Here’s the long awaited response by the Marion County Republican Central Committee by MCRCC Communications Director Dan Tierney on the switch of Councilor Ed Coleman from Republican to Libertarian party.
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In what has very quickly become a non-event, news came out today that City-County Councilman Ed Coleman has left the Republican party to become a member of the Libertarian Party.
Yawn…
Please allow me to say this up front: I really like Ed. Beyond the fact that his wife was a good friend of mine in high school, during the time I’ve known Ed he’s become someone I’ve admired. He got into this (politics) for the right reasons and Indianapolis can be proud of his service.
Up until today, that is. With his action he has effectively deprived Indianapolis of his leadership and has paved the way for his early retirement from politics. This has nothing to do with the Republican Party (or the City of Indianapolis) and everything to do with Ed and salving his wounds from some perceived mistreatment, either real or imagined.
Think about it: Ed has now been stripped of his committee seats. He has removed himself as a voice for any input on city affairs. If this was about policy or ideology, what stops him from voting a certain way while maintaining his party affiliation? Was he that naive that he didn’t know that sometimes in politics you don’t always get your way?
(Read more after the leap)
Well, it was made official today. Ed Coleman made known to the world (or to Abdul, Paul Ogden the Libertarians who showed up and myself) that he is now a Libertarian. The presser went off without a hitch save for the lack of the major networks with Coleman doing his best to explain why he made the sudden switch. Though, it apparently wasn’t too sudden as Coleman had approached the Libertarians as recently as January to talk about a switch.
Coleman assured us, that though he has switched parties, he does not plan to change the way he votes. He’s still the same Councilor that the voters of Marion County elected in 2007, he just now has an “L” next to his name rather than a “R”. He did say that he would push fellow Councilor Mike McQuillen to subpoena the CIB so that they would make all of their finances readily available.
He did not feel that his party switch would lead to councilors not trusting him on future votes, but wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t. I asked him if he felt that this could pave the way for fellow At-Large City Councilor, Barb Malone, who has been known to buck the party on some votes and is a former Democrat, to be open to a return to the party. He said that was up to the Democrats and to Marion County Democrat Chairman Ed Treacy.
For those of you wondering why he decided to this and now, come back later this evening to see my exclusive interview with Ed Coleman, held right after the press conference.
I had hoped to do one of two things for this presser. I had hope to 1) video tape so as to post it in full here or 2) broadcast it live via webcam. Why did neithe of those two things work? First of all, the camcorder I used did not work properly. While it told me it was recording, in fact, it was not. As for the webcam, my laptop crashed a couple weeks back (what’s that you ask? Why yes, it is a windows laptop.) and I forgot to load the webcam software. D’oh!
Fear not! I had another (read: better) camera to do better sounding one on one interviews with Ed Coleman and freind of the site and Executive Director of the State LP, Chris Spangle.
Make sure to come back later tonight for these Hoosier Access exclusive interviews!
You can read Ed’s full statement on his party switching below the fold.
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*Update* According to a source at tonight’s Decatur Township GOP meeting, Republican Council President Bob Cockrum announced that Ed Coleman has left the GOP, his committee assignments have been stripped and that this is the first time a Third Party has had a seat at the Council.
After rumors swirled on Hoosiers for Fair Taxation (though the post was pulled) and Advance Indiana, sources confirm to me that Marion County City-County Councilman Ed Coleman is switching parties from Republican to Libertarian.
Coleman, who was first elected as an At-Large candidate in the Republican take over of the Council and Mayor’s office in 2007, has come under fire from the fellow Republican Councilmen and the County party for bucking party line on votes as well as voting against the Mayor on issues he deemed too intrusive for government…even local government. Coleman, who apparently has been mulling a switch for quite some time, was originally targeted by Democrats as a potential new party member, but conservative political convictions kept him from such a switch.
Sources also indicate that after some party bucking votes, Coleman would receive nasty text messages from people such as former State Rep. Jon Elrod, fellow Councilman Ryan Vaughn and Marion County GOP Chairman Tom John.
(*Update #2* I have been informed via a confidant of Ed Coleman’s that Jon Elrod did not send him any nasty text messages.)
(*Update #3* Councilor Ryan Vaughn called me and categorically denied sending any nasty text messages to Ed Coleman regarding any votes that may have bucked the party)
Now I’m sure the howling from GOP faithful will begin fairly soon. But keep one thing in mind here. The Republicans will still control the Council. Coleman will still likely vote more with them than with Democrats. But he will surely be castigated for his move. The question is, should he be?
Coleman’s move is not uncharacteristic while serving as an elected official. It’s not even uncharateristic for this decade. Some will probably make the notion that he should step down. Did Jim Jeffords? (I will admit, at the time, I was one of those who said he should) Did New York city Mayor, Michael Bloomberg after he switched mid-term from being a Republican to an Independent? One of the more well known party switcheroos came from Texas Senator Phil Graham in the 1980’s. He switched from Democrat to Republican, stepped down and ran for his seat again. He was so popular in Texas he won re-election.
Ed Coleman, the Libertarian Party of Indiana and the Marion County Libertarians will be holding a press conference tomorrow at the Columbia Club at 10:30am to discuss in more detail as to why he is making his switch. Your faithful Hoosier Access correspondent will be there to cover all of the action.
