I recently received three very large direct mail pieces from the Indiana Republican Party that attacked Kennedy and connecting her to the former administration of Bart Peterson. On that same day, I also received a smaller direct mail piece from the Marion County Democrats that included photographs of Kennedy, the four At-Large Democrat council candidates, and the district candidate. On the back was a sample ballot encouraging me to vote straight Democrat.

I know the At-Large races are typically low priority, but it seems like the council GOP candidates (and a few on the Democratic side as well) are not receiving a lot of support from their party, even when they're in politically viable areas. And that's a damn shame.

DISTRICT 24

District 24 is unique in the council elections this year. Both candidates can claim incumbency , kind of. Coleman was elected At-Large as a Republican and is running for re-election in his home district. Jack Sandlin, the current district councilor, was appointed to the position after Mike Speedy won a state house election in 2010. Unlike every other district, there is no Democratic challenger.

My sources are telling me that Ed Treacy, chairman of the Marion County Democratic Party, is asking Democrats in district 24 to vote for Coleman. And it isn't so much asking as it is ordering. I think Treacy is preparing for a thin margin of error on the council, and a Coleman win could eliminate an otherwise reliably Republican district.

AND ON SOME BLOG BUSINESS NOTES

I'd like to publicly thank both the Ballard and Kennedy camps for responding in a timely manner to my requests for a guest post on this blog to advocate for their candidates. And I'd also like to thank my GOP and Democratic friends for getting me in touch with the right people. I know how crazy competitive campaigns can get in the final days before the election so it means a lot that these busy political people responded positively to my request.

But I think it also speaks a lot about how valuable new media can be in politics, especially in these smaller elections where votes can be decided within a couple thousand, a few hundred or even a few dozen votes! Especially in the case of the blogosphere, it allows candidates to directly connect with politically aware citizens.

I'm going to publish both posts at 8am Monday morning, and each will have their own post with it's own title and comments section.

I'll be writing up my candidate profiles throughout the day tomorrow. I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with incumbent councilor Benjamin Hunter (R-District 21), candidate Vop Osili (D-District 15) and candidate Michael Kalscheur (R-At Large). I originally intended to do candidate profile questionnaires via e-mail, but I felt I was asking similar questions to other voter guides out there, so I opted not to do it.

Busy few days up ahead, and I'm sure there's more to come!

More On The Negative Campaign Against Christine Scales

2011-11-02T16:00:00.001-04:00

Today, I received three (yes, three) pieces in the mail from the Indiana Republican Party on Melina Kennedy, the Democratic nominee for mayor.

I first thought about what a waste it was to send three negative direct mail pieces to the same address on the same day addressed to the same person. I mean sure, they were about different subjects (one about crime, the other jobs, and the final one on crime, jobs, and taxes), but I digress.

But then I turned my thoughts back to the negative campaign being waged by Democrats against Councilor Christine Scales, a Republican running in the 4th district of Indianapolis for re-election to the City-County Council. Her opponent, Kostas Poulakidas, is one of the most well financed campaigns for council in Indianapolis history. And that money can buy a lot of direct mail pieces.

Poulakidas and the Democrats, aided by the Indiana Democratic State Central Committee (and perhaps aided by a $5,000 contribution Poulakidas gave the Indiana Democratic Party), first sent out this postcard-like mailer and later sent out a follow up. The postcard reads "Paid for and authorized by the Indiana Democratic State Central Committee."

In these several GOP pieces on Kennedy, the disclaimer reads "Paid for by the Indiana Republican Party. www.indgop.org Authorized by Greg Ballard for Mayor"

I'm not intimately familiar with campaign finance law or what types of disclaimers are required on mailers, television ads, and so on. But I find it interesting that the disclosures are different and, in my opinion, more honest on the GOP side.

UPDATE: Terry Burns and Kip Tew, both Democrat insiders, are taking the stance that THEIR negative mailers in district 4 are just "lighthearted" and "a joke." Nevermind that their mailers lied about Scales' council attendance record and distorted the Capital Improvement Board bailout vote, a vote which a majority of their Democrat councilors voted against.

How to Use Your Ballot

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of the election guide I'm preparing for my readers. I have invited both the Kennedy and Ballard camp to make their case in a guest posting on this blog. I've also sat down with several City-County Council candidates, and am sending out e-mail surveys for others. But first, I contacted the Marion County Clerk's Office, which is currently run by Beth White, a Democrat.

I asked the Clerk's office several scenarios and how to properly fill out a ballot in each scenario. To appear completely unbiased, they use stuff like "the Purple Party" or what have you.

Each entry in this election guide will be tagged with "Election Guide". I'll also start a Page (on the right hand side of this blog) that will link to all Election Guide entries.

Remember, you need to bring your photo ID to vote in Indiana. For additional information on voting, visit Indiana Voters or contact the Clerk's office.

1. How can someone only vote for one political party's candidates?
The simplest way to cast a vote for one party's candidates is to use the straight party device. A voter would darken the oval next to political party's name, which means a vote will be cast for every candidate on the ballot for that particular party. (Do not darken the party emblem or underline the party name, which occasionally happens and does not capture the person's vote.) There is no need to darken the oval next to the candidates if you are using the straight party device and only want to support candidates of one particular party. However, a voter can choose to skip the straight party device and darken ovals next to every candidate of the same party.

2. How can someone vote in races and spread their vote across several political candidates/parties?
Instead of using the straight party device, the voter would darken the oval next to the individual candidates they are supporting regardless of party affiliation. Another option is to 'scratch.' This means a voter would use the straight party device but also cast a vote for a different party in one or more races. For example, Vicky Voter is supporting all of the Orange Party candidates except in the dogcatcher race. She wants to vote for Yellow Party's candidate. Vicky could darken the oval on the Orange Party's straight party device and then darken the oval next to the Yellow Party's dogcatcher candidate. The machine will read the ballot as a vote for every Orange Party candidate except for the dogcatcher race where the Yellow Party candidate gets her vote. Her other option would be to skip the straight party device and simply darken the ovals next to each individual candidate she is supporting.

3. Can a "straight ticket" voter vote in a race if their party isn't running a candidate in it? If so, how?
Yes. Let's say the Blue Party has candidates in all but the dogcatcher's race. Only the Orange and Yellow parties have dogcatcher candidates. A voter can darken the oval next to the Blue Party's straight party option and then select either the Orange or Yellow party's candidate for dogcatcher. The machine will read this ballot as a vote for every Blue Party candidate except in the dogcatcher's race where either the Orange or Yellow party candidate the voter selected will receive the vote.

4. It's my understanding that there is at least one write-in candidate in at least one of the races this year. What is the process of voting for a write-in candidate if the voter chooses to do so?
To vote for a write-in candidate, a voter darkens the oval next to the write-in option and writes in the candidate's name on the line provided. Only those candidates that have declared themselves to be a write-in candidate (or another declared candidate for that office) will have their votes counted. The official list of write-in candidates should be made available at theclerk's table on Election Day.

An Indianapolis Monthly Must Read

2011-10-28T08:00:00.001-04:00

There is an excellent article within Indianapolis Monthly that focuses on the three LGBT candidates running for the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council this November. Zach Adamson has been running since 2009, made it through the county Democrat party's slating and the primary, and will be running At-Large. Tood Woodmansee and Jackie Butler were appointed by Democrat County Chairman Ed Treacy after the primary to run in council district 23 and 5, respectively. Ironically, Butler is running against Ginny Cain, one of the most anti-LGBT voices currently seated on the council.

While the overall point of the article is to show how far the LGBT community has come in Indianapolis (indeed, Indiana will be one of only a handful of states with an elected LGBT politician), it really is a great biography piece for Zach Adamson. He's a Democrat's democrat, but this guy isn't beholden to anyone. He'd be a great asset to a legislative body which is in desperate need of the type of experience and character Adamson brings to the table.

Tomorrow, I tackle some endorsements I've been reading over. Here's a preview: When you write about your endorsement process and say "all the candidates suck", you don't have to endorse someone. Just skip that district and move onto the next.

LiteBox Roundup!

2011-10-26T23:32:00.000-04:00

Long story short: Our elected officials, including Governor Mitch Daniels and Mayor Greg Ballard, are jumping up and down about some guy's company who doesn't have a prototype, has almost no business experience, and is a huge unknown.

Digging through the Internet, I looked up this guy's "Promote My Song" venture, supposedly at promotemysong.com. I found a Facebook page...and that's about it. For a website that's supposedly been around since 2008, it isn't in the Internet Archives.

Check out the excellent reporting from the following:

So a CITY OFFICIAL lied to a reporter about who he is and claimed that his boss was the businessman seeking tax breaks?

Man, these guys sure are crack negotiators.

Will Tully Talk About Actual Negative Campaigning?

2011-10-26T15:40:00.002-04:00

I apologize in advance for the weird formatting at the end. I have no idea what happened.

The Indianapolis Star's political columnist Matthew Tully has once again written a column lamenting about all the horrible negative campaigning coming from the Melina Kennedy campaign. Maybe it's just me, but I don't count talking about your opponent's record and actions as "negative". I know Tully thinks that Deputy Mayor Michael Huber is practically the Second Coming, and I like Huber as well. But come on, the Kennedy camp are raising what they believe to be valid points. Instead of just casually dismissing the criticism with a "Come on, he's a good guy! Trust me!", maybe Tully should explain why the criticism is without merit?

Or maybe he could investigate into some ACTUAL negative campaigning, such as what is being done by the state Democratic party on behalf of the Kostas Poulakidas council campaign? It's no secret that Poulakidas, with the help of his campaign chairman Kip Tew, has been a very successful fundraiser. So if I was someone who say, had a job at some type of media organization, and had the time and resources that a media organization would bring to the table, here are the questions I would be asking:

Has Poulakidas, the county Democrats, or the state Democrats made a public statement on the negative campaigning? If not, try to get one.
Why are the state Democrats involving themselves this deeply in a district council race? Yes, I'm aware that it's pretty common for the state parties to pay for mailers or commercials, but this seems like an unusual level of involvement.
Has there been any transfer of funds from one campaign/political party arm to another to cover the cost of these direct mail negative pieces? After all, direct mail isn't cheap, especially if you want it to arrive on a certain day.

On another note, where in the world has Marion County GOP Chairman Kyle C. Walker been in on this? Christine Scales, Poulakidas' opponent in November's election, posted about the negative attack on her Facebook page on October 21. And still we've heard nothing from Walker to defend his party's candidate. And to the people active in the county GOP, I should remind you that Walker is drawing a salary as chairman. Bang for your buck, right?

Eric Holcomb, chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, easily does Walker's job , and does it quite well. In a press release, he ties the negative campaigning of Democrats in the Indianapolis council race into recent federal indictments on voter fraud:

Today, Indiana Republican Party Chairman Eric Holcomb demanded to know who was behind a mailer sent to residents of Indianapolis’ 4th City-County Council District in the form of a postcard from Florida purported to be from Republican Councillor Christine Scales. The postcard included a note that looked like Scales had written it herself meant to confuse and mislead voters in her district. Following the news that hundreds of signatures on nominating petitions were forged in St. Joseph County in 2008, this is yet another documented episode of Indiana Democrats caught forging the signatures and writing of individuals for their own political gain.
“You’d think the Indiana Democrat Party had learned its lesson that forgery is a crime. Obviously not,” said Chairman Holcomb. “It seems Indiana Democrats’ forgery operation has expanded to campaign mailers. So now we need to know: who’s accountable for this latest stunt? Did Chairman Dan Parker sign off on this deceptive and fraudulent mail piece?”
Holcomb added, “We have yet another example of why it’s time for the Indiana Democrat Party to clean house. Their belief that the ends justify the means is just plain wrong. In the Indiana Democrat Party’s Culture of Corruption, defrauding and misleading Hoosiers voters is the name of the game. The buck has got to stop with someone, but who?” — Indiana Republican Party

If I was Republican right now within Marion County, I'd consider having a serious talk with Chairman Holcomb about the need to clean house within the Marion County GOP leadership.

UPDATE: Over on Ruth Holladay's blog, I noted how the Star will often dismiss stories it doesn't

want to report on by either condensing it into a portion of their gossip column, Behind Closed

Doors or with Tully casually dismissing it in one of his columns. Maybe this tweet is a preview

of his next column?

Sometimes Herman Cain Has Got To Be Kidding Part III

2011-10-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

This is Part II in my ongoing series where I post a video from the Internet because, once again, my candidate profile piece isn't finished. I wish someone would've told me how hard it is to take 30 minute conversations and transfer it into a well written, accurate piece that profiles a candidate's qualifications and the issues. I especially wish someone else would've told me before I scheduled three more interviews with candidates for later in the week.

Herman Cain, he's the pizza guy running for President. This is an official commercial from his campaign. I am not joking, not even a little. And believe it or not, it isn't even the worst video on his YouTube channel.

All board the Cain Train!

I Hope Broad Ripple Likes Having Another Bank!

2011-10-25T21:31:00.001-04:00

It looks like the proposed parking garage in Broad Ripple is undergoing some changes. According to the Urban Indy blog (and some of their readers' comments), a drive-through is going to be put in. A second entry (but not exit) is looking to be coming from the Westfield part of the property.

Some readers seem to be saying that the parking for bikes within the structure, as well as an electric/hybrid car charging station, seems to be missing compared to the original plan.

Chris Corr claims that the zoning variance being sought is specifically for a bank.

I think Joe's comment sums things up nicely:

I am not so sure I see the electric care station or interior bike parking anymore……”tenant space 3″ is significantly smaller due to the crappy drive thru and it’s business as usual in the Indianapolis development world. I guess we shouldn’t gripe too much, for the simple cost of millions of tax payer dollars and a prime commercial spot in one of our most popular districts we are getting better bike parking……or not. We are getting better pedestrian connectivity……..or not. We are getting alternative fuel vehicle progression….or not. We are getting place based design and an active street level retail……..not so much. Wait! What are we getting? Can we put millions into a streetcar line instead?

Full disclosure: I am not an urban planner and can barely read a map, so I'm taking my friends at Urban Indy at their word. Feel free to correct me if I've misstated anything.

My Appearance on Civil Discourse Now

2011-10-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

No new post today. The Benjamin Hunter profile is taking a bit longer to put together than I had anticipated. In the mean time, I was invited to Paul Ogden's and Mark Small's Internet TV show to talk up my council candidacy. If you are a council candidate and would like to appear on their show, Civil Discourse Now, contact Paul Ogden at pogden297@comcast.net.

The videos are embedded below.

A Tale of Two Yard Signs

2011-10-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

I drove around Indianapolis quite a bit this past weekend and yard signs are everywhere! I guess the municipal political season is upon us. The areas where I was really able to slow down and observe were Broad Ripple, district 4, a bit of downtown, and the Irvington area.

So I took away two observations from the massive amount of yard signs. Of course, these are unscientific and I didn't drive around the entire council district, but it's interesting to think about.

It's no secret that the race between Councilor Christine Scales (R) and Kostas Poulakidas (D) is going to be competitive in district 4. The district leaned Democrat when Scales won in 2007, and that's even more true now. But Scales has a pretty energetic base, or at least a good yard sign distributor. I saw tons of both candidates' yard signs. Often, I'd see Scales on one side of the street, Poulakidas on the other, and then with the next set of neighbors, it'd switch up. It'll be a close race.

Another observation was something I had to slow down a bit to really notice. Most people only seem to have one or two yard signs. That usually means the party's mayoral candidate and the council district candidate. If it's in an area that isn't competitive for the minority party in that district, you might see a mayoral sign and an At-Large council candidate sign instead of the district candidate. It's pretty rare to see a yard sport something like the mayoral candidate, the district council candidate, and all four At-Large council candidates for an individual party.

But what I started noticing is that, in yards that had three or more yard signs, Mayor Greg Ballard's (R) yard sign was often anchored by a GOP council candidate and Zach Adamson . The catch? Adamson is a Democrat running for an At-Large council seat.

Just some food for thought for your Monday morning.

Democrat Party Goes Negative Against Councilor Christine Scales

2011-10-21T16:06:00.003-04:00

Christine Scales (R-District 4) is one of the few independent voices on the council who spends time from voters within and outside of her district investigating issues, finding answers and getting results. After several weeks of being stonewalled by the Mayor Greg Ballard administration, she was able to keep Ladder 21 at IFD Station 21, which falls within her district. She voted against the parking meter scam and against the re-confirmation of Director of Public Safety Frank "Call me Doctor" Straub, which represent two major initiatives of the Ballard administration. Her independent streak has not always sat well with the power brokers that control the two major parties in this state, and the powers-that-be are taking notice and are doing all they can to end her political career.

Voters within her district received a negative mail piece that's dressed up as a postcard from Naples, Florida. The front of the card shows off an expensive condo community and implies that it's owned by Scales. On the inside, the following text reads:

Hi! You probably haven't heard of me, but I'm your City-County Councilor! Florida has been great so that's why I haven't had time to spend on the crime, unemployment, flooding and drainage problems and abandoned properties throughout the city! Give me your vote and I'll sent you another postcard in 4 years when I need it again!

Christine

Does she really represent us?

The mailer indicates that the Indiana Democratic Party paid for it. This is a common practice where a state/county political party, or some type of committee aside from the candidate, will pay for negative campaigning so the candidate won't tarnish their name. I can only guess that the Democrats are targeting Scales with this because their internal polling shows that their candidates, council candidate Kostas Poulakidas and mayoral candidate Melina Kennedy, are losing in that area of Indianapolis.

The claims that Scales neglects her council duties and district is a complete fantasy and I won't spend time further debunking them, but this mailer isn't the first time this meme has come up. William Diehl, a Democratic blogger, says the same thing in this post and tries to insinuate that Scales is against working men and women who run for political office. When I bought up that the real concern with Poulakidas is that his occupation as a partner at the law firm Krieg DeVault LLP will bring a list of conflict of interests as long as my arm, he shut down the comments section and deleted my post.

I have no doubt that Poulakidas, who specializes in economic development and municipal finance representation in his law firm, is extremely qualified to be on the council. But lawyers and others who work within and/or for municipal and state government should be held to a high standard so that they aren't voting in favor of their self-interests. And all too often, the simple act of abstaining from a vote doesn't happen from those within both of the major political parties.

Hat tip to Gary Welsh for the description of the mailer.

A Call to Council Candidates

2011-10-20T17:00:00.001-04:00

Each election cycle, I try to meet with the candidates and give them a platform on this blog so that my readers can be fully informed if they choose to go to the polls. Even though I have my own political leanings and beliefs, everyone will get a fair shake because I believe the primary purpose of this blog is to inform.

If I haven't already reached out to you, please feel free to drop me a line at mamstone@firehawktechnologies.com. I'm trying to get as many scheduled this weekend as possible. In-person interviews are preferred, but I understand that in some cases, a phone or e-mail interview might be necessary since Election Day is close.

Amos Brown: Where Is The Independent Polling for Mayoral Race?

2011-10-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

In his column this week in The Indianapolis Recorder, Amos Brown briefly touches on the state of polling in the Indianapolis 2011 mayoral race. Or rather, the lack thereof:

Finally, if Channel 13 wanted to do a great public service, they could take some of those millions they used to spend airing Oprah and use it to conduct a serious, extensive poll on the mayor's race. How can you be Indy's News Leader when you can't even conduct a poll in the most important mayor's race in years?

Brown makes a great point. The election for the next mayor of Indianapolis, as well as the City-County Council, is less than 30 days away and there has been absolutely no polling done by any independent agency.

Channel 13 isn't the only one not doing any polling. The Indianapolis Star hasn't released any polling either, though Star journalist Jon Murray has commented on his Twitter account that he believes they will do it at some point.

Has this ever happened before? 30 days before an election and no scientific, non-partisan polling is released?

Matt Tully Wants Straub to Continue as Public Safety Director

2011-10-18T16:35:00.000-04:00

The Indianapolis Star's political columnist Matthew Tully put out an interesting tweet today. He's lamenting the fact that he wishes the Mayor's office could be "bipartisan." He wishes that, if Democrat Melina Kennedy beats Republican Mayor Greg Ballard in November, she'd keep a few key figures in place that he likes. Specifically, he points to deputy mayor Michael Huber and director of the Department of Public Safety Frank Straub.

Huber, who I've talked with several times, is a good public servant. I won't doubt that (though I will vigorously disagree with several of the projects he was charged with carrying out). But what does Tully love about Straub? What does Straub specifically bring to the table that, without him, wouldn't occur?

Was it the political move to promise a shake up of command staff after November's election (even though Straub has no actual power to hire or fire anyone within IMPD)? Is that what Tully loves so much, the politicizing of the inner operations of our police department?

Maybe Tully loves how Straub hires his buddies for cushy jobs while IMPD district offices have, at times, not been able to stock supplies such as toilet paper and pens?

Or how bout a guy who blabs about ongoing investigations, sometimes on the radio, that could compromise the integrity of criminal investigations?

I could go on. I mean, there's a lot more. A whole lot more.

Latest GOP Debate and Power Rangers: THERE'S A CONNECTION!

2011-10-12T14:45:00.000-04:00

I feel like a crazy Glenn Beck/Alex Jones conspiracy theorist, but I've found something. Look! It's just so obvious!

RONALD REAGAN IS THE LEADER OF THE POWER RANGERS, ZORDON!

Eugene White Refers to Special Needs Students as "Crippled" and "Crazy"

2011-10-12T08:00:00.001-04:00

Eugene White, the superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, was a guest on Denny Smith's radio program on 93.1 WIBC-FM on Monday. In the last few minutes of the hour long interview, White starts talking about some of the challenges public schools face:

"You've got to understand. We are public schools. What does that mean? We take everybody that come through the door, whether they are blind, crippled, crazy..."

Maybe White's son can take some of that $13,000 pay raise that his father gave to him and get his dad into some continuing education classes. Or Eugene can take some of the money from his latest pay raise and pay for it himself. We can start with a seminar on how to effectively communicate and talk about children who have special needs.

Here's a freebie: Just like African-Americans don't like being referred to as "negro", children with special needs don't like being referred to as "cripple" or "crazy". Those are, at best, antiquated terms. And at worst, they're derogatory.

Hat tip to Paul Ogden who originally posted about it here.

Register to vote! Deadline is TODAY!

2011-10-11T08:00:00.002-04:00

The deadline to register and be eligible for the various municipal elections being held throughout the state of Indiana is Tuesday, October 11. All things voting are run at the Indiana Voters site, run by the Indiana Secretary of State.

At Indiana Voters, you can

Register to vote
Confirm your registration
Update your registration
See a sample ballot for your specific area
And a lot more.

As of yesterday, early in-person voting is held at the Marion County Clerk's office. You can find directions and hours at the clerk's website here. If you choose to vote early at the Clerk's office, you can use the Delaware street entrance of the City-County Building to bypass security.

Jon Easter at Indy Democrat has more details on early voting here.

Lawrence O'Donnell Is A Complete Hack: The Herman Cain Interview

2011-10-09T15:00:00.001-04:00

It's not a surprise that many notable GOP politicians, particularly during election cycles, avoid partisan shows that go against their ideology. Democrats will avoid the evening shows on Fox News, and Republicans won't go on MSNBC's prime-time programming. So it was with great interest I watched when GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain went on Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC show. Sure, it wasn't going to be an easy interview, but it might be fun, right?

Much of the interview focuses on Cain's newly released book, This is Herman Cain! In the portion of the interview that I embedded in this blog, O'Donnell questions why Cain wasn't an active participant in the 1960s civil rights movement even. Cain's book says that he was in high school at the time and didn't participate in the movement. O'Donnell points out that he was attending the historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1963-1967.

Personally, I cringed at this point in the interview. I was expecting O'Donnell to distort Cain's book so he could make some good television, but I certainly didn't think he'd sink so low so much as to accuse Cain of being a coward.

I think some of us have a distorted view of social movements in our society, that they were always largely popular and it was just those in power that weren't hearing popular opinion. But in the case of the 1960s civil rights movement (and other social movements) it was always a small portion of Americans who were actively participating in it.

And I can't see where O'Donnell's moral outrage comes from. To be a racial minority in the south in the 1950s and 1960s, to make a public stand like participating in a sit-in or a bus boycott, could result in an arrest, injury, or even death. I certainly can't blame Cain, or any of the other thousands of African-Americans, who chose to keep their heads down and focus on their education or employment.

It's also a false argument that the only way one can work towards civil rights and equality is by participating in social demonstrations and push for political accomplishments. And it's not even an argument that only originated in the 1960s. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, both prominent African-American figures in the Reconstruction era, had similar competing philosophies. Washington believed education and cooperation with supportive whites would be the best road to achieving civil rights for African-Americans, whereas Du Bois believed that political victories would lead to victories in the area of civil rights.

O'Donnell tried to backtrack specifically on these comments he made about Cain, but one of his guests the following night pointed out something interesting. It seems to be fairly common to ask African-American politicians where they were during the 1960s civil rights movement, but it isn't so much a question for white politicians who are of a similar age. I wonder why that is? Maybe it's because both Republicans and Democrats of that era have more than a few skeletons to hide.

Audio now available from my appearance on Afternoons with Amos

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

You can hear my interview here. I was joined by fellow Libertarian candidate Jason Sipes, running in District 13, and INDEPENDENT candidate Jeramy Townsley, running in District 9. Townsley's name will actually appear on the ballot. Not as a write-in candidate, but on the ballot. He gathered several hundred signatures to do so, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

It was quite an experience. Outside of being featured in local news stories, having a media appearance was a new experience to me.

And to all my friends, family, and readers who took time out of their day to listen to it live, thank you. It means a lot to me that you took time out of your day to listen to my interview live on the radio.

Republicans: We Must Stop HIM aka Romney

2011-10-05T20:00:00.000-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Liberal television host Rachel Maddow had an excellent segment the other night analyzing former Governor Mitt Romney's somewhat rocky relationship with others in the Republican party.

Back in 2007, the incumbent President of the United States, George W. Bush, was term limited. Vice President Dick Cheney said he had no interest in running for President. It was the first time in a very long time that both parties had an open slot in the presidential nominating process. Maddow played a clip from a debate hosted by ABC News. ABC set it up so that the Democrats had their debate first, and then they had the Republicans come out on stage and switched spots. She noted that most of the candidates were shacking hands and making small chat, but Mitt Romney just kind of stood there. No one talking to him. No one shaking his hand.

She then ran through several news reports, as well as segments from the book Game Change that documented the 2008 election, about the open disdain many GOP presidential candidates and their staffers had for Romney. Maddow often emphasized that they wouldn't even refer to Romney by name, but would say something like "We must beat HIM" or "We can't allow HIM to win."

I've found it interesting that despite the open (or thinly veiled) disdain some Republicans have expressed, Romney seems to have a consistent amount of support. He's generally in the mid-teens at the absolute worst, and mid 20s at best. Most of the other candidates seem to have bubbles that eventually burst, or just perpetually stay below 5%.

It'll be interesting to see if, since several primaries may be moving up much earlier than usual, if any of the lower-tier candidates will drop out, and see where their support goes. I'm sure Romney would love it if former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson or former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman would drop out since their supporters would likely go to him, whereas Herman Cain or Rick Perry would really like it if Newt Gingrich or Michelle Bachmann would drop out so that their base would expand and become a bit more stable.

I'll be on Afternoons with Amos Today at 2pm

2011-10-04T08:31:00.000-04:00

As part of the ongoing election cycle, I'll be appearing during the second hour of Amos Brown's program Afternoons with Amos. Brown's show is heard on 1310WTLC-AM. You can also listen online here. Brown also typically posts show segments on his page here.

Why the Establishment Hoosier Blogs Kind of Suck

2011-10-02T08:00:00.003-04:00

I've noticed something ever since I started reading the local and regional blogs back in the summer of 2009. The establishment blogs, those that officially or all-but-officially represent the viewpoints of the Marion County or Indiana state Republican or Democratic parties, respectively, often fail at establishing themselves in various ways. Often, they're little more than a place to publish press releases for the party leaders and/or elected officials or to get talking points out in the open.

Let's look at Capitol & Washington, the spiritual successor of the Frugal Hoosiers blog. Every single post on the front page has comments published by spammers, and apparently that's not been noticed. And that's on a blog with several contributors. And at times, there have been several day gaps in posting. While blogs don't have to have content every single day, it helps to establish a pattern and provide some predictability to readers. Otherwise, habits can be dropped.

But these are relatively minor.But that led me to think about all the establishment partisan blogs in Indiana, and how their content stacks up against blogs run by individuals

And one of the areas C&W lacks is original content outside of opinions. While the perception of bloggers is that we're just assholes who copy and paste news articles and give our opinions about current events, the fact is we often are among the media that cover local and regional news. Often, bloggers report on the same events as mainstream media. Sometimes, bloggers have sources that allow us to publish additional information not published in mainstream media accounts. And on a more rare occasion, bloggers can completely break a story. It's rare, especially for those of us who write a blog in our free time without pay, but it does happen.

Of the three establishment Republican blogs that I read (Hoosier Access, C&W, and an anonymous blog which I'll address later), sometimes they're completely silent on what mainstream local media and other blogs report on. If you only read these blogs for news, you'd never know that Lincoln Plowman, a former Republican City-County Council member and former officer within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, was tried and convicted in federal court on charges of accepting a bribe and extortion. While I wouldn't expect the blogs to try to defend Plowman, some type of effort to publicly distance themselves from Plowman would have been interesting to read. Maybe they could point to an elected public official and talk about their high ethical standards to demonstrate that Plowman's low ethics aren't part of the mainstream GOP.

Not saying I'd believe that post, but hey, it'd be interesting to read.

Another establishment Republican blog, written anonymously, hasn't had a new post since August 23. Several comments that consist purely of spam advertisers have been left starting on August 28 and haven't been removed. When a website, not just blogs, but any website, goes several weeks without updates to at least remove spam comments, it's an indication that the site is "dead" and not worth visiting. In the case of this specific establishment Republican blog, it doesn't surprise me. This anonymous blog could only be the Marion County GOP attack dog for so long. And their "breaks" from blogging have been much longer than C&W. After a while, readers are just going to stop checking in for updates.

And in writing this post, I tried to make this a bi-partisan trashing. But uh....I really can't think of an establishment statewide Democrat blog that could counter Hoosier Access or Capital & Washington. At one point, Blue Indiana was the place to go. But it went down for several months in 2011 and after a relaunch, it's been pretty quiet.

There is one establishment blog that, while not updated often nowadays, does break the mold in terms of content. Terry Burns, who is heavily involved in both Marion County and state politics with the Democratic party, runs the Indianapolis Times blog. On several occasions, he has posted exclusive news and has talked about what goes in the back room caucus meetings of Republican elected officials. When major pieces of legislation are being debated on the Indianapolis City-County Council, he's posted about who is thinking of being a "no" or "yes" vote, and he's often accurate in his predictions. Outside of Abdul Hakim-Shabazz's Indiana Barrister blog (whose blog I don't consider "establishment" because he often does have original journalism even though some of his personal views fall into the GOP establishment), the Times has one of the most lively comments section as well. So kudos to Mr. Burns.

So state Democrats and Marion County Republicans, you might want to step up your efforts, huh? Competition is good for business, and I'd love to have some.

At-Large GOP Council Candidate Wants To Repeal HRO, Domestic Partnerships Benefits

2011-09-27T08:00:00.002-04:00

Christopher Douglas, a longtime Republican and LGBT equality advocate, posted about a conversation he had with Michael Kalscheur. Kalscheur is running for one of the four At-Large slots on the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council. Douglas questioned Kalscheur on his views of the Human Rights Ordinance, which was passed in 2005 with bi-partisan support and adds "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to protected classes in the cases of housing and employment, and prohibits the city from doing business with contractors who discriminate on those grounds. Kalscheur said that not only is he against the HRO, but if given the opportunity to vote for a repeal, he would.

Kalscheur also expressed opposition for domestic partnership benefits for city employees. Domestic partnership benefits allow unmarried couples in long-term relationship access to employee benefits such as health care. While this is generally seen as an LGBT-specific issue since they don't have the option of marrying their partner, an increasing number of straight couples are choosing cohabitation for extended periods before or in lieu of marriage.

While this might come as no surprise to those familiar with anti-gay ideologies coming from the GOP at the national and state stage, LGBT equality issues make for strange bedfellows in Indianapolis. The opposition and support for the HRO in the December 2005 vote was bi-partisan. Eric Miller and his organization Advance America (which generally supports Republicans), as well as several preachers from black churches in Marion County (which typically support Democrats) came out in loud opposition to the HRO. LGBT equality groups from both political parties, as well as non-partisan LGBT equality groups, advocated for the HROs passage in 2005.

But in the six years since the HRO passed, things seem to have changed. No attempts from any councilors have been introduced to repeal the HRO, Mayor Greg Ballard (R) enforced the HRO in the "Just Cookies" controversy, and it's generally seen as a non-issue even among candidates who are themselves gay and lesbian, likely because it's perceived as a settled issue. And throughout the nation, attitudes are quickly changing among the populous on issues such as same-sex marriage, with the majority of Americans supporting it.

While anti-gay views might be able to be expressed in "safe" Republican districts such as Ginny Cain has in district 5, Republicans who want to succeed in Marion County (either at-large or in most of the districts) have to recognize that holding and promoting anti-gay views will only hurt their chances in most of the county, which has been trending Democrat for the past several years. Alienating those who believe in LGBT equality shuts off a sizable chunk of citizens who would otherwise be open to hearing your views on municipal governance.

UPDATE: Indianapolis Star reporter Jon Murray writes that if the Democrats regain control of the council, one of the priorities will be to introduce legislation that will allow domestic partnership benefits. Beth Murphy, the editorial editor for the Star, said that these priorities were drawn from the various endorsement interviews the editorial board has held with Democratic candidates.

Ballard's Latest Ad: His Best Yet?

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

Mayor Greg Ballard (R) and his campaign put out a new spot for television, and it's grim. A group of women, who I've independently confirmed to be Marion County residents and not professional actors, are shown talking directly to the camera and taking aim at mayoral candidate Melina Kennedy (D) and her record and alleged support for tax increases.

While the ad only quotes a column by Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully near the beginning and doesn't source when Kennedy supported other tax increases, Star reporter Jon Murray did some asking and some digging and dug up Kennedy supporting tax increases during her run for Marion County Prosecutor in 2006.

Now, every election cycle we get the "ugh, negative ads and ominous music AGAIN" and people going on and on about how the American people deserve better and shouldn't be treated to low blow tactics like this.

But hey, if this didn't work, politicians wouldn't keep making these ads.

This ad addresses Kennedy's record directly and paints a dark picture. Tax increases are a big no-no in today's political environment and this ad could move low information voters toward a Ballard vote.

The simplicity in the ad, in black and white with the women speaking to the camera in plain language, makes it as if the women are speaking directly to the viewer. It was done beautifully, and I wouldn't be surprised if some higher ups in the state GOP helped cook this up in some focus group.

And while some of my political associates can easily rattle off dozens of tax increases and fee hikes that Ballard has supported, that doesn't matter if the viewer doesn't know about these issues. Outside of news junkies, municipal elections are filled with low information voters even moreso than Presidential elections. So the first impression can be very, very imporant, and hard to break.

The ad could be seen in a bad light because it's Ballard who has bought the taxes discussion to the table. This leaves the Kennedy camp room to fire back with their own ad to advance their own agenda. I know the Marion County Democrat Party put out some crappy YouTube videos in late 2010 that listed the various tax and fee hikes Ballard and the Republican council have supported, but surely they can do better.

And how else could it be bad? Well, if Ballard has to attack a candidate rather than run ads on his record, that might mean his internal polling shows him slipping. I wouldn't be surprised if he's still in the lead, but I suspect it's more within the standard margin of error rather than the 10 point lead county GOP chairman Kyle Walker has been touting.

Finally, did anyone else find it odd that it was Ballard's campaign committee that put this out, and not the county GOP or state GOP? Typically, the so-called "negative" ads and mailers are left for the political party to handle so the political candidate can officially distance themselves from it.

Jon Easter weighs in with his thoughts here.

GOP Supporters Boo Active Duty Soldier, POTUS Candidates Remain Silent

2011-09-23T00:05:00.002-04:00

Tonight's GOP POTUS debate had a certain gimmick. Since Google was a co-sponsor of the debate, many of the questions were submitted on the Google-owned site YouTube. In the above video, an active duty gay solider asks the contenders for the GOP nomination for President essentially what they'd do since Don't Ask, Don't Tell was recently repealed and if they'd roll it back.

As soon as the video finishes, several in the crowd booed. No moderator of the debate or any of the Presidential contenders said anything about the crowd's blatant disrespect of the soldier, including the two libertarian-leaning candidates Ron Paul and Gary Johnson.

I guess in this Grand Old Party, you can only have free speech if you hate the gays. I would think that the fact that the guy is currently risking his life in Iraq would matter to them, but nope, they only care about the military when it'll benefit their political agenda. When it goes against their political instincts, they'll toss veterans to the wolves. Mark my words, many attending the debate and in the GOP would love nothing more than to kick out every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered person currently serving and make sure that they'd never get a single benefit for their time of service. Yes, I understand some of my Republican friends say minds are changing in the party, but the Old Guard in many respects, including on DADT, are still in charge and have the influence.

And people wonder why I'm not a Republican.

UPDATE: GOProud has release a statement about this incident and is demanding an apology from former Senator Santorum:

(Washington, D.C.) – “Tonight, Rick Santorum disrespected our brave men and women in uniform, and he owes Stephen Hill, the gay soldier who asked him the question about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, an immediate apology.
“That brave gay soldier is doing something Rick Santorum has never done – put his life on the line to defend our freedoms and our way of life. It is telling that Rick Santorum is so blinded by his anti-gay bigotry that he couldn’t even bring himself to thank that gay soldier for his service.
“Stephen Hill is serving our country in Iraq, fighting a war Senator Santorum says he supports. How can Senator Santorum claim to support this war if he doesn’t support the brave men and women who are fighting it?”

And the spin is in, saying it was only a few people booing and they were hissed. Doesn't quite make sense considering Santorum's anti-gay response to the question practically has people cheering as if the Beatles just came out on stage.

Make No Mistake: Ballard Agrees and Fully Supports Frank Straub

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

I somehow missed this reporting from FOX 59 WXIN that shows that Mayor Greg Ballard (R) personally signed off on bringing in an out of state buddy of Frank Straub's to look over the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's entire professional standards division and the citizen review board. Straub, the director of the Department of Public Safety, makes it sound like this was requested by the Fraternal Order of Police, but the FOP disputes that, saying they wanted a neutral investigator for one specific incident, not a broad sweep.

I bring this up because I often hear the sentiment, among law enforcement officers and supporters of law enforcement, that they would gladly vote for Ballard for re-election if he ditched Straub. But Straub isn't just some power hungry person who is doing his own bidding behind Ballard's back. He is doing it out in the open with the full support of Ballard. Regardless of Ballard's past record, this is his record now and this is how he truly believes our law enforcement officers should be treated.

In other Straub news:

I last reported on the Animal Care & Control budget hearing, but the second half of the meeting contained the hearings for the rest of the Department of Public Safety as well (sans the Indianapolis Fire Department and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, which will be heard this week). I wasn't paying as close attention to this section of the budget talks, mainly because I'm less knowledgeable about this, but hey, when it's still the Good Doctor Director Frank Straub doing the presentation, you just kind of have to watch the train wreck.

During this part of the hearing, Straub tries to refute the notion that his personal DPS administration is somehow top heavy and points out every single minor position that he has let go unfilled, as if it's some HUGE strain on his part not to have some Assistant Secretary of the Interior and that increases his other assistants' workloads by oh-so-much. He also mentions how about five positions will have to be eliminated, but they're still working on finding out which grant moneys will no longer be available so they can't identify which positions will be eliminated at this time. A few questions are asked by councilors asking if these grant moneys were lost due to Indianapolis specifically not being awarded it, and Straub gives the assurance that these lost grant moneys were lost to cities across the board.

He also mentions that, as a last hope, the push by President Barack Obama for a so-called jobs bill might help restore some funding for various positions in DPS and the various departments under DPS, so he's cautiously optimistic that, if passed, these positions might not need to be eliminated.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think we should be relying on unreliable federal or not-for-profit grant funding for purposes in municipal government that we might consider vital. If they're that important, we need to find a way to fund them ourselves. And if they aren't important, then why are we wasting time to lobby for outside money?

One observant reader commented to me that Straub seems to intentionally make his answers extremely long and confusing as a strategy so that, as the meeting gets later into the night, councilors will feel a sense of urgency and won't ask follow up questions or will shorten their period of questioning. After watching this entire budget meeting, I fully agree. It's not uncommon for men like Straub, who have spent large portions of their adult life in the halls of academia, to be horrible communicators and often "talk down" to others who they see as lesser people.

Anti-Gun Craziness in Hammond, Evansville

2011-09-19T23:59:00.001-04:00

The 2011 general assembly session passed a set of gun rights bills, signed into law by Governor Mitch Daniels, that superseded many municipal laws on the books concerning the carrying of firearms by private citizens on municipal government property. Basically, unless the guidelines in the new set of laws specifically exempt it, municipal governments must allow citizens to carry firearms in public. And most importantly, any currently existing ordinance or regulation from municipal government is null and void. Municipal legislative bodies don't need to amend or repeal them. These laws, like many others passed by the 2011 general assembly and signed by the governor, went into effect on July 1, 2011.

Indiana gun regulations already widely allow citizens to openly carry, and Indiana code doesn't make a distinction between openly carrying a firearm or carrying a firearm that is concealed.

First up is a case from Hammond, Indiana (via the Indiana Law Blog). One of the Republican council members tried to introduce legislation to harmonize Hammond's gun regulations with the new state law, and the proposal failed 8-1. After the failed vote, a lawsuit was filed to change Hammond's gun regulations and the National Rifle Association sent this letter to the mayor of Hammond, Thomas McDermott, informing McDermott of the change in state law and warning of possible legal action. McDermott responded with an executive order issued September 7 effectively changing the law on his own.

I'm not intimately familiar with mayoral powers of Hammond and don't know if that is exactly legal, but it was a good political move on McDermott's part to not let this drag on any further.

And it looks like the city of Evansville might be facing a similar story. The Evansville police escorted a man out of a publicly owned park and zoo for carrying a firearm openly. That man is now suing the city and the Department of Parks and Recreation seeking financial damages and an injunction against the city so they can't arrest anyone else for carrying a gun on public property. Hopefully the city ponies up a settlement and then quickly has a symbolic repeal of any gun regulations it has that conflict with state law.

I have great respect for my liberal friends, and can see why they believe what they believe even when I don't personally agree with them on most issues. But I'll never understand why some liberals have this irrational fear and hatred of guns. These dumb little gun laws, like the Indianapolis law that banned guns in parks, didn't stop a single criminal from carrying a gun into a park and using it to harm others.

And this isn't coming from an NRA member or a lifelong gun owner. I've shot guns (rifles and shotguns, and got to shoot a musket once or twice as well) when I was in Boy Scouts, and that's it. But I'd like the option to buy a gun if I ever felt the need to have one, and believe others should have that same option.

Instead of passing laws that only affect law abiding citizens, let's work on stamping out the criminal element that would use guns against us.

IN ADDITION/update: Some online discussion has questioned what the gentleman in Evansville did to provoke Evansville police to actually ask him to conceal his weapon. According to the article, it doesn't seem like he was an active disturbance until after police or park officials asked him to conceal his firearm. While a citizen not acting perfectly makes it a bit harder to defend him, I don't blame a citizen getting a bit flustered for being questioned. It's natural for most people. And it doesn't seem like any criminal charges were filed either. It seems like some of the story is missing, but it's important to note the gentleman never should've been asked to conceal his firearm in the first place. Indiana doesn't make a distinction between open carry and concealed carry.

The Problem with Pet Ownership

2011-09-16T23:00:00.000-04:00

Reflecting on the recent Animal Care and Control proposed budget hearing, I now have learned more about the actual state of animal care (lowercase letters) in Indianapolis. And it isn't good. I witnessed this first hand earlier this evening.

I went with a good friend to Peppy's Grill, a great 24/7 diner in Fountain Square. While eating, I saw a cat while looking out the window. It was in the yard of the residence next door, so I figured it belonged to someone nearby.

I later saw the same cat while going back to my car. After getting my dog into the car, I approached the cat and it practically ran to me as I came to it. I really don't know much about animals, especially cats, but it seemed relatively young, nourished, and very friendly.

While petting it, a car drove up to me. The driver, also a neighbor nearby, said that I should take the cat. I explained to him I have a dog who just thinks that all cats are weird looking squirrels so I didn't see how that'd work out, and I asked if he knew who it belonged to. He said the previous resident of the rental property next to Peppy's Grill abandoned the cat after they moved.

During the Public Safety Committee meeting, many of those during the public comment section talked about the high number of animals that are euthanized at the shelter. While I do love animals (I've owned several dogs, cats, and parakeets at one time or another), I also recognize that the primary role of a county run animal shelter is public safety. If animals can be adopted or put into foster homes, that's a plus. But if there's too many, euthanasia has to be an option.

I read a statistic, maybe it was in a news article or maybe it was during the hearing, that an average of 22 animals per day are euthanized at the shelter. It's kind of hard to say it's only a Marion County problem, because people across Indiana can come here and drop off animals, but let's assume these 22 animals are all from the central Indiana area.

It probably means that there are too many pets and not enough responsible owners within Marion and the doughnut counties.

So what can we, both as a society and politically minded people, do? I don't have all the answers, but it's certainly something that needs to be addressed, even after the buzz over Animal Care's budget fades away.

Council Committee Hears Animal Control's Proposed Budget

2011-09-14T23:59:00.003-04:00

The Public Safety Committee of the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council met this evening to hear the proposed budget for Animal Care and Control, which falls under the umbrella of the Department of Public Safety. The person presenting Animal Care's budget was the Good Doctor himself, DPS director Frank "Call me Doctor" Straub.

The Good Doctor, who wears the same type of tie that I do when I get all dressed up, started the night off with class by reminding everyone that he used to live in New York and was in the general vicinity when the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred. After invoking 9/11 verbally (speaking of which, look for The Good Doctor to get sued by former NYC Mayor Rudy Guliani for a trademark infringement), he then splashed a picture of the World Trade Center's twin towers burning in his PowerPoint presentation three days outside of the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. What does this have to do with public safety in Indianapolis or Animal Care and Control? I have no idea. But now I'll have to get a new tie.

Sorry, I couldn't resist having a bit of fun at Straub's expense.

But onto the meat of this meeting.

First on the docket, and what I'm focusing on, is the proposed budget for Animal Care and Control. Even though Mayor Greg Ballard (R) said that public safety would stay flat rather than be cut for the 2012 budget, that was a complete sham. Animal Care and Control's proposed budget is being reduced by about $200,000 for general operating expenses, you know, the stuff Animal Care and Control does as part of a service to Marion County citizens. There is a total of $0 from the geniuses who put this budget together for food for the animals and, according to testimony given tonight, the shelter is constantly at full capacity. According to testimony tonight, all food at the shelter is donated. Straub specifically pointed out Proctor and Gamble, as well as Kroger, as major donors.

To their credit, several councilors at the meeting tonight expressed concerns. Benjamin Hunter (R-District 21) and council president Ryan Vaughn (R-District 3) said that they've been talking with other councilors and city officials, assuring that funding for Animal Care's basic operational expenses will be restored to 2010 levels.

Both Hunter and Vernon Brown (D-District 18) bought up over $500,000 in something that Hunter referred to as "chargebacks". Apparently, if a city department like Animal Care and Control needs assistance from another city department, like the Office of Corporation Counsel (city legal), then Corporation Counsel sends Animal Care an invoice. About $400,000 in these "chargebacks" were to Corporation Counsel, and another $100,000 was to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for responding to animal calls. I was unclear if this was actually in the budget, or if they were looking at "chargebacks" from the previous budget year.

Brown asked how much the average attorney at Corporation Counsel makes, and the city comptroller responded about $50,000. Brown quipped back that it sounds like Animal Care and Control could've "ten lawyers" of their own. While that ignores health care and other expenses, his general point is sound. Considering the legal market is so bad that previously employed lawyers are now stripping for money, I don't think it'd be too hard to fill these positions even if you pay them less than Corporation Counsel attorneys.

Excuse me for asking, but what the flying hell is the point of Corporation Counsel if it isn't to handle the legal work of the city, including city departments? Do they have something better to do? And on a more serious note, where does a "cashback" for Corporation Counsel then go? Into their general fund? Into the individual attorney's pocket? Somewhere else? I'll do some digging to see if I can get some answers.

Public testimony consisted of the usual group of community activists that were joined by animal caretakers and shelters as well as several volunteers from Animal Care and Control. One long time animal caretaker held up a faded copy of The Indianapolis Star from 1994. The headline was "Deadly Wait" describing problems with Animal Control. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Another volunteer encouraged the council to bump the operating fund all the way up to $200,000 repeating the theme that even at $180,000 and change, it's still horribly underfunded for the largest county shelter in the entire state.

And the last citizen to make a comment noted that DPS' administrative fund was $700,000, way above the proposed budget for Animal Care's operating expenses. It really shows where DPS' priorities are.

And finally, I have to give kudos to Public Safety Chairman Benjamin Hunter. He handled the large amount of citizens seeking to comment on the proposed Animal Care budget with class. Even though a buzzer was used, he didn't cut off anyone's microphone or verbally interrupted them. He also put what he knew everyone was there for first on the agenda so that the public could have their voices heard and get on with their lives.

Next up, I tuned in for the several other DPS budgets that were being heard tonight (IFD and IMPD are up next week). I've got quite a few words about The Good Doctor based on my observations from the later portion of the meeting. I'll have a post on that sometime tomorrow.

Council Candidate Vop Osili Releases General Election Commercial

2011-09-14T19:30:00.001-04:00

2011 Campaign Video Vop Osili from Vop Osili on Vimeo.

I received a press release in my inbox and, to my surprise, it was about a district level City-County Council candidate getting a video together. Vop Osili, the Democrat nominee for district 15, has possibly the best commercial I've seen so far in this municipal election cycle. Osili is an excellent public speaker and comes across as genuine when speaking. When he's speaking on camera, he's stationary and sitting on a porch, which gives the feeling that he's basically talking directly to you.

On a personal note, I often drive by that Vop Osili poster while on my way to Ivy Tech's campus in Avon. It's important to remember that district 15 doesn't just encompass downtown Indianapolis, and Osili's commercial makes this point.

The challenge for district level candidates is getting enough money to actually air these commercials in late October/early November on channels with programming where likely voters are going to be tuning in. Typically, council candidates run on a shoe-string budget and any airtime they might get is usually in an ad with their parties mayoral candidate. I don't know if Osili really needs to air his commercial on television since he's running in a heavily Democrat leaning district, but if he does, it'd certainly help his profile.

If elected, Osili will be a great asset to the Democrats to promote the party within the county and possibly elsewhere. I wouldn't be all that surprised that, in a few years when the political tides are more friendly to Democrats, that Osili runs for a higher office. Could he be a new representative for Democrats in Indiana, similar to how Evan Bayh was for several years? Only time will tell.

The "Contest" for Renaming Georgia Street is a Complete Sham

2011-09-13T16:40:00.001-04:00

The Powers-That-Be in this town have decided to hold a contest on what Georgia Street should be called after it's federally funded makeover is finished. Of course, these people see a problem when it isn't broken. A commenter over at Paul Ogden's post on the subject saw an interview with an Indianapolis Downtown Inc official where the official claimed that since there's nothing southern about Georgia Street, it's a bad name. Great, I can't wait until Tamara Zahn at IDI starts trying to change the cultural district's name that is Massachusetts Avenue.

The two names that have been publicly floated are "Champions Way", in reference to the Superbowl being hosted here in 2012, and "Hospitality Boulevard", which I guess is a contrived way of fitting the phrase Hoosier Hospitality into a street name.

Both of those names sound absolutely horrible, and if I was a betting man, I'd bet that they came from out-of-town consultants who don't live in Indianapolis.

Then there's the other side of changing street names: Businesses have to change business cards and basically communicate to anyone who sends them mail about the new address.

I actually like what my friend Jon Easter posted on Facebook, naming it after Mayor Bill Hudnut. Hudnut had a vision for Indianapolis and it's due to his administration that this city has grown to what it is today. I won't pretend I'm smart enough to decide if "Hudnut Street" or "Hudnut Place" or whatever rolls off the tongue the most, but I think if chosen well, a new street name would be worth the cost.

But as Aaron Renn over at the Urbanophile points out, it's very, very easy to botch a street re-naming. And it looks like it's going to happen.

Make no mistake about it. IDI and their partners in crime have a name already in mind, and that's the name that will be chosen. This is more or less a publicity stunt for some good PR. And hey, it'll probably work. Still doesn't change that, years after the Superbowl is gone and that miniscule amount of tax revenue is long since spent, we'll have a street named by PR consultants that doesn't fit in with the rest of the streets in the city.

Herman Cain Can't Be Serious

2011-09-10T13:15:00.001-04:00

I found Herman Cain's latest campaign commercial to be a resignation that his Presidential aspirations are going nowhere fast, so he's decided to just troll everyone and basically release his own version of tribute.wmv.

Leaning on a crutch of 9/11 is supposed to be a Rudy Giuliani gimmick. It's sad that Cain has sunk this low. And to think I actually took him as a somewhat serious candidate not all that long ago.

What Jobs Bill?

2011-09-09T18:42:00.000-04:00

Last night, President Barack Obama held a joint session of Congress to introduce what he is calling the American Jobs Act. Obama repeatedly encouraged to pass the bill "right away", but no bill has actually been introduced to either house of the United States Congress. The Hill is reporting that the GOP House caucus sent a letter to Obama asking him to send the bill to the House so that they can study it in committee and have it scored by the Congressional Budget Office.

So I log onto Facebook and see a number of my liberal associates posting phone numbers of legislative leaders in the US Congress so people can call and encourage them to pass this proposed bill. But how can you pass a bill that, as of right now, doesn't exist? Is this another case of having to pass a bill to find out what's in it?

Ballard's Backers Need to Grow A Pair

2011-09-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

I've heard about these "negative" ads mayoral candidate Melina Kennedy (D) has been sending via the mail and on television about Mayor Greg Ballard (R). I mean, when most of the local blogosphere is conservative, it's hard to not hear about it.

So I decided to do something and actually look at the direct mail pieces and watch the television ads. The second of two direct mailers can be seen here, though I can't find the first one online. The videos can be seen here.

I obtained both of the direct mailers myself. The first mailer is basically her first campaign commercial, except in written form. It focuses on education, and I don't recall Ballard's name being on it at all. On the second mailer, Ballard's name is on it a total of twice, both within the same bullet point of information. Nothing negative about it.

Kennedy's second television ad talks about the supposed lack of focus on education the Ballard administration has had. While that point is debatable, I don't know if it's negative. It's an issue. Candidates challenging incumbents often compare their views with the incumbent so voters might see a difference.

All I gotta say is if these are "negative" ads, then the Marion County GOP and Ballard's backers need to put on some big boy pants and grow some alligator skin. I typically see "negative" ads as when it's a personal attack on a candidate, like, oh say, this one. Didn't see Ballard's wife or children mentioned in Kennedy's, and nothing is mentioned as a personal insult to Ballard.

And while some Ballard's Backers are crying over the tough, mean negative ads from that monster Melina Kennedy, one GOP ward chairman from Warren Township is spreading rumors about why Kennedy left her previous jobs as deputy mayor under Mayor Bart Peterson and as a lawyer with the law firm Baker & Daniels, suggesting she couldn't "handle" the pressure of the city job and that she was caught in ethical troubles at B&D. If this local politico bothered to check his history, Kennedy left the Peterson administration to run for Marion County Prosecutor in 2006, and left B&D in 2011 to commit to running for Mayor full time. He's also slammed her for working as a waitress while growing up. Man, politicians trying to relate to common people by showing they've worked the same dead end jobs others have. What is up with that, right?

If you ask me, this representative of the county GOP is going much more personal than the Kennedy campaign. Ballard's backers need to grow some thicker skin.

I've Been Endorsed by the FOP

2011-09-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

Headlines were made when the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #86 overwhelmingly endorsed Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy over incumbent Republican Mayor Greg Ballard. It's often been a topic of this blog what Ballard's public safety director, Doctor Director Frank Straub, has done to de-moralize the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. And it's suspected that the endorsement of Kennedy has less to do with her public safety platform and more to do with a repudiation of Ballard's/Straub's.

Some of Ballard's last backers are pushing the conspiracy theory that Sheriff John Layton (D) gave money to 50 deputies to register with the FOP so they could vote for Kennedy. Let's see, the voting total was 125-36 in favor of Kennedy. And 125-50 is...oh, 75. So according to the conspiracy theory, Ballard still loses out on the endorsement! Also throwing off that conspiracy theory, being pushed by Marion County GOP Chairman Kyle Walker, is that 19 GOP City-County Council candidates were endorsed, including several incumbents.

The FOP also released their endorsements for the City-County Council races as well. Paul Ogden has a breakdown of the list here. His list includes party affiliation.

Apparently, the FOP isn't guaranteed to endorse you if you were a former IPD/IMPD/Sheriff. Councilor Benjamin Hunter (R), an IPD officer until 2008, was passed over in favor of his challenger Todd Woodmansee (D) in District 21 Contrast that with Jack Sandlin (R). Sandlin, a former IMPD officer, won the endorsement over sitting At-Large Councilor Ed Coleman (LP) for the District 24 race. Coleman was one of the earliest critics of Frank Straub and the only vote against him in his initial confirmation. Two Democrats and three Republicans (including two of their incumbents) were endorsed for the At-Large races.

And finally, yours truly was endorsed over Sahara Williams (R) and Maggie Lewis (D-incumbent) for the District 7 race.

I'll say both I'm completely surprised and completely honored. Despite the kind words that the head interviewer said to me as I walked out of the FOP building, I felt I had completely botched the interview. Seven officers sat at the other end of the table and asked me seven questions from the survey they had sent me. I answered with seven answers which I had sent them earlier in the day. There was no follow up or anything like that.

So I thought that was weird.

Then I started talking to other council candidates.

They all reported the exact same experience.

One of them took the straight forward interview style with a bit of humor. John Barth, a Democrat At-Large council candidate, told me he answered the questions in quick succession because he knew which question would be next. Apparently, the FOP has a sense of humor because they ended up endorsing him.

(And apologies to my Facebook and Twitter followers, since I'm basically rehashing this subject in the form of a blog post)

Satellite Voting: What's the Big Deal?

2011-09-01T11:15:00.000-04:00

Satellite voting (the practice of opening up satellite voting locations across the county in the several days preceding an election for in-person early voting) is, again, being made an issue with the Marion County Election Board. As the fall general election for municipal offices comes closer, the deadline to determine satellite voting locations looms as well. The Marion County GOP, being the well-oiled machine it is, can only one entire person to actually make their way to the board meeting. That person is Kyle Walker, the county GOP chairman. He says satellite voting is expensive and doesn't increase turnout. Well, the turnout part can kind of be seen as true, but I personally believe expensive is misleading.

If there's one thing government should spend an excessive amount of money on, it's voting. We should make it as easy as possible for people to cast votes. Many people don't work in the 9-5 world anymore. People hold multiple jobs that can have odd, or even unpredictable, hours. College students have classes that start as early as 7:30am or run late until 9pm. People are busy, and demand convenience. And one of those conveniences should be the ability to vote either early or on election day.

If anything, in-person early satellite voting should be encouraged. It's the mail-in absentee voting where fraud or even simple mistakes can occur.

On another note, noted county GOP apologist Ernie Shearer is quoted in the article as well, saying "We're sick and tired of you spending our money." Shearer must've forgotten that the Mayor Greg Ballard proposed and City-County Council (majority Republican) approved budgets, which he has fawned over, allocate money to the Clerk's office for satellite voting. He's barking up the wrong tree here. The Clerk's office doesn't get any money that it isn't specifically allocated in the budget.

Goldsmith's Domestic Violence Arrest Led to NYC Resignation

2011-09-01T08:57:00.005-04:00

I just received a news alert from 93.1 WIBC-FM on my phone with a plain text statement saying that former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith has been arrested in Washington D.C. The arrest was due to alleged domestic violence.

The New York Post has the exclusive story.

Goldsmith is also a former New York City deputy mayor who recently was resigned/forced out by Mayor Michael Bloomberg due to Goldsmith's disastrous two year tenure, especially when it came to snow removal this past winter.

UPDATE: After reviewing the Post's story, this is not a recent arrest. It happened in early August at Goldsmith's DC residence. A police report was filed and Goldsmith did spend time in jail, but his wife is saying she never wanted him arrested, no physical altercation occurred, and she declined to press charges. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg found out about the arrest and Goldsmith offered his resignation.

Jennifer Pearsey joins Wallace for Governor Team

2011-08-29T13:20:00.002-04:00

A reliable source has told me that Jim Wallace, campaigning for the GOP nomination for Governor of Indiana, is adding a new person to his team. Jennifer Pearsey will join Wallace's team as director of fundraising. Pearsey previously worked on Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard's (R) campaign committee as a political director, and worked on the 25th floor as an executive assistant. She joins Jeff Howe, who is acting as Wallace's campaign manager.

As fellow blogger Paul Ogden warned recently, Jim Wallace should be treated as a serious candidate. There's no shortage of people, both in Indiana and nationally, who thought they had a nomination sealed and ended up losing.

UPDATE: I've uploaded the press release to my Google Docs account.

Political Potpourri: National Edition

2011-08-27T22:10:00.005-04:00

Classes at Ivy Tech started last week, so I'm still trying to find the right balance between work, school, and free time. In the mean time, here's a mishmash of political tidbits that either I've picked up or read about elsewhere:

At-Large Libertarian City-County Council candidate Bill Levin has had his commercial up online for about a month now, but it received relatively little attention until Advance Indiana posted it on his blog. AI's author, Gary Welsh, noted that the gentleman Levin was chatting up in City Market was none other than Carlos May. May ran in the 2010 GOP primary for the 7th Congressional district nomination, which he lost to perennial candidate Marvin Scott. May is now back on the 25th floor working for Mayor Greg Ballard, and according to Welsh, May appearing in a Libertarian's video didn't sit well with Ballard. The video is now back up with a disclaimer saying that "Carlos May does not endorse Bill Levin."
Speaking of Levin, Melyssa Donaghy is hosting a fundraiser at her house on behalf of Levin. The fundraiser will be Saturday, Sept. 24 at 6pm. Contact info is available via her Blogger profile.
I had a very nice chat with the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police concerning my City-County Council candidacy. It was an absolute honor to be able to sit down with them and be considered for their endorsement.
I'm hearing Jim Wallace, who has been campaigning for the GOP nomination for Governor, is about to add a pretty high profile staff member next week. More on that later.
Abandoned and neglected buildings have been one of my interests that got me back into the political scene. Keystone Towers, a condemned apartment complex that was taken over by the city in 2008, is set to be imploded at 8am Sunday. If you want to see it for yourself, get there a bit early. City-County Councilor Christine Scales (R-District 3) will be present, and the Towers fall in her district.
And as to what makes this the "national edition", several GOP POTUS candidates either have or will be making their way through central Indiana soon. Herman Cain spoke at the Columbia Club not too long ago, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is set for next week, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is scheduled as well. I highly doubt Indiana will be "in play" as far as the GOP POTUS primary goes, but it shows how organized the GOP is at the state level that they're able to get candidates away from Iowa and New Hampshire for a few hours to spend time in a very red Midwest state. I'll be at the Huntsman event and if anything interesting happens, I'll let ya'll know.

That's all for now. I hope to attend some candidate forums (both for myself and to report on) in the near future, and if I do, I'll make sure to post about them. If you have any tips on stories or think there's a political event I need to attend, drop me an e-mail via my Blogger profile.

Libertarian National Party Donates $50,000 to Ed Coleman's Campaign

2011-08-21T14:15:00.000-04:00

The Libertarian National Committee recently announced that they'll be donating $50,000 to Edward Coleman's re-election campaign for the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council. Coleman was originally elected to the council in 2007 as a Republican, but bolted and became a Libertarian after a series of disagreements concerning the Capital Improvement Board, among other issues. Coleman was originally and is currently serving as an At-Large councilor, but is running in his south-side district for re-election.

Most major party candidates for council only have a few thousand dollars in their campaign coffers (you can see financial statements with the county clerk's office here). Only a handful have more than $10,000, and most will be heavily relying on either the county and state party to support them, and/or their mayoral candidates. As of April, 2011, Jack Sandlin (Coleman's Republican opponent) only had a bit over $4k with over $1k in debt. Sandlin was appointed to the council recently after a vacancy opened up in that district.

No one is saying it won't be an uphill battle for any Libertarian candidate in any campaign, but this certainly puts District 24 in play.

Can Gay Bars Move Anymore? Trouble in Tippecanoe and NYC.

2011-08-20T00:15:00.001-04:00

Over in Lafayette, Indiana, the town's only gay bar closed back in April, 2011 due to new ownership of the building that had new plans. The owners of Zoolegers, Dick Nagel and Wayne Applegate, wanted to move it to a new location that is currently vacant. It's only a few blocks away from the old location.

Now maybe it's because Lafayette, IN is so small, or maybe it's because it's near a riverfront, but they have to go before an Indiana board to get their liquor license for the new location rather than a county liquor licensing board. A common part of the process is to get a letter of support from the neighbors in the proposed site. That isn't happening, and the mayor of Lafayette, Tony Roswarski(D), has refused to sign a letter of support due to an anti-LGBT petition he received:

Roswarski reacted after receiving a petition that was circulated among property owners and businesses in the area of Sixth and Main streets, including people who live directly to the north in The Cracker Factory condominiums.
"Part of the application process is to get a letter from the mayor. It's an important part. Without the letter, they won't get the license," Roswarski said. "I chose not to send the letter. I don't think it's the right fit for people who live next door.

In the comments section of the linked article, some commenters said that Roswarski has betrayed promises made to the LGBT community. I'm not intimately familiar with politics in Tippecanoe, so take it with a grain of salt.

Bill Browning of the LGBT blog The Bilerico Project (and a native Hoosier) picks apart the article a bit more, since it never actually says that Zoolegers is a gay bar. Previously, Browning compiled a post that cited Lafayette, IN as the 5th highest concentration of same-sex couples, in terms of percentages.

A similar, but far more complicated, situation is arising in New York City in Greenwich Village, ironically only a few blocks away from The Stonewall Inn where it's largely accepted that the modern LGBT equality movement started.

So I guess gay bars just can't move anymore, huh? And these are in areas that are generally accepted to be LGBT friendly.

Dan Burton is Fucking Nuts

2011-08-17T06:30:00.000-04:00

The Indianapolis Star's columnist Matthew Tully attended Representative Dan Burton's (R-5th) recent town hall meeting. It seemed pretty typical until I got to this tweet from Tully:

One voter just called for the suspension of most government regulations, "including the ADA." ... "I agree with you 100%" Burton said.

So I did some research. Turns out Burton did vote against the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. It was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. But apparently, ol' Danny had a change in heart because, in 2008, he voted for an ADA expansion signed by President George W. Bush.

And hey, maybe I took it a bit personally. I have a cardiac pacemaker, which means I can't go through the metal detectors found at security checkpoints at places like airports, some government facilities, and banks. I've had government officers try to deny me access to public buildings. Other times, employees or business owners try to kick me out when I try to bring my service dog into their place of business. So to hear Danny Burton that he wishes to repeal the law that enables those with disabilities to go about their lives without being discriminated against, well, it really only shows how privileged Danny is. He's spent a few decades working in government and has long ago forgotten what it's like to live among the people he supposedly represents.

And before I hear about how I'm able to patronize another business, yes, that's true in my case. However, someone who isn't as able bodied as me, or who lives in a small town that only has one grocery or pharmacy or what have you, well, being told you can't shop there kind of leaves you in a tough spot.

I can only conclude that Danny Burton is fucking nuts. When are you 5th district voters going to send this shameless man back home?

Herman Cain: Pokemon Master!

2011-08-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

Basically, POTUS candidate Hermain Cain ended the Ames Iowa debate with a quote. It sounds all poetic and shit, but really, it's your basic pop song from a Pokemon movie soundtrack!

Mediaite has the full story.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-herman-cain-end-the-debate-with-an-inspirational-quote-from-a-pokemon-movie/

On another note, I'll be seeing Hermain Cain on Monday at the Columbia Club hosted by the Indiana Republican Party. Any readers have questions that they'd like me to ask, feel free to submit them via the comments section, Twitter, or Facebook.

Let's ride the Cain train!

Sinking Ship Back To Liquor Licensing Board

2011-08-12T16:30:00.000-04:00

I've obtained a press release from the Englehart Group, a local consulting firm. It gives details on when the Sinking Ship's hearing will be held.

If you haven't taken the time to voice your support for The Sinking Ship, please consider e-mailing one of the owners at andrew.hamaker@gmail.com. If you can't make the hearing, these letters of support will be shown to the Marion County Alcohol Licensing Board. Even though this is a fringe group of a handful of "neighbors" (most live several miles away), they can still do harm. It's no secret that if a bar loses it's liquor license, it'll go out of business.

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

August 12, 2011

Contact: Ray Volpe, 317-602-3620, ray@englehartgroup.com

THE SINKING SHIP PARTNERS WITH THE ENGLEHART GROUP TO COMBAT
CONCERNS INDIANAPOLIS –

The Sinking Ship, a bar and restaurant in a revitalized neighborhood south of Broad Ripple in Indianapolis, has acquired the professional public relations counseling services of The Englehart Group to address the concerns of a small group of area neighbors.

“A few members of the Meridian-Kessler Neighbor Helping Neighbor Association have objected to The Sinking Ship receiving a renewal on their liquor license,” says Blair Englehart, President of The Englehart Group. “Their objections, as we understand them, primarily concern the clientele of the establishment – a concern which is completely baseless and unfounded and, quite frankly, seems to border on discrimination and harassment.

“The Sinking Ship is an outstanding corporate citizen that contributes significantly to the community,” Englehart adds. “They have invested approximately $750,000 in renovating the old Steck Plumbing Building, which had been abandoned. They employ 25 people and provide them with a substantial benefits package. And they maintain a peaceful premises, with appropriate rules, regulations and security.”

The Sinking Ship will next appear before the licensing board on Monday, August 15, at 9:00 a.m. to discuss their liquor license renewal. The public is encouraged to attend the session at the City-County to support the restaurant. Please join The Sinking Ship’s Facebook page for updates.

The Englehart Group is a Strategic Marketing Communications firm located in the historic Mass Avenue Arts District in downtown Indianapolis. The agency provides experienced, expert consultation, development and implementation in the areas of advertising, public relations and marketing. The Englehart Group is a division of Next Wave Systems, LLC, an engineering and technology company that specializes in alternative energy products and integrated defense and security systems based in Pekin, Indiana, with offices in Bloomington, Indiana; Merrillville, Indiana; Huntsville, Alabama; and Washington, DC.

Abdul Is Out at WXNT: Let's Hear Your Conspiracy Theories!

2011-08-10T16:14:00.009-04:00

Abdul Hakim-Shabazz has said this coming Friday will be his last day as morning show host for 1430 WXNT-AM. Let's have some fun and guess what job(s) he'll be moving onto:

Working for the Melina Kennedy campaign to coach her in a debate, playing the role of Greg Ballard.
Working for the Greg Ballard re-election campaign on how to effectively run against Bart Peterson...again.
A 2 year sabbatical so he can get started on his authorized biography of Governor Mitch Daniels, tentatively titled "My Man Mitch: The Book"
A 1 year sabbatical to travel with his buddy Thomas John on the latest Phish reunion tour.
Finally getting that coveted 8pm-10pm slot on WIBC

Let's hear your thoughts. Where do you think he's off to?

(On a serious note, I hope Abdul is leaving WXNT only for the best of reasons and that he's moving on to a pasture that's just as, if not more, green. I'm not into kicking a man when he's down)

UPDATE: The Featherstone on Government blog is claiming a source is telling him that WXNT ended Shabazz's radio show so that they can bring in a syndicated show (IE cheaper). WXNT is already packed to the gills with syndicated radio programming except for a few hours on the weekends. I certainly hope this isn't true. It's becoming all too common for radio stations to resort to syndicated programming on both the AM or FM dial, and it really causes our media to lose a bit of local flavor when that happens.

Sometimes radio stations try to go even cheaper than syndicated broadcasts and just pre-record the bits from out-of-state and try to pass it off as live, local radio. I remember a few years back, WRZX-FM, the "alternative rock" station, fired one of their popular afternoon hosts, Nigel. They replaced him with an out-of-state DJ that would pre-record the little bits FM music DJs do between songs and before commercials. In the promotion of this new DJ, they claimed he was locally based, but listeners of the radio station discovered it was impossible to call in to make requests. After a few weeks, WRZX dropped the act and fired the out-of-state DJ and had one of their weekend filler DJs take the spot until a permanent replacement could be found. Money saving schemes like this are pretty common at Clear Channel owned radio stations, including WRZX. It'd be harder for an AM radio station to pull something like this, but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised by anything. The Indianapolis Star also talked about this incident here.

UPDATE II: Abdul announced this morning that Entercom, the company that owns WXNT, will fill Abdul's time slot with the Wall Street Journal Report. I'm sure ratings are already quite low, but I can't imagine this will actually help.

C&W: Roads Are a One-Time Expense

2011-08-10T00:30:00.000-04:00

Over at the conservative blog Capitol & Washington (the successor to Frugal Hoosiers), Mike O'Brien talks about the difference between mayoral nominee Melina Kennedy (D) and incumbent Mayor Greg Ballard (R). Specifically, he focuses on the differences in how they'd use the money from the water utility sale (you know, the money that just magically fell from the sky):

In 2006, during the toll road debate, when Democrats weren’t opposing Major Moves outright they were trying to spend the money on everything else. In the years since – especially since 2008 when state tax revenue collapsed – Democrats have recommended that road money be spent on everything from Medicaid to education. When I was working for the governor in 2006 during the toll road debate, he had a simple response to these proposals: we spend one-time money on one-time expenses.

If you spend one-time money on on-going expenses you’re going to run deficits when the money runs out.

I actually agree with O'Brien on that. One-time money, revenues that aren't part of an ongoing revenue stream, should be spent on one-time expenses. The Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council recently approved the use of a federal grant to level the blighted, vacant, city-owned properties where Keystone Towers and Winona Hospital now stand. That's a good use of one-time funds. They aren't paying salaries of an ongoing employee, it's just money used for a specific task, and that specific task won't ever be needed again because...well, you can't destroy the same building twice, right?

But last time I checked, roads, sidewalks, and bike lanes are not one-time expenses. When you build a road or sidewalk (and yes, new sidewalks are being built with the water utility money), you have to then also maintain them after they're built. At some point, this money is going to no longer be there. So what will happen when, 5-10 years down the line when these roads and sidewalks will need work on them again, and this money is long gone, what will be done then?

This one-time money should've gone into an expense that would last for a while. Roads tend to go over well for about 10 years, tops. An updated water infrastructure could last a lot longer. Sure, it's not as visible as paving roads, but it'd make progress on our EPA-mandated updated, and maybe we wouldn't have water shortage warnings every summer.

Rick Perry Has a Google Problem

2011-08-09T10:20:00.003-04:00

Man, that's one hell of a Google Problem. Especially in a Republican primary. Particularly "gay", "secession", and "bilderberg".

Bike Courier: Road Rules Aren't For Me

2011-08-08T22:30:00.001-04:00

I often complain about motorists who thrust unjustified vitriol upon cyclists. But every now and then, I find exactly why these motorists hold these views.

This well written article from The Indianapolis Star (also via Indy Cog, which re-published the entire article) profiles a bicycle courier service, whose site I won't link to and whose company I won't identify. In the article, one of the owners of the company says he blows through red lights, goes in and out of traffic lanes at random, and doesn't have brakes on his bike. It's this type of behavior that ruins the reputation of cyclists who advocate for sharing the road and following all the rules that any other user of the road has to follow.

I'm all for pulling over and ticketing these assholes just like you'd pull over and ticket a motorist who weaves in and out of lanes, blows through red lights/stop signs.

Also, one of the things that pissed me off about the article was this particular passage:

Most of the couriers ride bikes with a single gear that causes the pedals to spin at the same rate as the wheels. Typically, the only way to stop is if the rider reverses the pressure on the pedals and skids to a halt or uses his feet to slow the bike. Jamison has been riding a fixed-gear bike since 2005. He described his two-wheeler as “bare bones,” with no cables, levers or extra parts to weigh it down. But it’s the collection of parts — a Fuji bike frame, a rare fork from Japan, an Italian seat — that makes his bike perfect.

This passage makes it sound like that single-speed and fixed-gear bikes are interchangeable terms, but they aren't (I don't quite understand the differences, but I'm assured by more knowledgeable gearheads that there are). It also seems to imply that a defining feature of fixed gear bikes is the lack of breaks. In fact, breaks can (and should) be put on a fixed gear, or any, type of bicycle that's going to be used as a mode of transportation.

I actually was at the downtown Circle Starbucks a few nights ago, and a couple of police officers were sitting at the table next to me. One of them asked me if my bike had breaks, and I responded "Yes sir, my bike is fully up to code." I don't think he was intimately familiar with the Indiana Code section that regulates bicycles, but he mentioned that "the article in the paper said some courier group doesn't put breaks on their bikes". Unbeknownst to me, he was probably referring to this article that I'm now writing about. I explained to him that just because a bike is a fixed-gear bike, it can still have breaks, and I told him my dad's fixed gear bike has breaks, and I showed him where my bike's breaks were located on my non-fixed-gear bike.

So for once, I'm with my motorist friends. These guys are assholes. Let's hope they either change or are out of business soon enough.

Goldsmith Out as NYC Deputy Mayor

2011-08-05T14:30:00.000-04:00

Deputy Mayor Steve Goldsmith, who was largely blamed for two horribly managed winters in New York City, recently announced his retirement from "public service." That is if you believe the spin coming from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office. If you read what local New York City media are saying, it's a much different story.

Gary Welsh compiled several stories in this post, so I'll just direct you there.

Surprisingly, this story is making the rounds outside of the blogosphere. Several of my family members awoke to see an e-mail from my uncle this morning, linking a New York Post story talking about Goldsmith's "resignation." Goldsmith was Mayor of Indianapolis when my grandfather, Gordon Gilmer, retired from the City-County Council in 1999. Despite both being Republicans, they did not get along and didn't see eye-to-eye on many issues. It's funny how some things change, the more others stay the same.

Black Spider-Man and Roles of Race in Comics

2011-08-02T22:30:00.000-04:00

Marvel Comics, one of two major publishers of superhero comics, recently pushed a big story in it's Ultimate Universe. They killed off that universe's Spider-Man. Peter Parker, unmasked, was brutally beaten by the Green Goblin while his Aunt May and neighbors looked on. The entire city of New York mourns and thousands show up at his funeral. And even though all this suffering is going on, Spider-Man's death inspires someone else to pick up the mantel.

Most of the characters in the Ultimate universe are versions found in Marvel's main universe. There's a Nick Fury, a Captain America, and so on. But the new Spider-Man is not a previously established character. It's a completely original creation by writer Brian Michael Bendis. The new Spider-Man is a young man named Miles Morales. Morales is the son of an interracial couple, making him half hispanic and half black.

This has set off a discussion in comic fans on why this is being done. Several media outlets had Bendis talking about how great this is since those of racial minorities will have a major character to look up to. Some fans have countered why does the color of a hero's skin matter?

And I was thinking about how someone's skin color isn't just...well, a color. It often means they are raised differently. In a different neighborhood, with a different type of family, different religion, different challenges. Could you see a white, middle class Peter Parker, living in a suburb, dealing with gangs or drug dealers (outside of beating them up as Spider-Man)? No. It just wouldn't be a problem. But could a black Spider-Man living in a more urban part of town? Most certainly.

Now could this be a cheap ploy for publicity? Sure. But I'm optimistic. This could be a real good chance for Marvel to tell some unique stories to a mostly white, 20-50 something male audience.

Shameless Self Promotion

2011-08-01T17:05:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post is looking for the best political blogs, state-by-state. And they haven't received a SINGLE NOMINATION for an Indiana-based blog.

So um, go to that link and make a comment. The URL for the blog is http://indystudent.blogspot.com! You can log in via your Facebook account or just make an account at the Post's website. Similarly, you can also do a @reply on Twitter to TheFix's Twitter acocunt with the hashtag #fixfavorites. Also my Twitter username is @IndyStudent

I mean, I might just go ahead and do it myself, but still, one of you could do it as well.

Transgendered or Transsexual?

2011-08-01T17:00:00.001-04:00

I'm putting this out to my readers because, I'll be honest, I still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to the "T" in LGBT. So after reading all this, what say you?

The Indianapolis Star is reporting that the city, working with the Department of Code Enforcement, is cracking down on prostitution using the recent Brickyard 400 event as an attempt to prepare for the likely increase in prostitution during the 2012 Superbowl.

In the main story, there's a picture of the alleged prostitute getting arrested on the street by a Marion County Sheriff's Deputy. The caption on the picture identifies the person as a transsexual. The person is dressed as a woman, appears to have the physical features of a woman, and has a name typically associated with women. Sidenote: This picture also appeared on a TV news outlet's print version of their story as well, and their caption also identified the alleged prostitute as transsexual.

The Star's picture gallery has further pictures and more captions. Several of the captions in the picture gallery identify the alleged prostitute as a "transexual male".

Wikipedia has a page for trans man, which has the following:

A trans man, transman, trans guy, or FTM is a transgender or transsexual man: a person who was assigned female at birth, but who identifies as male.
The label of transgender male is not interchangeable with that of transsexual male although the two are often combined or mistaken for the same thing. The difference is that while transgender males identify with the male gender identity, transsexual males may intend to undergo physical changes to align their body with their gender identity. A transgender male is someone whose gender identity is male, but who does not necessarily change himself physically.

So readers, what are your thoughts? I'm initially inclined to say "transgender male" would be the most appropriate terminology with my secondary thoughts being "why identify the person's sexual orientation or gender identity at all?".

UPDATE: Somehow, Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana showing the alleged prostitute hanging around with Mayor Greg Ballard. I'd sure like some context on that.

Concerned About Kilroy's

2011-07-28T13:00:00.000-04:00

Kilroy's is a popular bar and grill that started out in Bloomington and also has a location in downtown Indianapolis. It now wants to open up another one in the heart of Broad Ripple, but it's encountering a problem.

Zoning ordinances and regulations specify that, depending on the size of a business (and what the business does), it must provide a certain amount of on-site parking. The proposed location for Kilroy's, where the Cardinal Fitness Center currently is, wants to turn the parking lot by Cardinal Fitness into an outdoor dining area. According to zoning regulations, it needs over 100 spaces. Kilroy's is promising just over 30 spaces,and is seeking a waiver for the rest. I imagine most of those spaces will be occupied by employees, with maybe a select few being reserved for those with disability placards/plates and for take-out orders.

A waiver is very common in Broad Ripple. Many businesses have no parking for their customers, and they often have no control over the parking lots that are located nearby.

My concern about Kilroy's, however, comes from a different perspective.

I'm a white male in his 20s who does frequent the bars, mostly in Broad Ripple but sometimes elsewhere. I play pool with friends and sometimes enjoy a couple of drinks. But I wouldn't fit in in an establishment like Kilroy's.

Kilroy's is the type of place where drinking, and drinking to excess, is encouraged and practically required. In the wake of the Lauren Spierer disappearance, it was revealed that, over the last 9 months, the three Kilroy's locations in Bloomington were responsible for 50% of the underage drinking citations written up by the Indiana State Excise Police. I'm all for re-thinking our laws concerning alcohol and the legal age to drink and all that, but until that happens, businesses have an obligation to follow the law. And I don't think Kilroy's is the type of establishment that even tries. People with fake IDs know that if there's one place that'll let them in, it's Kilroy's.

As someone who has spent a lot of time in Broad Ripple, I also know that most residents don't particularly mind the massive amounts of bars in the area. But what they do mind is waking up Sunday morning only to find that their neighborhood is covered in trash and smashed beer bottles.

I don't know if I'm ready to advocate against Kilroy's new location, but I would like to warn my Broad Ripple friends to keep a careful watch. Remember, it's your community. Sure, all of Indianapolis (arguably, much of central Indiana) enjoys it, but you have to live there day in and day out. Give Kilroy's a chance to demonstrate they can run a responsible business. And if they can't demonstrate that, then hold their feet to the fire.

Wallace Releases First Campaign Commercial

2011-07-28T09:36:00.000-04:00

Jim Wallace, a Fishers businessman, was the first candidate to announce that he's running for Governor of Indiana as a Republican. I really don't know much about him, so this video is probably one of the first impressions I've had of him.

Wallace has been all over Indiana in recent weeks attending county fairs, as you can see in the montage of clips in the video.

I like the video. It serves as a nice introduction, and he has a subtle nod to his Republican primary opponent, Representative Mike Pence, when he refers to Washington D.C. Running against a Congressional representative certainly makes it easier to run against "DC Politics" or something like that.

What do you all think?

Broad Ripple Parking Garage Suggestions

2011-07-27T09:37:00.003-04:00

Over at Urban Indy, Curtis Ailes post some designs of the proposed Broad Ripple parking garage and asks us to forget about the politics that led to this deal and focus on the structure itself. Okay, I'll take a shot.

As indicated in the parking meter deal, a parking garage constructed in Broad Ripple will also implement permit parking in the neighborhoods in Broad Ripple. This will make it harder for non-residents to park in the neighborhoods and, effectively, move those cars into the parking garage. So a chunk of the parking spots aren't so much adding parking, but more taking it from one area (BR neighborhoods) and moving it to another (parking garage).

The intersection of Winthrop/Broad Ripple Avenue and College Avenue is heavily used, and can get congested even outside of peak hours. What plans are there so traffic will continue to flow smoothly, or at least not get any worse?

Is this location REALLY the best that could be done? And I don't mean within Broad Ripple, but outside of Broad Ripple as well. The Glendale area, particularly the lot just east of the mall, has a huge surplus of parking. Offering some type of shuttle service during peak hours, particularly in the evenings and during special events, would remove cars completely from Broad Ripple. And when they leave that east Glendale lot, they hit a road that isn't heavily used. And I think this type of idea could apply to a few parts of Glendale if, for some reason, that lot isn't available for use.

What type of retail is this mixed-use facility aiming for? My concern is that the rent will be quite high, and will lead to another bank or some type of chain like Walgreens, while more local businesses won't be able to afford the rent.

In addition to free bike rack parking, has anyone considered doing this (bike)Park-By-Phone shindig? It looks pretty nifty.

How about throwing a bone to the residents of Broad Ripple and provide a nice, sheltered IndyGo bus stop?

Ballard's Path to Victory? Hide Under the Desk!

2011-07-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

Apparently taking a page from the victorious 2010 Charlie White campaign, Mayor Greg Ballard declined invitation to a Nora-area community group's forum for political candidates. Jon Easter of Indy Democrat reports that Ballard initially accepted the invitation, then withdrew it when it overlapped with a Mayor's Night Out event on the opening day of the Marion County Fair. The community group offered to put the forum on for a different day, but apparently that effort went nowhere.

I also highly recommend reviewing Easter's follow up post detailing the meeting and his thoughts. Of particular note was that Chris Bowen, the Libertarian candidate for Mayor, was highly critical of the water deal. Why do I find that interesting? Because Chris Spangle, the Executive Director of the Libertarian Party of Indiana, endorsed the deal on his blog and Edward Coleman, the sole Libertarian on the council, voted for the deal as well.

That's not to say it's a bad thing Bowen is expressing a different opinion. It's nice to have candidates who don't just blindly parrot the talking points, and it demonstrates how far the Libertarian Party has come in having a bigger tent. But still, interesting nonetheless.

(Also, I didn't really have anything worth posting today and so I decided to piggyback off of Jon Easter's two posts. Sorry, Jon).