Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Looking For Friends of Ike, Anyone There?

Indianapolis city-county councilor Isaac "Ike" Randolph has not been detoured by his unsuccessful party bid to succeed Murray Clark in the Indiana Senate last year. In fact, he's looking for Friends of Ike to assist him in a bid to become Indianapolis mayor next year. A friendly AI reader passes along an e-mail Ike sent out this week. It reads:

I think I'm ready to set the ball in motion for next year's mayoral race. Can you give me at least 10 names of that would like to join my team? I have a project I'm working on and need 100 or so people. Just have them e-mail me their contact info with "FOI" (friends of Ike) in the subject line.

I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise. Ike has pretty much become a permanent fixture on WIBC's "Garrison" talk show. Even "Abdul In The Morning" gives him more air time than the guy deserves. I've never understood how a full-time Indianapolis fireman has so much time to make appearances on radio talk shows, in addition to all the city council meetings and do-gooder events he attends. If Heather Bolejack's good friend hadn't double-crossed him, he would have also had a gig helping the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute waste taxpayers dollars.

It's a free country. Ike can run for whatever office he chooses, but I suspect the prospect of his mayoral candidacy will be met with no more favorably than his state senate bid last year. We'll learn soon enough.

UPDATE: Star political columnist Matt Tully blogs today that his Friday column will focus on Ike's likely bid for mayor next year. He notes that he recently filed an exploratory committee, although "nothing is definite." I'd be lying to you if I said I wouldn't be flattered to have the job," Randolph said. "I think people understand it's time for a change," he continued. "Crime is out of control. It's important to have somebody who is committed to making sure your kids can get home safe. As a firefighter I've learned not to run away from problems. You run into them. You arm yourself well. You do as much pre-planning as you can but you also adapt and overcome and you never give up."

Kudos to Matt for acknowledging that Advance Indiana scooped him on this story. Tully writes, "By the way, my hope was to save this story for Friday's paper. But the hard-working blog Advance Indiana has posted an e-mail Randolph sent to potential campaign supporters, so the news is out."

Let's hope Matt touches on the question many have been asking in the GLBT community for the past year. Why did you promise to support the HRO when you first ran for the council, then later renege on that promise and refuse to talk to anyone in the GLBT community about your change of heart?

24 comments:

Wilson46201 said...

This time, is he for or against LGBT equality? ... and how long will that position hold?

Gary R. Welsh said...

Apparently keeping your word in not part of his Christian values.

Sir Hailstone said...

By the tone of this posting Gary it sounds like you're wanting 4 more years of Bart. 4 more years of this shit??

And not a word from you Wilson we know you would vote for Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez if you could.

Anonymous said...

Mayor Ike. I could think of worse fates for our city.

Gary R. Welsh said...

No, just a better Republican candidate than Ike--one you can trust.

Anonymous said...

Ike Randolph=fingernails on a blackboard.

If the two news radio stations didn't pump up his ego so much, we might not be forced to deal with it. Facce it Ike--being a frequent flyer on those two stations does not in and of itself endear you to the public.

Another gripe: he voted on the recent fire department merger. He broke party ranks to do so. How he voted is not my point. He derives his salary from the IFD, so he should've recused himself.

As should've Juice Prez.

And, on the police merger, Mahern, Plowman and Franklin voted, and we know that each earns their wages in one of the two police agencies.

And nobody on that Council sees anything wrong with this.

Ike wants to be mayor, huh? He sure got hoodwinked on that aborted Senate run, by none other than the Marion Coun ty GOP organization.

He'd get pummeled.

If you Repubs had any brains, you'd recruit Minority Leader Borst. A fair and up-front guy with lots of experience.

He would be difficult to beat. I seew no one else on the GOP's horizon who can even come close.

Wilson46201 said...

and Hailstone would vote for Mussolini or Franco if he could ...

See how easy that was? Stop this silliness...

Sir Hailstone said...

Phil Borst would be good. But does Phil want it? Would he risk losing his place as either majority leader, CCC Prez, or at worst minority leader for a run at Bart?

What is Dane Mahern's role in all this? I just thought he was another Democrat dork running on his last name.

Anonymous said...

Has Borst expressed any interest in running? He seems pretty level and grounded.

I like him. I feel sorry for the stupidity he has to deal with.

Wilson46201 said...

Phil Borst might need a personality-transplant. He seems bland like that nice Jordan guy that ran against Bart.

Anonymous said...

Wow and to think you're a lawyer! That's scary!

Anonymous said...

Hail, regarding Mahern:

Yes, he did run on his name. Watch Ch. 16 sometime. He's a complete goof.

The older Mahern boys clearly got the brains.

Anonymous said...

Fact check - Believe Ike removed himself from CJI proposals due to his plans to run for office.

This made sense as I hear he wasn't doing the follow-thru that would have been needed to keep any of those balls moving forward.

Gary R. Welsh said...

FACT CHECK: As the Star's Michelle McNeil reported:

"Randolph said he met with McKenna at the request of Bolejack, offered to work with McKenna to develop a similar program and e-mailed him details about Ten Point's SKIP program.

Randolph said he never heard from McKenna again, despite repeated calls.

He assumed McKenna dropped the idea -- until he learned from inspector general investigators that McKenna's SKIP program was to receive an original award of $417,000."

McKenna claimed that Randolph chose to pursue his political race intstead of the ICJI grant opportunity; Randolph told McNeil otherwise, suggesting that McKenna had pilfered his ideas, which were actually the ideas of his former employer.

Anonymous said...

I know Ike and he has too many personal vendettas to settle. He has the brains to do a lot of good but he is too thin-skinned to get anything of substance accomplished. Besides the Republicans in the southern townships just aren't open minded enough yet to support a minority candidate for county wide office.

Wilson46201 said...

Ike Randolph --- flip-flop, flip-flop !

Sir Hailstone said...

"The older Mahern boys clearly got the brains"

I do watch channel 16 and I thought I was alone in my assessment that Dane Mahern is a goof. Your statement above though doesn't say a whole lot. Neither Ed nor Louis Mahern have three brain cells between the two of them.

Anonymous said...

Ike (and any Republican) will lose by 10 points at least.

Mayor is too popular (persistant rumors put him in low 70s according to GOP internals).

Mayor has too much money.

Mayor has done a good job.

Ike? He's a one-bit hack. He's a city-county concillor (need I say more?)

Sir Hailstone said...

Mayor has too much money.

We have the City of Gary, Indiana and NIPSCO to thank for that.

Mayor has done a good job.

HAHAHAHA HOHOHO HEHEHEHE HAHAHAHA Oh I thought you were serious about that. This mayor is an idiot. He's gotta go!

Anonymous said...

Response to 'fact check'
There are two sides to every story and if you're looking for some in-depth reporting from the Star to get the REAL STORY - you'll come up short damn near every time.

Anonymous said...

Looking for Ike's Best Friend:
Carl Brizzi

Anonymous said...

Professional firefighters often work one day -- 24 hours -- on and two days off-- that's 48 hours to be on talk shows and show up to events.

Wilson46201 said...

AIs story here scooped Matt Tully - he even gave AI credit ! It's on Political Junkied

Anonymous said...

Hail, regarding the Mahern boys: Eddie is slick as hell. And Louie...well, Louie is anything but dumb. He's actually very intellegent, and crafty. And witty.

Witness this exchange on the Senate floor 15 yrs. ago or so, when a bill to prohibit beer sales in Convenience Stores was pending. He'd listened to the author talk about all kinds of things available in C-stores, cigs, milk, food, books, and, yes, even Playboy and Penthouse in some stores.

Louie had been sitting in his chair, nearly asleep, and he suddenly popped up for recognition.

He then said: "Mr President, the author assumes that an open Playboy beside an open beer is a bad thing. I do not share his view."

That's a paraphrase, but pretty close.

That being said, he was known as one of a handful of senators in lobbyists' back pocket at all times.