Archive for the ‘Local Elections’ Category

The incompetence of Beth White never ceases to amaze me. Just received an email that explained the Marion County GOP Chairman “lost” his Precinct Committeeman spot because the Clerk put him on the wrong precinct ballot. No worries because he could always appoint himself to any random open PC position anyway. But its the principle of it all - if she can’t get a PC position right, what makes anyone think she isn’t going to screw up something a little more important.

Never mind we had precincts not open up until late afternoon or not at all in May 2007.
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On Tuesday there were numerous reports of irregularities and odd happenings coming out of Philadelphia, perhaps the toughest political battleground in the state of Pennsylvania. With the Pennsylvania primary giving Hillary Clinton a reason to stay in the race, the eyes of pundits are now turning to Indiana and North Carolina where primaries will be held on May 6th.

Aside from national attention shifting to Indiana, another way to tell that the primary is looming is the start of election shenanigans in Lake County.

Apparently the good folks over in Gary felt that part of their civic duty involved helping some of the city’s high school students vote early by busing them the county seat of Crown Point for a vote-early field trip. Yes, you heard that correctly: a school district in a city where Obama will probably win a landslide victory bused 200 voting age students on 32 miles round trip just so they could vote early.

(Read more after the leap) (more…)

First, of Novak.

Mr. Novak has a piece in his latest column on Indiana and how Obama could possibly win the state’s Democratic primary the same way he won the Missouri primary: win a high concentration of voters in a handful of populous counties.

Here is the excerpt:

HOOSIER HOPES

While the Indiana primary May 6 is listed by Hillary Clinton’s strategists as a probable win in her effort to stay alive for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama could surprise her there by concentrating on a few counties — as he did in Missouri Feb. 5.

Obama benefits from large African-American voting blocs in Marion (Indianapolis) and Lake (Gary-East Chicago) counties, plus heavy student voting from Indiana University, Purdue and Notre Dame. Obama could win Indiana by carrying only five of 92 counties. In the barometer state of Missouri, Obama carried only five out of 114 counties, plus the city of St. Louis, in finishing first there.

A footnote: Obama broke into the Hoosier Democratic establishment Wednesday with an endorsement from the prestigious former Rep. Lee Hamilton. An ex-chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Hamilton won national acclaim as co-chairman of the bipartisan 9-11 commission.

It should come as no surprise that the Indiana Democratic establishment has for the most part endorsed Hillary Clinton. Evan Bayh holds quite a bit of sway in the party and his endorsement of a presidential candidate is almost binding on anyone who wishes to stay within the good graces of the party.

Speaking of favorite candidates, wouldn’t it be interesting to see Schellinger and Clinton lose the Indiana primary and Obama and Thompson win against the establishment? Of course, this is interesting only if you are not hopelessly in love with the Indiana Democratic party’s talking points.

(See the “Of Limbaugh” part below the fold) (more…)

(Note - Any one of the Directors can nominate someone for a site endorsement, but it takes a unanimous decision by all of us for approval.)

The Directors of Hoosier Access are proud to announce our very first candidate endorsement. We enthusiastically support and endorse Jim Banks (R – Columbia City) for Whitley County Council. Even though Jim is one our fellow Directors, he was not allowed to participate in our voting.

Jim is a staunch fiscal conservative that will help lead Whitley County into the future knowing that local government needs to keep a check in its spending, especially in light of the recent property tax legislation that was just passed. State Representative Matt Bell has gone on record to say that “Jim Banks will be a great County Councilman and advocate for Whitley County families and businesses. I look forward to working with him to find ways to fight taxes and build a better Whitley County.”

(Read more of our endorsement for Jim Banks below the fold) (more…)

Okay, I admit it: I’m working on some other things but I want to get a blog post in so I’m copy-and-pasting from a campaign’s press release.  The major difference between a Hoosier Access blogger copy-and-paste and another bloggers copying-and-pasting is that we’re honest enough to tell you about it.

Bob Lee, Allen County Treasurer and Candidate for State Representative in District 85 has endorsed Fort Wayne City Purchasing Director Jim Howard for County Council At-Large.  “County Council will likely be asked to do more with less in the coming years,” said Lee.  “Jim’s fiscally conservative values combined with his proven record in local government will serve the citizens of Allen well on County Council.  I feel Jim has the skills necessary to make tough decisions by weighing competing interests for limited resources and make well thought out and fairly administered fiscal decisions for the taxpayers of Allen County.  Jim Howard is the right person at the right time to serve on the Allen County Council.” 

“I am honored to receive this support from Bob Lee who is a trusted and respected county official,” said Jim Howard.  “I will work hard on behalf of Allen County taxpayers on the County Council as I take the same fiscal conservative leadership to council meetings that I take to work every day to save tax dollars and make good decisions to run efficient government.”    

As City Purchasing Director, Howard has oversight of $100 million of city purchases every year.  Howard is credited with saving the city of Fort Wayne over $2 million over the past few years by employing unique practices of increasing competition, bundling purchase, and working with the schools and the county to buy fuel and energy needs.

As I write this Barack Obama’s campaign is filing suit in Federal Court to hold polls open in Cuyahoga and Franklin Counties in Ohio.

Apparently it rained kind of hard in some areas of Ohio today and some people may have not made it.

I preface my rant with the fact that I think voting is vital and everyone should do it…once per election.

In Ohio you can cast a ballot up to 25 days prior to election day. On election day you have 12 hours to vote.

Every month people plan and schedule to pay their bills, attend worship services, buy groceries, pick up their kids and record their favorite TV shows. Don’t you think they could make a little time to plan on voting…even if it rains.

I personally have worked on campaigns in other places and countries where people travel for days to go vote. Countries where people wait in line under threat of violence for 6 or more hours to vote. Countries where people get killed on election day. And I am not just talking about Lake County.

It is completely stupid that we coddle some of our fellow Americans who need parental supervision and, apparently, a court order to go and play on the field of our American Democracy. It is shameful and insulting to the millions around the world who would risk their lives every day for just a taste of American democracy when we have some who were born here who don’t participate because they can not get it super sized or through a drive thru.

The first of several Hoosier Access Radio episodes to be rolled out this week is posted. Dr. John McGoff, the Republican challenger to longtime Indiana Congressman Dan Burton, sits in the Hoosier Access Radio hotseat.

 

 Dr. John McGoff on Hoosier Access Radio [27:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

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.

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.

…or in this case never starts when you can’t get a wireless signal that you were told would be available. Truth be told, one was available to us, we just weren’t given a password to access the signal. C’est la vie! On a positive note, we were able to record a podcast of the days events and even came away with some great interviews.

Anyway, it was a great convention! It was so much better than I could have expected. To be honest, my hopes weren’t all too high consider all that was on the slate were Superior Court and Circuit Court races in addition to the HD 86 & 89 races. While the contested HD races were interesting, the judges races took the show.

For the announced 430 voting delegates that showed up, the judges races went to multiple ballots with four incumbents losing, total, losing in the slating and the Circuit Court race ending in a statistical tie between Alicia Gooden and James Joven because one voter used green ink to mark a ballot which was against the rules. That caused there to be a tie since the ballot was thrown out. This was announced after many of Joven’s supporters had left. Who won? You’ll have to listen to the podcasts.

Not to give too much away, we were able to get interviews with slated winners Chris Swatts in HD 89 and Adam Nelson in HD 86. We also got to spend some time with Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is a voting precinct committeeman himself.

So stay tuned for the podcasts as they become available over the course of the weekend.

UPDATE - Below the fold are the winners in today’s Marion County GOP slating convention. (more…)

Jon Elrod was video taped by some Democrats writing campaign letters (thank you notes, according to Elrod) while on the State House floor and then handing them to a Legislative employee to mail.

This is certainly a bad move by Elrod, but probably not near as horrible as it is being portrayed. The Indy Star article is interesting in that it is clear that Elrod did not break any ethics rules by writing the letters, but he caused the Legislative employee to violate personnel rules by having him perform “political” work while on the clock.

The timing of this special election certainly gives Elrod some difficulties in performing his elected duties and running for Congress, but he will have to do a better job of separating the efforts.

Of course, I’m not convinced that the Dems videotaping activities on the House floor is exactly ethical either.