Less than a week until this year's primary election and Mayor Bart Peterson is rolling out a new campaign ad. The ad focuses on Peterson's crime fighting accomplishments, but he faces an opponent who says the mayor should be focusing
on much more than crime.
In an ad Peterson says, "My number one priority is a war against crime. We've ended the early release of criminals, we have substantially increased the number of police officers on the streets."
Peterson's little-known Democratic primary opponent Tony Knight thinks public education and public transportation are the most important issues. Knight is a high school administrator. He tells Ponce his goal is to win 10,000 votes. Good luck. I wonder if there will even be many more than that number of people who will bother to vote in next week's Democratic or Republican primary elections. There's absolutely no buzz about this primary here in Marion County as there are in other communities around the state.
The Star ran a story today on the GOP candidates for mayor. The party is backing Greg Ballard. He has $10,000 in the bank. Mayor Peterson has about $3 million. As a person who would like to see things shaken up in city government, this election offers next to no hope. I received a flyer in the mail from the Marion County GOP Chairman Tom John today, which tells me to vote for Ballard and the four at-large party-backed candidates for CCC, Ed Coleman, Michael Hegg, Michael Jezierski and Kent Smith. John writes, "Our Marion County Republican candidates are the best qualified and have a vision for the future of our community." For some reason, I'm just not feeling it.
If you do decide to vote next week, you'll have no shortage of government employees to choose from among the council candidates. The Republicans have fielded 14 candidates who earn a living from a government payroll, while the Democrats have at least 16 candidates for council on a government payroll.
16 comments:
GOP At-Large council candidate Mike Jeziersky is the real name of the rightwing nutterball that used to comment here incessantly as "Sir Hailstone" -- doesn't AI owe him an endorsement or vote, if only for old times sake?
The Mayor has tried, and failed, on numerous crime-fighting fronts. A few have worked. He doesn't have much to do with criminals getting back on the streets too quickly, but he can beef up the police force.
It is still his top priority. Yeah, I honestly do believe that.
But until I see this kind of crap ending, I won't believe that anyone at the City has their arms around the budget. Which, if they did, they could find the money for extra police:
10 AM: A DPW crew patching potholes, two days ago, with the following results: three trucks, eight men, one pounding down hot asphalt with a large anvil-type instrument. Four doing absolutely nothing, and by nothing I mean laughing and cutting up, not even trying to hold a shovel or anything.
1:20PM: Same crew, three or fouor blocks down the street, and another truck has joined them, adding two more men, neither of them doing anything but sitting in their truck.
Every day: police and sheriff's brass, enough to choke a horse.
The city budget has become a monster. Large, expensive problems were ignored for decades, and that makes the mayor's job difficult.
But his own, in-place administrators are wasting tons of cash every day.
Look around. It's everywhere.
Like most high priority items on the Mayors Agenda there is a flurry of activity and then the urgency dies away.
Just like the abandoned housing initiative and his top 10 list of offenders in 2003. It was last updated in 2004 - what has happend the last 3 years ? We know - he has hopped on the next bandwagon to hitch himself too . . .
As with all these elites, they only care about themselves and their legacy. Bart wants his legacy to be brick and mortar. We kid ourselves when we think we are better than those who came before us. Our governments are no different than those of Roman times. Football, baseball, and basketball stadiums = Roman Coliseums. Fancy buildings that are built with tax money or tax breaks/handouts = monuments.
The Mayor has now shown the most important card his hand. Of course that's easy to do when you have a pile of chips ($3 Mil in the war chest).
Knowing how O'Conner runs campaigns he tends to make things very simple. He takes the one hot issue with all the voters and then proceeds to put the spin on it.
Now most voters are not real informed people so they don't begin to understand the money side of things for the most part.
BUT THE VOTORS UNDERSTAND CRIME!
The poll that O'Conner took showed him that the single most important issue with the voters is CRIME.
This election is about NOTHING MORE THAN CRIME.
If the GOP candidate for Mayor does not make CRIME their number one issue then they best just stay home.
PETERSON HAS SHOWN HIS HAND. HE'S MAKING THE ONE SINGLE ISSUE HE IS MOST VULNERABLE ON HIS CAMPAIGN THEME, CRIME.
If the GOP nominee for Mayor wants to beat Peterson they will have to do on the CRIME issue.
The Mayor may have $3 mil in the bank but he CAN be beat if the GOP focuses on this one issue of CRIME.
O'Conner's already spent @$250,000 for a poll that the GOP do not have take.
THIS IS A ONE ISSUE CAMPAIGN! The GOP need to campaign accordingly. It's winable.
Can someone tell me something about this Tom John who's running the GOP?
Does he have the ability to raise no less than $500,000 for the GOP mayoral candidate?
fJust as with the RCA Dome, the new stadium will have enormous benefit for the city of Indianapolis and Central Indiana, as well as more than 60,000 hospitality industry employees. It is not just a football stadium (10 dates a year) but will accomodate a wide variety of events from conventions to trade shows to band contests to future NCAA events, all of which will bring outside money into the region to be deposited into the pockets of hard-working Hoosiers. Speaking of whom, who do you think is benefitting right now from stadium construction? It's Indiana construction laborers.
For 2 cents per dollar on my food or bar tab, the overall economic impact of the stadium and expanded convention center is well worth it.
Does crime need to be addressed? Absolutely! Do we need more cops on the streets? Hell, yes. But the funding for the stadium has NOTHING to do with funding for public safety. The money doesn't come out of the same pocket. In fact, in addition to the food and beverage tax, funding for the stadium and convention center expansion is dependent on VISITORS through the hotel and rental car taxes.
With both the RCA Dome and now the new stadium, Indianapolis at least has had the good sense to build facilities with multiple uses, quite unlike most of the other tax-supported stadiums around the country.
My belief is that even without construction of the stadium or expansion of the stadium, Indy -- just like most other major metro areas -- would be facing rising crime, which is far more due to other factors, such as the drug culture, the increase in gangs, the abandonment of family, no respect for life and the violence that permeates our media.
It may be a one-issue campaign, but any politco who spends a quarter mil on a poll needs to be fired.
A good, random-digit-dialed, stratified, 400-respondent poll, registered voters who plan to vote in the primary, should cost no more than $10-15K, with multiple questions. And their accuracy, even when they produce results we don't like, is uncanny.
Throw in some more for quality analysis. But $250K? Nationwide polls are done for less.
Overall, we've reduced politics in this country to McSoundBites. In that vacuum, Peterson will cake-walk. $500K put up against him will be like peeing in a fan.
Now, if the GOP could raise, say, a mil and a half, and focus only on crime, we'd have a horse race.
But they won't, and we won't.
Council: 18-11 Dem after November. And, perhaps, a surprise new president. (Fingers crossed)
"...but will accomodate a wide variety of events from conventions to trade shows to band contests to future NCAA events, all of which will bring outside money into the region to be deposited into the pockets of hard-working Hoosiers."
And the Colts, who get half the revenue from all those events!
Anon 9:36
"And the Colts, who get half the revenue from all those events!"
The deal with the Colts does not negate the fact that the presence of a multi-use stadium and the expanded convention center will enable one of the city's biggest success stories -- the hospitality industry -- to continue to grow and thrive to the fiscal benefit of more than 60,000 Central Indiana citizens, as well as provide meaningful opportunities and experiences for visitors and residents alike.
Perhaps you would prefer we revert to the pre-1970 Naptown that had a dirty, stagnant downtown and few attractions?
So Mr. Welsh, have you supported whoever Your candidate is? If not with cash, how about volunteering to walk for them? Post signs? man a phone bank?
You constantly rail about the quality of people elected, especially with the City COunty Council-which I agree with- but then you denigrate attempts to get a better elected body down there with "if you bother to vote' or "I
m just not feeling it'.
I'm sure you will vote, yet if you write the upcoming primary off as not being worthy of a time, have you not lost your credibiliity to criticize those candidates, democrat and republican, who attempt to make things better?
Thanks, anon 12:22, I have contibuted money to Scott Keller, and I will help him out more as the campaign proceeds. As for the rest, they're going to have to give me a reason to support them.
Keller is a good man. As for the rest, they have only been going to every GOP meeting possible in the past 3 mo; their biographies and their own web sites are available on the indy republican website. Have you been to any of those meetings, Gary? Asked them any questions as to their campaign platforms? It's one thing to 'not feel it' if you have done all this and are still not satisfied as to the quality of the candidates; but to throw out a line like 'just not feelin it' based upon complete ignorance of a candidate is well, ignorant, and not too dissimilar from negative stereotyping
Gary,
Just how deep is this schism between the old guard and new guard of the GOP in Marion County.
I recall not that many years ago when the old guard was handing out numbers for GOP future hopefuls to wait in line 'til their time came.
Goldsmith waited a looooooong time.
I just have this gut feeling that many of the old guard (the ones with cash and influence) are now in the Peterson camp. A Dem putting $3 mil in the war chest HAS to have a lot of GOP support.
Any thoughts?
Absolutely, he's getting a lot of support from Republicans. The Rex Early crowd did everything they could to undermine Sue Ann Gilroy's candidacy and ensure Peterson's win. The same law firms and the same insiders are favored by Peterson as were favored by Goldsmith. You have to remember a lot of these folks were originally self-identified as Republican simply because there was one-party rule in the county for so long. They were never loyal to the party--only to the folks who fed their hand.
I just love it when Republicans eat their young. I wanna pull up a chair, pop some corn, and watch for hours.
They're not very experienced at it, because they ruled for two generations without challenge. Thus, they're having a difficult time adjusting. It is great entertainment, albeit bad for the political system. Tom John can't change it. If he were good at it, he'd have had a mayoral candidate sooner.
Ask a good whorish Democrat how to eat your young. They're good at it. Someone like the current council president.
You can be freer, looser and more nimble when you're in the minority. You learn some of your best political skills fighting form behind. If you're slightly organized, you can wreak some real havoc. Translation: effectively hold the majority accountable.
Kind alike a turd in a punchbowl. Except all we get as voters, is another flavor of punch. Watered down, too.
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