Archive for February, 2008

By: Brian Sikma

On Thursday evening the Indiana House Republican Caucus finally had enough with the shenanigans of Speaker B. Patrick Bauer and his various minions. In a bold and overdue move House Republicans refused to reconvene with the rest of the House after a series of amendment battles involving immigration reform legislation, specifically SB 335.

The action started when the Speaker failed to call the Senate passed immigration bill down to the floor for amendments and votes. This amounted to a killing of the Senate passed bill. Democrats then began trying to incorporate some provisions of the killed bill into another Senate passed bill. House Republicans left the floor, objecting on the grounds that they did not have sufficient time to prepare for amendments to the other Senate bill or even offer any amendments on the fly.

Speaker Bauer appears to have defended his move saying that he was trying to prevent the passage of a racist bill. According to the Indianapolis Star, Bauer declared “we don’t need a hate debate on this floor.” Apparently it is hateful when a group of legislators seek to pass legislation that provides for greater law-enforcement tools.

The charge of racist has been leveled repeatedly at Sen. Mike Delph, the lead sponsor of SB 335. According to one report, Rep. Vannessa Summers (D-Indianapolis), who sits on the House Public Policy Committee, repeatedly lashed out at Sen. Delph during a committee hearing on SB 335. Of course one of the charges she leveled at Sen. Delph was that he was a racist.

It is disturbing when our elected officials resort to name-calling at a time when serious debate and discussion should be had. Many of the state legislators who support state level immigration reform are reluctant warriors in this battle. It is widely acknowledged that our current immigration woes are the result of inadequate border security measures and sporadic enforcement of immigration law. Both of these are federal issues.

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For those of you who live in Johnson County here are the notable primary races:

Mitch Ripley, completing his first term as District 3 commissioner, will square off against current County Councilman John Price in what could be the county’s most highly-contested race. Pete Sims also is on the ballot.

In the District 1 race, Gary Young will challenge Troy DeHart, who took over the seat last year when R.J. McConnell resigned.

Six County Council candidates — including two incumbents — will vie for three at-large seats. Incumbents Josh McCarty and Ron West will battle Forrest Chambers, Thomas Carroll, Kenneth Marshall and Brian Walker.

One high-profile Republican officeholder is seeking a change of scenery. Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner has filed for Superior Court 3 judge.

A state senate race is sure to attract the attention of Johnson County voters. Brent Waltz will battle Mike Beeles for the Senate District 36 Republican nomination.

Beeles has filed a challenge with the Indiana Election Commission stating that Waltz does not live in a Greenwood condominium listed as Waltz’s official residence. Waltz was granted a protective order against Beeles last week after accusing Beeles of stalking him.

Source: IndyStar

Any notable races in your part of the state?

At the Marion County GOP slating last Saturday, Judge Gary Miller was deposed by the party’s Precinct Committeemen and Ward Chairmen in favor of up-and-coming attorney Kurt Eisgruber. Not saying Kurt was a bad choice, he’s worked hard to contact the “roots” via the townships. Though it appears some are not happy over a lobbyist who “has a past” being slated in place of some long time experienced judges. I heard (prior to slating of course) judge candidates say they wouldn’t “buck the slate”. It appears one has decided on doing just that.

Gary Miller has filed to run in the May primary against the slate.

I was under the impression if you went to slating, and lost you couldn’t file for the primary. I guess that is not the case.

UPDATE: It seems our favorite Log Cabin blogger is reporting Ken Johnson is also going to buck the slate.

We’ve all been very busy this week and we promise to get back to our regularly scheduled Hoosier Access programming, but enjoy this little video.  Because after all, what Barack Obama said last week wasn’t total plagiarism!

[youtube r2oPys_5iXc]

Can you believe it? All three candidates running in the 7th CD Special Election finally showed up in the same place at the same time for a serious debate of the issues. Democrat Andre Carson, who announced he wouldn’t show the day of the event, Republican Jon Elrod and Libertarian Sean Shepard all got together at the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church at a debate hosted by Indiana Equality. Seems this was a setting more to Andre’s liking rather than a simple neighborhood association I guess. At least it would appear it was a more friendly crowd.

But made the event seem like old times to me was that it reminded me of 2004 when I worked on Andy Horning’s Republican campaign for congress in the 7th CD. It’s hard to say the crowd wasn’t stacked heavily with union people in addition to the typical numbers that follow a Carson anywhere a debate takes place. They were loud, supportive and came complete with Wilson Allen and his camera. Yard signs lined the parking lot of JMCC in support of Carson dressed in red. The only thing that seemed missing was the “I ‘heart’ Julia” from the signs.

There was a big difference however. We actually had a debate tonight. Andre, Jon and Sean all articulated their positions fairly well on the issues posed. Now before you think that all the questions had to do with LGBT issues, they didn’t. But all the early questions did, but that was to be expected based on who hosted the event. It was interesting to get the candidates views on the issues, be they LGBT issues or not.

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Fort Wayne Politics is reporting today that the Allen County Republican Party headquarters is up for sale. Pictures of the building with a “for sale” sign in the window can be viewed at Fort Wayne Politics and you can watch the story at Indiana News Center here.

The television story from Indiana News Center interviews a former legislator who is part of an effort to elect several new precinct committeemen in Allen County to challenge current leadership as reported at Fort Wayne News here.

This doesn’t have squat to do with elections but it’s been one big political hot potato since 1996. The political sides though instead of being Republicans and Democrats was the Hulman-George family and the car owners that made up the former Championship Auto Racing Teams (or CART) circuit. As we all know the Family and its front man Tony George formed the Indy Racing League and the split in open wheel racing occurred starting in 1996 when CART staged a race at Michigan on the same day as the Indianapolis 500. A few years ago, CART declared bankruptcy and Tony George attempted to purchase the assets of CART and merge them into his Indy Racing League. That didn’t happen as a group of CART car owners formed OWRS, or Open Wheel Racing Series Inc. and assumed the former CART series, retitled “Champ Car”.

IRL enjoyed a TV contract with a major TV and cable network, mainly due to the Indianapolis 500 in spite of low car counts and sub-par drivers getting to race in the 500 (Milka Duno comes to mind). Champ Car, on the other hand, had to purchase time on multiple US TV networks to get coverage sometimes tape delayed for days and sporadic scheduling. Ironically Champ Car enjoyed a broad appeal outside the United States. The number of entrants into Champ Car series racing was dwindling and its TV ratings were almost sub-zero as most fans couldn’t find them on TV because of the erratic scheduling and network hopping. Added to Champ Car’s woes one driver, Sebastian Bordais, dominated the series when the competition was older drivers (example being Jimmy Vasser) and washed-out Formula One drivers (Robert Dornbos for one).

It seems the schism may be “mending” as it appears Open Wheel Racing Series, the corporate parent of the Champ Car series will likely declare bankruptcy in the coming days and as a result merge into the Indy Racing League. Which Champ Car venues will move to the IRL schedule remains to be seen, though it appears Long Beach could be an IRL race this year.

In the meantime, the “tin top taxicabs” of NASCAR experienced massive growth in popularity and no doubt a lot of that growth was open wheel fans fed up with the schism in open wheel. Time will tell if the IRL can bring back its fan base as it was in the “old days”.

JLT and HRC are both being supported by Emily’s List, a national pro-abortion political organization devoted to electing female candidates that support their anti-life policy positions.  WTHR ran (video here) an interesting story on this interrelatedness between Hillary’s campaign and Jill’s campaign.  According to campaign finance records, Emily’s List has donated $150,000 to Jill Long Thompson’s gubernatorial campaign. 

Among the values that many Hoosiers hold dear is the belief that life, all life, is precious and worthy of government protection.  A society that refuses to recognize the rights of the most vulnerable is a society that is not able to recognize the true nature of its rights.

During his first term in office (yes, I’m counting on him and Lt. Gov. Skillman getting a second term) Governor Daniels signed common sense legislation that requires abortion centers to be held to the same health standards as traditional health care providers. Another bill that the General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed, requires abortion providers to offer women seeking an abortion the opportunity to hear the heartbeat of their child and see that child’s outline on an ultrasound machine. These steps to protect the lives of the very youngest of Hoosiers are steps in the right direction.

Jill Long Thompson may be “in” with liberal groups like Emily’s List, but she’s “out” with many Hoosiers who believe that life is something that should be respected and protected.

By: Brian Sikma 

Congress may be poised to end global poverty, or so it thinks.  In the Senate S. 2433, a measure that would greatly increase foreign aid and tie American policy goals in with UN objectives, is making it’s way through the legislative process.  Sen. Barak Obama, the key sponsor of the bill, is joined by 8 other senators, including Indiana’s very own Sen. Richard Lugar (R).  Lugar is the only Republican co-sponsor of this bill (whoops, I guess Chuck Hagel is still a Republican).

According to some estimates, the legislation would authorize up to $845 billion in additional foreign aid funds to be spent on UN objectives.  This means that U.S. taxpayers would be underwriting the big plans and dreams of the ever corrupt United Nations.

It is disturbing to see U.S. Senators, including Sen. Lugar, support legislation that surrenders a measure of our national sovereignty to a multi-national organization that is corrupt and, frankly, decadent.  The United Nations is not comprised of our friends, it is comprised of nations that use their membership in the international body to mount further attacka on US foreign policy objects and goals. 

An organization that credulously gives Zimbabwa a position on its Commission on Human Rights is not an organization that should merit our support.  American taxpayers deserve better than utopian platitudes that speak to “hope” but then follow policies that have been repeatedly demonstrated to be costly failures.  The United Nations is what liberalism at work looks like.

With all due respect, Sen. Lugar would be well advised to cease his support for S. 2433 and start focusing on more important and well thought out pieces of legislation that can meaningfully and genuinely improve the lives of people and make America better. 

As long expected, complete with the use of American soldiers as props in a campaign photo op.

From WISH TV:

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Baron Hill wants to keep his seat in Congress. Monday morning he filed for re-election.

Hill currently serves southern Indiana. He went to the Secretary of State’s office on Monday to file the proper paperwork.

Hill and former Congressman Mike Sodrel have clashed for the 9th district house seat three times so far and Hill expects another strong challenge.

“You know one of the things that I want to do is elevate the level of discourse in this so it’s not so nasty as it was the last time. And I’m going to be reaching out to my opponents so that we conduct ourselves in a better fashion,” said Rep. Baron Hill.

Hill is now heading to Georgia to visit with Indiana national guard members who will head to Iraq soon.

How about Baron starts by conducting himself in a better fashion?

He can begin by not using Hoosier National Guard members as a backdrop for his reelection bid, particularly when he has a demonstrated history of not caring one bit about them.

I also find it hard to believe that Baron Hill wants to elevate the level of discourse in the 9th District and prevent things from being nasty.

After all, he proclaimed on television last time that “negative ads work.”

Take a look for yourself:

[youtube tAvJPBZuqow]

EDIT: I have heard from Hoosiers soldiers deployed to Georgia that they have met the enemy, err, Baron, and they were not impressed. He apparently spent the whole time walking around talking with a group of officers.
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It looks like La Ron Keith’s declared primary challenge to Mitch Daniels, the only such bid on the radar, is not to be after all.

From the Associated Press:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A retired firefighter from Bedford has dropped his bid to run for governor as a Republican.

La Ron Keith announced in September that he would run, but issued a release Monday saying that he was in an automobile accident this past summer that resulted in injuries making it difficult to walk.

He said he had planned on getting necessary signatures to get on the ballot, but the pain suffered in the wreck prevented him from doing so. He said he has decided to support Gov. Mitch Daniels.

I have not heard of anyone else gathering signatures on the Republican side for a bid, so it’s probably safe to say that Daniels will be unopposed.

The only question, when it comes to the gubernatorial primary, is whether Jill Long Thompson will get enough signatures by today at noon to be on the ballot.

As of yesterday, Fort Wayne News was reporting that she still needed an estimated some 470 signatures across the state in order to qualify to run.

On Valentine’s Day, last week, Howey noted that she still needed almost a thousand signatures, so her people have made up half of that gap over the weekend.

Given that level of progress, it is probably premature to assume that she will have insufficient signatures in time (though I wouldn’t rule it out).

Schellinger, it has been reported, still needs “hundreds” of signatures in the 8th District.

He will probably have little difficulty getting them.

It is my understanding that Schellinger requested assistance from the various county parties in obtaining sufficient signatures for his campaign.

Jill Long Thompson apparently made no such request (or if she did, it was not made to people in counties down this way).

That’s probably very symbolic of the central failing of her campaign thus far; she has run not merely against the establishment in Indianapolis, but run against everyone by effectively not engaging in outreach to many county parties that might otherwise be receptive.
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Bumped to the top because this is just too good and it’s making national news. - Josh

“Just words” folks, just words…

Words first spoken by somebody else, now-Massachusetts-Governor Deval Patrick, in 2006:

[youtube xvaOkxbM9dY]

And now by Barack Obama, last week:

[youtube SgMcht-EW6I]

Hat tip: Not Larry Sabato (cited because I am not a plagiarist)