Yesterday I wrote:

Coats Campaign – where are you?

For the record, I didn’t like the idea of former Senator Dan Coats coming back from Virginia last month to save us from ourselves and retake the Senate seat he left many years ago. Since I’ve been open about my distaste for Washington insiders attempting to make this call for Hoosiers, I was approached with some insights casting light on a campaign that is having a hard time moving forward.

The details are sketchy and heresay, and as I’ve been told before “you’ll print whatever fits your pre-conceived narrative.” So I’ve said it upfront, the Coats campaign doesn’t feel right to me. Here’s what I’m hearing, if I’m wrong say so … (see link above if you want details)

I was corrected on a couple fronts, namely that the RSS feed on Coats’ new campaign site is now working and that the Coats campaign did not mean to infer that the Governor had endorsed when they quoted him in an email yesterday.   They know, as we all have been told, that Governor Daniels is not picking or endorsing in this race.   I was able to confirm that the reported drubbing at the Warsaw Tea Party is correct and that so far Mr Coats is not confirmed to attend any more tea party meetings.   (Fox News story on details)

Proposal would scrap Indiana’s township governments:

Wire Reports

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A state lawmaker wants to abolish township government in Indiana.

A bill by Democratic Rep. Ed DeLaney of Indianapolis would transfer all township functions to county government. The county executive would assume the powers and duties of the township trustee, and county commissioners and councils would take over the legislative and fiscal powers of township boards.

The transfer would begin January 1, 2013, if the bill becomes law.

DeLaney says the bill would save millions of dollars by streamlining government.

The full Legislature reconvenes Tuesday.

Oh boy, now we’re talking! This is reform out on a limb. What say you?

Christmas isn’t all that political … right (from Northwest Indiana Politics)

I couldn’t resist, even though I know you will all be spending time with family and unwrapping presents … so no one will have time to read this political site … right!

Christmas is a bit political isn’t it? (See Christmas Story on Blueletter) If you believe, as I do, that Jesus is actually God incarnate, born of the virgin Mary, in a stable in Bethlehem roughly 2,000 years ago. If you believe that this birth and his eventual crucifixion and resurrection make up the perfect trifecta of prophetic implication, such that humans can have contact with the only Holy deity. Then Christmas is a lot political, and makes people around you cringe. Words we don’t use much in post modern society aren’t they? Words that can make a conversation go mighty quiet, and people walk away uncomfortable that anyone would be so rude to talk about religion or faith. It’s so much easier to pretend about Santa Claus or gaze at a lit tree, but to push faith in Jesus that’s going too far.

It’s not that faith is uncomfortable, it’s that a faith of specifics and a faith in a specific truth like Christ is uncomfortable. In this culture we celebrate the fact that everyone has their own beliefs … yet the downside is that we’ve lost the ability to truly debate which of those beliefs are right and which are just plain hogwash. It’s even become rude to suggest that one has a belief that is true, since this assigns “false” to another belief. Let’s be frank, truth exists and all other beliefs are false, even if that hurts someone feelings.

Please enjoy your families, pray for peace in Jerusalem, remember Jesus’ birth in the lowly manger, give gifts of joy, worship with hearts of grace and mercy … Merry Christmas Indiana.

Somehow I missed an editorial in the Times, one that strongly supports ACORN and it’s efforts to assist low income voters in registration and apply for the low income tax credit.

See Full Editorial Here: ACORN isn’t an organization filled with nuts

What ACORN actually does on a daily basis is help struggling families with the Earned Income Tax Credit (whose benefits were expanded by both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton). It also helps those same working families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. ACORN receives a comparatively small amount of government funding — $53 million in federal funds over the past 15 years — while trillions have gone to Wall Street investment banks and billions of dollars have vanished in Iraq and Afghanistan, absorbed by private contractors such as Halliburton and KBR despite questions about the quality of their work and allegations of criminal activity by employees of Blackwater and other security contractors. Where were the concerned Republicans then?

So according to this author we’re to disregard voter fraud and the sting videos showing ACORN employees giving advice on how to defraud the IRS. We are to do so because Wall Street got more money … so ACORN is too small to worry about?

I wasn’t aware of this provision in the current healthcare bill, so posting it here in case others weren’t as well. From Building Indiana Blog:

Healthcare Reform Bill Would Eliminate Physician-Owned Hospitals in Indiana:

“Fifteen physician-owned hospitals across the state of Indiana, including the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital (IOH), could be eliminated causing a ripple effect resulting in thousands of job losses if the healthcare reform bill ready for debate in the U.S. Senate becomes law.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) before Congress contains specific language that bans physician-owned hospitals, strangling currently operating facilities that serve patients in several cities including New Albany, Munster, Fort Wayne, Mishawaka, and Indianapolis. In Indiana, physician hospitals employ more than 4,000 nurses and staff, and 2,610 physicians; which provides the state with a payroll of $180.4 million and $50 million in taxes, according to the 2008-2009 Economic Impact Analysis by the Physician Hospitals of America.

“I feel deeply threatened by the fact there is legislation on the table that has the potential to further damage our already battered economic climate, especially when the nation is struggling to emerge from the current recession and so many families are struggling to make ends meet,” said Jane Keller, Chief Executive Officer at IOH. “Not only would we be eliminating jobs, but we would also lose the ability to offer proven quality of care to patients all across the state.”

Language in the bill under section 6001, Title VI, places caps on growth for existing physician-owned hospitals and prohibits them from receiving critical reimbursements for services rendered under Medicare and Medicaid, eventually phasing them out of existence.

Two other Indiana physician hospitals already in development would also be killed outright by the bill, ending the promise of another 200 jobs.

Although an oft heard rumor, this weekend the energy around a potential run for the 2nd Congressional District increased.

First the South Bend Tribune’s Jack Colwell chronicled the potential candidacy.

Jackie Walorski vs. Joe Donnelly. That’s the race for Congress the National Republican Congressional Committee wants in Indiana’s 2nd District in 2010.

The NRCC, plotting campaign strategy for Republican control of the U.S. House, tried unsuccessfully to convince Walorski to run against Donnelly, the Democratic congressman from Granger, in 2008.

Will Walorski run this time?

And then Howey Indiana Politics picked it up as well

Her Facebook page featues a few commenters mentioning the same. But nothing official in the least from Jackie. And she hasn’t written on Capital Letters in a few weeks.

She is currently the House Republican from District 21 and frequent Social Conservative advocate. What are your thoughts on a possible race between Rep. Walorski and current Congressman Joe Donnelly?

The Post Tribune writes:

A new Web site that blasts town officials in the wake of employee furloughs and budget cuts is hoping to rouse public discussion and outcry from disgruntled residents, but town officials dismiss the anonymous site as sour grapes and lacking credibility

The site Merrillville Politics features links mainly regarding use of federal funding that supposedly was to be directed to hiring more police officers, and the site suggests these officers were not hired.

Recent news about Merrillville and it the town council’s desire to file for assistance from the State of Indiana’s Distressed Unit Appeals Board, and some input from consultants suggesting they don’t qualify and will have to cut budgets further. Can’t say I understand how this new site suggests that Merrillville cut their budget even further while putting more money into police?

The Post article goes on to suggest that the author of the site may be a disgruntled employee or even police officer. Was particularly interested in a statement by one town council member:

Shudick said he would be very disappointed if the Web site’s creator is a town employee, even more so if it is a town police officer.

“It would make one question their integrity,” he said.

Tensions are already rising between Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott and Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominquez from Lake County, as both are considering a Democratic run for Indiana Governor:

The Lake County sheriff is making public a private rebuke Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. hurled at him for arresting one of the mayor’s allies.The mayor accused Sheriff Rogelio “Roy” Dominguez, his second-in-command and Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter of “playing politics” following the Sept. 10 arrest by county sheriff’s police of David Woerpel, 5th District Democratic precinct captain, and a close associate of the mayor, along with three other Woerpel family members on charges they were growing marijuana plants in their backyard.

Dominguez released a voice message he said McDermott Jr., left the following Saturday morning on the sheriff’s cell phone.

The race for control of the Indiana House started a little early in Northwest Indiana with Democrat House member Shelli VanDenburgh planning to introduce legislation to allow county treasurers to invoice property owners in the spring and fall even if the assessments are not complete and are un-certified by the auditors. On the surface this may sound appealing, but this rips the checks and balances built into the tax system away.

What if the assessments are wrong, what’s to keep Porter or Lake County from suffering the severe repercussions that have embroiled LaPorte County for the last five years? If the Treasurer can bill even if assessments are wrong, there is no accountability.

What if the auditor will not certify, like has happened in Laporte County, does the county have the right to bill it’s property owners even though it is widely known that the assessments are flawed or even under review for being thrown out by the state?

(Read more after the leap)

I just know this post will cause some ulcers, but I was struck with a though when catching up on Indianapolis news this morning.   Here are the posts that started me off:   Rokita’s Rather Ridiculous Redistricting Proposal and Rethinking Redistricting the website produced by Secretary of State Rokita.

After a cursory overview, I have to say in general I agree with Todd’s suggestions.   I might have favored private money being used in the research and marketing, as the Kernan Shephard folks did.   I would find the “illegalality” of thinking about politics to be too strong, since last I checked we are all still granted the right to think.

But all in all, each Indiana Senate seat should feature two House seats in the same geographic bounds.  All in all, population should be the guide and not voter vault.  All in all, the existing county lines are a much better boundary than gerrymandered messes to give one side or the other a couple extra votes.

Sorry Scott, I felt your article didn’t give the proposal its fair shake.  Perhaps a problem with Todd, or his possible run for Governor?  This effort on the surface looks surprisingly like a Daniels move, bringing the best of common sense and transparency and putting it on the table.    To be frank, I’m still for Becky as Governor, if she wants it … but this kind of forward thinking on Todd’s part shows he’s just the man for Lugar’s Senate seat we need, if only that resignation were forthcoming.

I’ll start the conversation here, and then round robin to some of our other great conservative sites in the state.

Dan Dumezich for Congressional District One?

I believe that Dan Dumezich should re-think his options and run instead against Pete Visclosky for the first district seat.

• Dan can raise money, both inside and outside the district
• Dan has a strong and well known name in the district and has recently put old turf wars with current Lake County GOP chair behind them
• Pete is as weak as he’s going to be, with PMA lobbying money scandal and having to remove himself from position of earmark power
• The voters in the first district are getting pretty sick of calls for increased taxes to bail out Gary and the northern Lake County communities.
• If Dan wins, we pick up a seat no one thought would ever go R.  If he loses by 4-5 points, he is the logical successor to Senator Lugar who will I’m sure soon retire.

I’ll let you the readers tell me I’m all wet, that’s fine, since that’s the primary goal of this site and other similar ones.   But, before you cry ‘impossible’ think carefully about the possibilities.

Indiana Rep. Visclosky – Fed Grand Jury
originally on Porter County Indiana Politics

As has been reported on the Times and the Post-Tribune and Politico this morning …

“U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky’s Congressional office, campaign committees and certain employees have been sent grand jury subpoenas requesting documents relating to The PMA Group, the congressman said Friday.

Visclosky said he was surprised by the subpoenas, which he said were issued earlier this month and earlier this week, adding that he has conducted himself “with the highest degree of integrity.” The Merrillville Democrat said he would “make sure every request is fully complied with under the law.” (Via the Times of Northwest Indiana)

I have been saying for quite some time that Rep. Visclosky may be vulnerable if his ties to this lobbying group show that he directed business from the federal government directly to contractors who gave money to this firm. Remember that investigators may also want him to open up and talk, giving them testimony to go after Rep. Murtha (D-PA)

The 1st District in Indiana has been long considered a stronghold for Democrats, with Republicans running very weak opponents in the past. Mr. Visclosky has also amassed a warchest of considerable size. If a strong Republican with the ability to raise millions from individual donors would jump into this race (can you say Dan Dumezich?) 2010 could be just the year for this kind of upset.