Indiana

There She Goes

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Indianapolis City-County Jackie Nytes told me Thursday night that she is not going to run for another term.  This is really bad news for the city because in my six years of covering city-county government I’ve always found Jackie to be thoughtful, articulate and overall what a good local representative should be.

Jackie told me she has a number of professional and personal commitments on her plate and she needed to focus her attention there.   I first got to know her during the debate over the human rights ordinance which prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation.  Jackie has also always had  a passion for the arts and culture, but her strongest point has always been when it came to the budget.  And we have had our philosophical differences on some local matters, there is never any doubt about her passion and love for the city of Indianapolis.

Whether it was finding money for libraries, IndyGo, calling the state on the carpet for not giving local governments more control over their financial destinies, Jackie was always a strong advocate.

By stepping down though, there is really going to be a “mind trust” deficit in the Democratic caucus.   In addition, the person named as the front-runner for her replacement is Washington Township Board President Joe Simpson whose claim to fame is giving himself a 60-percent pay raise and later falsely accusing a local television camera man of calling him a racial slur.

Luckily she will still be in office through next year.  And the even better news is that by not running for re-election she is completely free to vote her conscious and keep doing what’s right for the city without worrying about consequences and repercussions.

You go girl!

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on December 10, 2010 (boomark / email).