Archive for January, 2008

Did Jim “Living paycheck to paycheck” Schellinger ever replace his departed campaign manager Mike Edmonson or political director Joel Miller?  Or for that matter, the rest of his staff who has left him?  I thought he was supposed to have a press conference about that a few weeks ago.  Maybe I just missed it.

Just wondering.

It’s seems as if those wacky people who follow the Doctrines of Ron Paul are encouraging a sneaky, but perfectly legit, way to win Indiana’s delegates for Ron Paul.

Christopher Hedges (Formerly of Region Life) Reports:

Ron Paul Supporters Planning Indiana Coup?

Is there a Ron Paul coup afoot in Indiana?

Ron Paul’s supporters detail a way to gain control of the Republican convention after the May primary by having their supporters apply to become GOP delegates, then voting to select Ron Paul at their presidential nominee at the state convention.

From the Northwest Indiana Ron Paul Meet Up site:

Patriots, handing Indiana off to Ron in May is soooo SIMPLE…

The Republican Party ALWAYS runs short of delegates for the state convention. All we have to do is show up and apply. We have to be elected of course, but if the congressional district has more seats than applicants, we win by default. Each congressional district is ‘winner takes all’. So we just need to have more delegates for Ron.

Even it’s just a single delegate more, he takes all of the delegates for that congressional district. THIS IS WITHIN OUR REACH!!!!

Uhhhhhhh…….

I have a feeling that it’s not going to be that easy this year for the Paulistinians (That’s right, since only Brian is swearing allegiance to a particular candidate, I feel most of us can be equal opportunity shafters to all Presidential candidates) to run away with Indiana’s delegates at the convention. Good luck with all that though!

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House Schedule

House Committee Schedule

Senate Schedule

Senate Committee Schedule

House Joint Resolution 1was the proposed Constitutional amendment that contained permanent caps on property tax rates in Indiana.  The measure was part of Gov. Daniels’ solid plan for dealing with the current property tax crisis.  Unfortunately, HJR 1 effectively died last night when Speaker Bauer failed to call it down for a vote.

Some are reporting that the move by House Republicans to try and insert the language of SJR 7(the marriage amendment) into the property tax amendment is what killed the measure.  However, a House source has clarified that Rep. Tim Harris’s proposed amendment to HJR 1 was what really made Bauer kill the measure.  Rep. Harris’s “controversial” amendment proposed the complete elimination of all residential property taxes.

Note that Rep. Harris’s proposal was not that we eliminate all property taxes or immediately eliminate residential property taxes.  It merely set in motion the legislative ball on the process to eliminate residential property taxes, something that the House Republican Caucus has seriously considered, and the Governor has shown open-mindedness towards should it be shown that the numbers work with current revenue levels.  Further, the Governor’s plan will still be able to pass the General Assembly this session without the passage of HJR 1.

It’s late, so I’m making this short.  Here are a couple of bill that’s made it through the Senate today:

Luke Kenley’s (R - Noblesville) circuit breakers made it through the Senate overwhelmingly on a vote of 41-7.  I guess this is a good thing.  No matter how hard I try to understand the whole property tax situation, the more I get confused.  And this circuit breaker idea, while sometimes sounding like a good idea, confuses me more than anything.  I just need to research it more.

In a move that’s sure to honk off those on the Fishers Town Council, Senator Jeff Drozda’s annexation bill, which prevents involuntary annexation, made through 26-22 after tying 24-24 on the original vote.  Honestly, there’s a part of me that’s happy to see it pass and there’s another part of me that thinks this bill is utter foolishness since it was designed specifically to affect the Geist annexation into Fishers by making the effective date of the bill retroactive to Fishers’ passage of an annexation ordinance last week.  This, as opposed to the original effective date of July 1st like all other legislation passed this session.

There was more action today, but these two caught my eye and others have already been written about today.

Liberal hippie boy….I mean local Democrat, Michael Montagano, has formally decided to challenge Mark Souder in this year’s general, that is if Congressman Souder can make it through his primary (forgive me as I try to keep myself from making too many mistakes typing while laughing). The thing is, Souder has had a rough year of it. With him getting involved, or uninvolved as the case may be, in the whole Matt Kelty mess up in Ft. Wayne (and we Republicans shouldn’t lie to ourselves…it was a mess) to getting into a verbal sparing match with a cook on Capitol Hill, one might wonder if pressures of Congress are getting to him.

I highly doubt it and I’m sure this contest in the fall has really got him sweating. (oh yeah, he’s really perspiring over this one)

Dan Turkette of Fort Wayne News was able to able to view Montagano’s press conference (thanks You Tube!) with Fort Wayne’s newest Mayor, Tom Henry.

Local liberals are getting wet over the prospects of a democrat taking the 3rd congressional seat away from Mark Souder. I decided it was time to take a look at Michael Montagano’s web site to find out where he stands on the issues. He’s apparently taking a lead out of the Tom Hayhurst play book as he doesn’t list where he stands on *any* issue. It’s all fluff.

So I then wandered over to leftard peace-love-dope hippy Robert Rouse’s YouTube video of Montagano’s press conference. Montagano is introduced by Tom Henry, who I believe pronounces Montagano’s name wrong. He says “Mon-ta-go”.

Read the rest of Dan’s review here.

My question is, is Graham Richard still planning on running in the Democrat primary?

A few days ago I mentioned SB 3and the work that Sen. Drozda has done on the bill.  The measure, which protects a pharmacists right of conscience in dispensing abortion causing substances, was tied up in the Senate last week but broke loose today with a passage vote that moves it over to the House, where, as is typically the case, good legislation tends to get stalled when Democrats are in power.

Mitch Harper at Fort Wayne Observed has pointed out an interesting decision I might have to make as Chairman of the Whitley County Republican Party with the announcement that a candidate from my county has filed to challenge Congressman Mark Souder in the May Primary Election. What makes this announcement unusual is that the candidate was briefly a Libertarian candidate in 2006. Election laws, according to Harper, give the County Chairman the ability to declare whether a candidate is in good stead with the Republican Party in certain circumstances in order to appear on the ballot. Here is more analysis from Harper:

Whether or not Mr. Wise is permitted to run as a Republican may be up to a decision by Whitley County Republican Chair Jim Banks. Under Indiana election law, a person last affiliated with another party due to a primary voting record may be permitted to run under a new party banner with the dispensation by the county chair. Since Mr. Wise did vote in the last Republican primary - indeed he was a candidate in it - it is unclear whether the effect of Mr. Wise’s renunciation two years ago will be to prevent him from running as a Republican this year.

I’m curious about what readers of Hoosier Access think and what you might do in a similar situation.

Alas, with many conservatives still pondering who they should support, Huckabee (this author supports him), Romney (he’s with us now…we think), McCain (how many bills can you name that start with “McCain” and end with some liberal senator’s name?) and Rudy (tough on his wives and crime), maybe they have another choice.  You see, sometimes you’ve got to look outside of the box of partisianship and find a solution.

There’s another candidate out there who’s talking about Ronald Reagan.  His name? Barak Hussian Obama and he’s trying to draw some paralleles between himself and the greatest conservative of modern history.  Memo to Barak: You’re no Ronald Reagan. 

Check out this interesting article herefrom a former Reagan staffer on the differences between Obama and Reagan.

Note: I just heard Sean Hannity hint at supporting Romney.  According to Hannity this is a “two man race” and he hinted with a caller on the line that Romney may be the guy to support.  No direct endorsement, but an interesting development.

House District 50, comprised of Whitley and Huntington Counties, is currently represented by Republican Dan Leonard.  As you may recall, Leonard is the prime mover behind the House amendment that seeks to insure that standardized blueprints for schools are used to save local school boards and taxpayers money that would otherwise be spent on expensive architects. 

Leonard is facing two primary challengers, one of whom, Gary Snyder, seems to be bent on running a campaign aimed at Dan Leonard and not ideas for good government.  Here is what Snyder had to say in a recent op-ed piece (that we may actually be the only ones to run):

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They may not have the majority, but they sure are playing hard. Indiana House Republicans are using some pretty good parliamentary tactics to bring the marriage amendment to the floor (see here and here). On the subject of hate crimes legislation, Rep. Jackie Walorksi (R-Lakeville) introduced an amendment to the utterly repugnant HB 1076, that would make it a hate crime to commit an abortion on a viable fetus.

Democrats will probably once again fail to call down the hate crimes bill for a 3rd reading out of a fear for the consequences of A) passing the amendment or B) defeating the amendment.

Today marks the last day that legislation that started in one of the chambers can pass that chamber and move on to the other side of the building.