Indiana

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Posted on March 07, 2008
Although the controversy involving the Marion County Election Board over bad voter registration cards has subsided, there is a much bigger picture here I think needs to be addressed.  Based on the e-mails I’ve received and talking to a lot of mail carriers, there were a lot of cards that went out to bad addresses...

OOPS! I DON?T THINK THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!

Posted on March 06, 2008
With less than a week to go before the March 11 special election, an emergency meeting of the Marion County Election Board has been called this afternoon.  Although the agenda simply says it involves an investigation regarding voter registration, my sources tell me that nearly 1,000 voter registration cards have been mailed with the wrong [...

9 DAYS AND COUNTING

Posted on March 06, 2008
With nine days left before Indiana lawmakers are required to adjourn, Statehouse Republicans are making Democrats and offer they hope they won’t refuse. The Republican property tax reform plan calls for an average 30-percent reduction for homeowners...

AN EARLY LEAD FOR ELROD?

Posted on March 06, 2008
Although the latest polls show him behind, Republican State Representative Jon Elrod may have an early lead over Democrat City-Councilor Andre Carson in the race for the 7th Congressional District. According to the Marion County Clerk?s Office, more than 6,400 voters have either requested absentee ballots or have come into the office and voted early...

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10 DAYS AND COUNTING

Posted on March 05, 2008
I spent a good chunk of time last night with Indiana lawmakers at an end of session gathering downtown.  I asked a number of them, both Republicans and Democrats, about  what they thought about getting out on time on providing Hoosiers with permanent property tax relief...

11 DAYS AND COUNTING

Posted on March 04, 2008
After a nice trip through the looking glass this morning it’s back to reality and things that matter for taxpayers.  Indiana lawmakers continue their behind the scenes negotiations on property tax reform.  One item I hear that may be surfacing is that schools are trying to exempt themselves from any property tax caps...

FOR A FEW MILLION MORE

Posted on March 04, 2008
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard  says his administration has found a few million dollars in government waste and inefficiencies since taking office.  He plans to release full details as his administration completes its review.  Ballard says the millions are in contracts and bad management...

THANKS FOR THE PUBLICITY

Posted on March 04, 2008
Gary Welsh at Advance Indiana is writing about me (again)  this morning.   Gary must not remember that I’m a big media whore (whores get paid, sluts do it for free) and love the publicity.  It doesn’t bother me though because that’s just another thing that Welsh doesn’t know and he makes it clear by writing about [...

7TH DISTRICT SILLINESS

Posted on March 04, 2008
I think I have officially seen it all today.  Instead of debating real issues such as Iraq, health care, the slow meltdown of the American economy, the blogosphere is ripe with stories about Republican Jon Elrod’s sexual orientation and  Democrat Andre Carson’s religion...

12 DAYS AND COUNTING

Posted on March 03, 2008
There are 12 days left before lawmakers are set to adjourn.  I’m going to try to have daily updates from the legislature for your reading enjoyment. The conference committee met today on HB 1001 and of course nothing was decided.  There was some information distributed on how local governments could use local option income taxes to [...

A SIMPLE QUESTION

Posted on March 03, 2008
Let me ask you a simple question.  If you made a mistake at your job which cost your company $4 billion, how long do you think you would be able to keep it?

A NEW JOB?

Posted on March 02, 2008
I don’t know if you seen Indy Star Gary Varel’s cartoon this morning.  But you might want to check it out.  Your favorite pundit might have a new future.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Posted on March 02, 2008
For the past couple weeks, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s ethics proposal has been circulating around city hall. It hasn’t been formally introduced as the Mayor has been soliciting input from both Democrats and Republicans on the Council...

SATURDAY MORNING POST

Posted on March 01, 2008
Here’s the latest bit of info from your favorite political arms dealer which you can use at your discretion… I hear the Marion County Democratic party is stepping up their get-out-the vote efforts in anticipation of the special election for the 7th Congressional District...

CATCH 22

Posted on February 29, 2008
There’s not much I agree with when it comes to NUVO columnist Dave Hoppe, but in his column this week he hits the nail on the head.  He writes about an IUPUI employee who got in trouble for reading a book about the KKK while on break.  He wasn’t reading ”Klan for Dummies” or The KKK in [...

LAISSEZ LE BON TEMPTS ROULER!

Posted on February 28, 2008
I have had a string of good news today.  My son’s professional theater career out West is going well.  The love life is going great.  I have money in the bank.  The shakeup at the Metropolitan police department has begun with the long overdue (and extremely welcome) demotion of Keystone cops Scott Robinett and Bart McAtee...

OOPS!!!

Posted on February 28, 2008
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels says Marion County’s Township Assessors made a $4 billion mistake which helped result in higher property taxes for homeowners.  Daniels said today that the initial reassessment of Marion County’s commerical and industrial property was off by $4 billion...

YOU CAN TAKE THEM OUT OF THE HOOD, BUT?

Posted on February 28, 2008
I have never been a big Indiana Pacers fan and I would assume not a lot people in this town are now either.  My interest has always been passive at best, but now with the latest news that a murder suspect was arrested after leaving the home of Shawne Williams, it is the last nail in the coffin...

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR NEGOTIATIONS

Posted on February 27, 2008
The 2008 session of the Indiana General Assembly has just started.  By amending and passing its version of HB 1001, the Senate has drawn a line in the sand and it can negotiate in earnest with the House of Representatives.   While it’s easy to see the lines over how much tax relief to provide or [...

NEWS FROM AROUND TOWN

Posted on February 26, 2008
There a lot of little things from around town worth mentioning and keeping an eye on. Dr. Ken Ackles inability to pass a state-mandated coroner’s exam has gotten the attention of the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council.  The Council wants to know why he didn’t pass the exam which has potentially put a number of [...

POL WATCHING

Posted on February 25, 2008
A new poll of likely Hoosier voters shows good news for Barack Obama, Mitch Daniels and Andre Carson. The survey conducted by Gauge Marketing Research for Howey Politics Indiana shows each candidate with comfortable leads over their respective challengers...

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (OR ALLAH AS I CALL HIM)

Posted on February 25, 2008
The Indianapolis Star this morning has a long-piece on  7th District Congressional candidate Andre Carson and the fact that he is a Muslim.  There has been a lot of speculation about what kind of Muslim Carson actually is, especially since Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke at the late Julia Carson’s funeral...

TRIAL BY JURY

Posted on February 25, 2008
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has been called for jury duty this week. His pool number was called this afternoon.  He’s scheduled to report tomorrow morning at eight at the city-county building.  There’s no word yet on what case the Governor might hear if he makes it through any challenges.

LITTLE THINGS CAN MEAN A LOT

Posted on February 24, 2008
Normally I blog early Sunday morning, but I had some car issues.  The stupid key broke off in the lock in Danville (Indiana not Illinois) so my morning project was getting that taken care of.  The weekend has been pretty quiet, but I have heard a few things worth mentioning in the world of Indiana [...

DID ACKLES JUMP OR WAS HE PUSHED?

Posted on February 22, 2008
You know by now that Marion County Coroner Ken Ackles has withdrawn his name from the race for coroner.  For those of you think Ackles is falling on his sword for the good of the party, you need to think again.  If anything, he got pushed on his sword about five or six times just [...

MCCAIN COMES A CALLING

Posted on February 22, 2008
Acknowledging that Republicans have their work cut out for them this November, GOP Presidential candidate John McCain says he’s confident he can win in November. McCain spoke at Emmis communications to a couple hundred Hoosiers. He told the crowd the surge in Iraq is working as well as the need for young people to get [...

THE DEFIANT ONES

Posted on February 21, 2008
From what my sources tell me, Democratic State Representative Bill Crawford and Republican State Senator Mike Young don’t think very highly of each other.  Crawford thinks Young is a closet racist and what Young thinks of Crawford could not be printed on this blog...

DISSENTION IN THE RANKS?

Posted on February 20, 2008
There are some rumblings amongst the rank and file of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department over who will be Chief once IMPD is turned over to Mayor Greg Ballard at the end of the month. I’m told many of the officers hope current Chief Mike Spears and many of the top brass will be replaced after [...

FAMILY FEUD?

Posted on February 20, 2008
The friendly rivals over at Blue Indiana have some interesting posts today on the race for the 7th Congressional District.  After being on a conference call with the DCCC, B.I. reports the party says it will back Andre Carson through the May primary against all other challengers...

GOOD GOVERNMENT = GOOD POLITICS

Posted on February 20, 2008
One of my favorite films is Monty Python’s The Holy Grail;  the “bring out your dead” scene in particular.  I bring that up because SB 280 (Marion County Fire Consolidation) is back from the grave.  The bill was added Tuesday on to HB 1105, a public employees pension bill...

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