Archive for the ‘Indiana Politics’ Category

David Yarde won the caucus tonight to replace State Rep. Marlin Stutzman on the November ballot in House District 52.  Yarde won on the 6th ballot with 20 votes over Roger Diehm with 18 votes.  I emceed a candidate forum with 8 candidates who were seeking this vacancy last Thursday evening.  Here is the brief bio I was given to read about Yarde in the introductions.

Davis is a lifelong resident of DeKalb County and the fourth generation to live on the family farm.  He graduated from Garrett High School in 1969 and received his BS in Education and an MS in Administration from Indiana University.  David served in the school system as a teacher and administrator for 30 years.  He is married to Julie and they are the parents of two children, Justin and Dakota.  A small business owner, Davis is a fiscal and social conservative Republican.  Currently serving his fourth term on the Dekalb County Council, Davis is a former member of the Keyser Township Advisory Board, a veteran of 30 years as a Keyser Township Precinct Committee person and former DeKalb County Young Republican Chairman.

Congrats to David and good luck in the fall.

http://stopdickwood.blogspot.com/

Get your minds out of the gutters people. Richard Wood is running against Dr. Tony Bennett to replace Dr. Suellen Reed as the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The story of what went on with Democrat Indy Councilor Doris Minton-McNeill, who was arrested on battery and resisting arrest charges, continues to develop.  The transcript of her 911 call is now available.

Thanks to Chris Spangle for the transcription.  Due to its colorful, yet censored nature, it’s only available after the leap. (more…)

Wow! This was supposed to be a great weekend of unity and good feeling for Democrats, but then the UAW and City-County Councilwoman Doris Minton-McNeill had to go and ruin everything.

First, the UAW refused to endorse Jill Long Thompson (From the Howey Political Report):

The UAW vote could be a blow to the Thompson-Oxley ticket because it has a network of field operations vital to any Democratic gubernatorial nominee. The Democrats needed to come away from today’s convention with the perception of unity. The UAW played an integral part of the field operations of the Jim Schellinger gubernatorial campaign as well as for past Democratic nominees.

I would argue that if JLT could beat “Diamond Jim” Schellinger and the UAW ground game in May, then she really doesn’t need all those ground people working on her behalf anyway. She’s a big girl and she can handle herself pretty well I’m guessing (please note the heavy sense of sarcasm).

Show us what you got Jilly-O!

Second,

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Oh boy.

Just when you thought that Linda Pence couldn’t get herself into any more trouble…

First Pence denounced Attorney General Steve Carter for hiring outside counsels to help with important cases.

It turned out that the lead item on her resume (going after a polluter of the White River) was done as an outside counsel for the state of Indiana during the O’Bannon administration, work for which she was quite handsomely paid.

Then Pence demurred on whether she would continue the RICO case against former East Chicago Mayor Bob Pastrick, saying that she did not know much about the case and would have “to examine” it before deciding whether to continue it.

Not only did Pence’s statements show her as soft on corruption in Lake County, but they were shockingly accompanied by a failure to disclose one important fact.

That fact was that Linda Pence had spent more than a year as a litigator in the Pastrick “sidewalks for votes” case representing one of Pastrick’s co-defendants.

Better still, her client settled out of court for so much money that the settlement paid for the fees of the case’s outside counsel (which she had earlier attacked) twice over.

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Some Democrats would love to have you believe that the the qualifications for being “Lite Gov” would be that you have an active pulse. Why else would they continue to backhand compliment JLT’s choice of Dennie Oxley, while simultaneously saying the position doesn’t mean much or matter much to a ticket.

Obviously, these points were lost on Governor Daniels when he chose Becky Skillman to be his running mate. I have come to realize that Becky Skillman is one of our states most underrated and under-appreciated elected officials. Thankfully, that was not lost on Mitch Daniels when he chose her to be his LG. Part of the reason she may have been chosen may have been because she is from the southern part of the state, but her record in the State Senate is quite impressive. In 2004 alone, she authored or co-authored 16 bills. Every single one of them became law. The bill content is quite impressive too. These aren’t Seed Commissioner bills. Mind you she also did this in the short session of the General Assembly and with a Democrat governor.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out her record for yourself. Here is her activity in the State Senate since 1999, when online material was first made available:

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From a press conference that took place this week:

Reporter: How have you had experience dealing with the economy in the legislature?

Oxley: Every bill in the House the last 6-8 years I have had fingerprints on each bill. Of all those bills described economic bills, my fingerprints were on them.

Looks like Oxley’s economic “fingerprints” are invisible.

From 1999-2008 (his whole legislative career) Oxley was not on a single bill (author, co-author, sponsor, or co-sponsor) that passed through the Economic Development Committee. In fact, he wasn’t even on a bill that didn’t pass or even get a hearing in that committee. The vast majority of bills he’s had his name on have gone through Education, Finance, Roads, or Ways and Means.

While it’s nice to see he’s actually doing something in the House, even there he’s been far from a leader. According to Frugal Hoosiers:

* 51 bills introduced
* 6 passed into law
* 33 received no hearing
* 12 received a hearing and ultimately failed

So Jon Elrod dropped out of his Congressional race. Big deal. In this years current political climate it was going to be practically impossible for Elrod to eek out victory in the 7th CD. That may sound harsh, but it’s the truth.

On the other hand, with Jon Elrod deciding to run for re-election for his House District seat, this improves the Republicans chances of winning back the Indiana House even in the most difficult of times. Sure the Democrats will try to peg Jon as a flip-flopper, as they’re already doing, but early polling numbers, conducted by American Viewpoint, show that Jon’s favorables are over 60% in HD 97 and he has 93% name ID, compared to his Democrat opponents 47% name ID and meager 16% favorables. What else is in his favor? He has higher favorables that either Mayor Greg Ballard or Governor Mitch Daniels and his re-elect numbers are over 50%.

So the Democrats can whine and complain all they want about Elrod jumping back into his HD race. They’re just mad that now they actually have to spend money on a race they thought they would have gifted to them. The question they now have to face is, do they spend money on a race that right now, they don’t win or do they try to help some of their embattled incumbents save face and hope to keep a few of the now open seats?

It must suck being Dan Parker right now.

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I want to congratulate my friend and fellow 2008 Indiana Leadership Forum graduate, Michael Griffin on becoming the new Hancock County Republican Chairman. Michael is replacing recently departed Chairman John Willey who served Hancock County Republicans for almost eight years.

Michael, currently, is an attorney for Krieg DeVault. He is also a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom serving in 2004 with Third United States Army as Operational Law Attorney at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait and as Command Judge Advocate at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar. He holds the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. He also helped re-establish the Hancock Young Republicans and served as the Chair until taking over as Chair of the County Party.

Congratulations Michael! I look forward to working with you and helping elect our Republican ticket this fall!

If I had a dollar for every time that I heard some anti-war liberal complain about Mitch Daniels’ estimate for the cost of the Iraq War, I could probably pay for a good chunk of the cost of the war. At the very least, I could buy an entire island someplace tropical and retire.

This week, Brian Howey has taken a break from his usual worship of the Obamassiah to run some drivel by one of his columnists slamming Mitch Daniels for his estimate of the cost of the Iraq War.

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YouTube Direct 

On the one hand, you have a tall guy in a nice suit that can’t speak in public worth a darn and has to read from a script (and even then does a bad job).

And on the other, you have a lady with blond hair who happens to be just about the smartest person in any room.

Appearances can be deceptive; I know who I’d prefer to have as lieutenant governor.

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The contradictions between Jill Long Thompson and the only guy willing to run with her, err, her chosen running mate, Dennie Ray Oxley II, are many.

And certain Democrat spin-mistresses are already beating a swift retreat away from his importance to the ticket.

You can bet that they wouldn’t be downplaying the significance of his presence on the ticket if they really thought that he was such a great choice.

The contradictions with what young Dennie Ray II is saying now and with what he has done in the past are even more enlightening, however.

See why after the leap.
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