In what is probably one of the worst kept secrets in Marion County politics, or the end of a movie when you already have spoiler in hand, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi announced today he is not seeking a third term as prosecutor. He endorsed Chief of Staff Helen Marchal as his successor. Those of us in Marion County are not surprised by this move by Brizzi. His ties to political financier Tim Durham who is under investigation by the Feds would make his re-election difficult. Some of us wonder “What took so long?” in today’s announcement.

Also, by this time 4 years ago, Carl Brizzi was already in heavy fundraising mode, and from what I have heard and seen so far none of that has happened to date. Brizzi did change the name of his campaign committee earlier in 2009 which led to rumors of his contemplating a run for Congress in what is now a crowded 5th District primary.

Some wonder the timing of this announcement, as another blogger states today was the last day to file for slating in Marion County. On a related note, there is no word yet on who will run for county offices such as assessor, clerk, recorder, etc.

Assuming Marchal is unopposed in the May primary, she will face one of several Democrats vying for the Prosecutor’s job.

Carl Brizzi’s letter to supporters is found by clicking the more button:

Most of the action in terms of the 2010 Congressional elections in Indiana is happening in the safest seat of all, the hyper-Republican 5th District. Up in the 5th, Republicans have already raised almost half a million dollars to fight over whether Dan Burton will keep his Congressional seat (and, if he doesn’t, who will get it).

The initial reporting on the district has focused on Luke Messer’s haul of around two hundred thousand dollars. I would say that the bigger story is not how much money Messer raised, but how much money the other candidates raised. Namely, enough to keep themselves in the race. Virtually all of the candidates raised enough money to ensure that they will remain around; the field will not be narrowing any time soon.

In the sense that a divided field will never knock-off the incumbent (which is such conventional wisdom that Messer’s allies have been trying to devise a scheme to pick a lone challenger), this is good news for Dan Burton.

“Winners” are in italics, after the leap.

So, the RNC is unexpectedly outpacing the DNC in fundraising so far.  Who else is outpacing his opponents?

Via the Indy Star:

Burton, who faced his first serious primary challenger last year, is preparing for another battle by stepping up his fundraising efforts, according to first-quarter campaign finance reports.

Burton took in $100,904, the most he has collected in a similar time period for the past three election cycles.

State Rep. Mike Murphy, Indianapolis, who has not officially announced a challenge to Burton, raised $41,000. Carmel resident Brose McVey, who announced his candidacy last month, raised $21,666.

Marion Country Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who has said he would run only if Burton decides not to, raised $24,698.

John McGoff wasn’t mentioned because the Star is saying he “hasn’t decided” whether he’s running again. This despite what he and a few other McGoff supporters told me and the Lincoln Day dinners he’s showed up to to actually campaign. It also doesn’t mention Luke Messer because he only announced a few weeks ago he was running.

A few things do jump out in those numbers.  First, that’s the best first quarter that the Congressman has had in a long time.  This despite having four other challengers rather than one and more than doubling the amount raised by the next closest challenger.  Second, how surprisingly well State Rep. Mike Murphy did in the first quarter outpacing by almost double the only “official” challenger, Brose McVey, at the time of the reporting.  That said, Murphy has always been known as a good fundraiser.  Third, how well Carl Brizzi did despite declaring he’s not going to challenge Dan Burton.  I’m sure that could be read a number of ways.  But he too outpaced McVey.

Yeah, I know it’s 2009 and nothing should really be going on election wise, but as we’re beginning to see more and more, there is no off season when it comes to elections, especially when the incumbant is Dan Burton.

As word had leaked out that Carl Brizzi had filed papers to raise federal dollars for future campaigns (presumably against Congressman Dan Burton) Brian Howey is reporting that Brizzi is NOT running against Dan Burton.

Via Howey:

“I used to work for Dan,” Brizzi told HPI on Wednesday, noting that he was a staff attorney when Burton’s House Oversight Committee investigated Clinton-Gore campaign funds. “I would not consider running against somebody I worked for, so I would not run against Dan.” Brizzi said he had two conversations with Burton earlier this year and at that point, Burton himself was undecided on whether to run for a 15th term. Brizzi said that Burton urged him to set up a committee so that he could raise federal dollars.

Reports keep surfacing, like the one above, that Burton is not sure about running for re-election while I’ve heard the Congressman say he was since he won the ‘08 primary. But in case there is any doubt, you’re hearing it hear first. Dan Burton will be running for re-election in 2010. He’s already raised $60k towards that end.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) is stepping up his fundraising efforts in the face of four possible 2010 primary challengers.

Burton’s office told The Hill that the “is serious about meeting this head on” and has “set an ambitious fundraising agenda.” Burton held two fundraisers at the end of last week and raked in approximately $60,000.

Anyway, so we’re back to four.

And as for Carl Brizzi, all eyes will be on him now for what he decides to do in the future.

(Woah…not so fast!  Looks like Carl Brizzi won’t be running agaisnt Burton after all.  Questions still remain whether he’ll be running against for )

Well, it’s not official that Marion County won’t have Carl Brizzi running for prosecutor next year.  Instead, he’s the fifth Marion/Hamilton county resident to be running in the 5th Congressional District against incumbent Congressman Dan Burton raising Federal dollars towards a future endeavor.

He joins an established group of challengers in Brose McVey, Luke Messer, Mike Murphy and Burton’s 2008 opponent John McGoff.  Much will probably be made of the fact that Brizzi used to work for Congressman Burton in the late ’90’s back when Burton chaired the Government Reform and Oversight Committee.  Much will also be made of the fact that all of the candidates come from the area Burton was most vulnerable; the Marion County/Southern Hamilton County portion of the 5th District.

Given the fundraising prowess of most of these candidates, Indiana’s 5th Congressional GOP 2010 primary surely will be the most expensive in the nation.

Does this give Burton anything to worry about?  At this point, I’d say no.  And the more people who file, especially in that portion of the district, only improves Burton’s chances of re-election.  Why?  Because he still has a strong lock on the northern portion of the district and the other five will only further divide the anti-Burton segment of the district.

As a Burton supporter, I say keep ‘em coming!

(See the official FEC filing form for the Citizens for Brizzi Committee)

(H/T – IndyStar Twitter feed via the Matt Tully Twitter feed)

By: Brian Sikma

UPDATE: The text of Representative Walorski’s letter to the Attorney General and FSSA Secretary and the Indiana Right to Life Press release just issued on this story are below the fold.

Roughly two weeks ago it was revealed that the Planned Parenthood of Bloomington, Indiana clinic was helping cover up a potential case of statutory rape and was advising a minor girl to skirt Indiana’s parental consent law by going to Illinois to obtain an abortion. These revelations came after an undercover investigative student journalist posed as a 13 year-old girl who was seeking an abortion after becoming pregnant by a 31 year-old man.

Today we learn that the disregard for the law so flagrantly displayed at the Bloomington clinic is also standard practice for an Indianapolis Planned Parenthood clinic. The same student journalist project that is responsible for alerting us to the Bloomington outrage is responsible for this new video in which not one, but two Planned Parenthood employees exhibit a strong disregard for state law.

Here’s the video:

These two incidents have prompted State Representative Jackie Walorski (R-Jimtown) to call for the investigation of Planned Parenthood by the Indiana Attorney General’s office and for the immediate de-funding of Planned Parenthood by FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob, who has the authority to suspend Medicare payments to Planned Parenthood while an investigation is prepared and launched. Walorski has also urged Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who has strong pro-life leanings, to investigate this latest incident since it falls in his jurisdiction. So far Monroe County Prosecutor Chris Gaal has failed to investigate the Bloomington Planned Parenthood.

(Read more below the fold)

During a recent bout of insomnia, I decided to have some fun with the WHOIS database, a nifty listing of who owns a given domain name and when they bought it (among other things). Because of the importance of the internet in modern politics, and the cheap cost of registering a domain name, politicians and campaigns frequently register their domain names far in advance of any official campaign declaration.

So, being bored and unable to sleep, I started punching in combinations based around potential gubernatorial candidates for the 2012 race. A study, if you will, in the advance web positioning of potential gubernatorial candidates.

For each candidate, I tried a variety of similar combinations:

joesmith.com
smithforgovernor.com
joesmithforgovernor.com
joesmithforindiana.com
smith2012.com
joesmith2012.com
hoosiersforjoe.com
hoosiersforsmith.com

It’s an interesting exercise, to be sure. It might not catch everyone (Mitch Daniels’ campaign website was mymanmitch.com, for example, which you wouldn’t find with any of the above searches), but I figured that the results should be interesting, so I set out searching.

Because this study was an exercise in boredom rather than some exhaustive academic research, I tried to limit myself to the first eight or nine people for each party that came to mind when running the search.

(Read more after the leap)