Archive for the ‘Local Politics’ Category

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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As reported first in the Indianapolis Business Journal last week, and now repeated in the Ryerson Rag former 7th District Congressional Candidate Eric Dickerson declared personal bankruptcy. Citing three businesses including the Buick dealership, a Maggie Moo’s ice cream store in Circle Centre Mall, and Westfield Collision Center all of which have since closed.

The Buick dealership closed in the midst of Eric’s 2006 Congressional campaign. An ill-timed lawsuit by Fifth-Third Bank against the dealership just as it was being sold to Ed Martin’s group of dealerships did not help the overall situation.

On the ice cream shop, Eric told me the problem stems from the Simons tripling his rent for the mall space, combined with increasing overhead costs for personnel partially due to the minimum wage hike passed in the “First 100 Days” of this Congress. The rent for about 400 square feet on the third floor would be in excess of $10,000 per month. That’s a lot of $5 scoops of ice cream to generate that kind of revenue, never mind the overhead and costs of goods sold.

It’s very unfortunate it came to this. This pretty much ends Eric Dickerson’s hopes for a political career. Eric’s name kept being bantered about in the early days of 2007 as a possible Mayoral candidate prior to the emergence of Greg Ballard, and after the death of Julia Carson his name popped up on the radar again as a candidate for the Special Election.

I met Eric for the first time in June 2006 as his fall campaign was just getting geared up. Eric was very energetic and was on the go from morning into the evening as the campaign rolled on into November. I met several very interesting people that worked in the campaign and amazingly enough our little rag-tag group operating with little party support and a shoe-string campaign fund still managed to make it an 8 point margin in a very blue year. Ellen, Sally, Darla, Ernie, Mike B., Rick, Richard, among a few others helped make it happen, and most of us are still friends to some degree. Some of us continued on to remain active in the GOP and helped bring the GOP back to the Mayor’s office and the City-County Council.

(cross-posted to DFB)

With apologies to Glenn Beck…. Marion County GOPers just need to “Cut the Crap”.

I’ve received emails and I see the discussion going on here at Hoosier Access and elsewhere about the leadership and items related to the State GOP convention. It’s been discussed elsewhere, so I’m not going to rehash it.

As most know I’m no fan of the present Marion County leader. But we as Republicans do need to CUT THE CRAP with respect to rumors and discussion about changing the leadership now as opposed to waiting until the proper time to do so which by State GOP Rules is 1st Saturday in March, 2009.

(Read my reasons why after the leap) (more…)

For those who dispute where the credit goes in Indy getting the Super Bowl, Abdul Hakim-Shabazz has a great post on it here.

There is an Indianapolis Marion County City-County Council meeting tonight at 7 PM at the CCB. I plan to be there to live blog the meeting.

6:50 PM - I’m in place, plugged in and ready to go. Councilor Ed Coleman came by and told me to keep an eye out for a proposal tonight. He didn’t share which one but he’d let me know…. this should be interesting.

The Agenda (not the uhgender) is posted HERE. I see there is a Proposal 265 recommending the Indianapolis Airport Authority add the old name of the Airport to the new terminal so it will be named “Indianapolis Weir Cook International Airport”. Lots of older generation folks remember Weir Cook was the original Indianapolis Airport.

[Live Blog begins after the fold]
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I’ve had my beef over the years with how the Marion County Republicans are run and how the current and past chairmen have handled things, but Tom John made one of his smartest moves ever when he named Robb Greene the MCRCC’s newest executive director.  Congratulations Robb!

(Read the official press release below the fold) (more…)

Another fun filled Monday night at the City-County Building. You can find the Uhgender HERE. Check back after 7:00 PM for the commentary.

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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.

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*Adam Longworth was able to attend Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s first State of the City Speech.  Since no one else who contributes here was able to attend, Adam volunteered to offer his impressions of the speech.*

Well last night was quite the interesting experience as far as speeches go. Although this was my first state of the city address that I would be viewing personally I have seen a few like them, and thus had a reasonable expectation of what to expect-or so I thought. I traveled to union station with Ponytail Paul and Kent Morgan and we arrived about 20 minutes before the speech began. Of course, this being a Republican mayor, there were plenty of Republicans there for me to rub elbows with. And I did with gusto.

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Hoosier Access groupie and contributor to the Weird Pro Blogger Hour on Hoosier Access Radio, Adam Longworth, is attending the Mayor’s State of the City Address at Union Station in Downtown Indianapolis. It appears it will not be live on Channel 16 (cable) but most likely taped and played at a later time.

Adam will provide a post-Address wrap-up here later tonight and if any spectacular announcements are made at the Address Adam will text one of us and we’ll post it up here.

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…)

The Agenda (not the “uhgender”) is posted HERE (Adobe Reader required). Meeting starts at 7 PM.

6:53 PM - The crowd is assembling in the Public Assembly Room. Several veterans including Warren Township’s own Pony Tail Paul Cauley.

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