Friday, October 19, 2007

GOP Reaffirms Support For Ballard

In the face of criticism within the Republican Party for the lack of support for GOP mayoral candidate Greg Ballard, the Marion County Republican Party issued a statement this afternoon saying the party "completely" supports Ballard's candidacy. That the party would even have to release such a statement with less than 3 weeks before the election speaks volumes. Dan Tierney, Communications Director for the party, had this to say:

The Marion County GOP is completely supporting the Greg Ballard for Mayor Campaign. MCRCC has donated over $70,000 worth of resources to the Ballard for Mayor Campaign this year. This is significantly more than MCRCC has given to any of our other local candidates and far more than any other donor or supporter has given to the Ballard Campaign. This is in addition to our efforts to elect Republicans in over 70 other races across Marion County.

We at MCRCC know that change in Indianapolis begins with the Mayor’s Office, and electing Greg Ballard is key to lowering taxes, making our neighborhoods safer, and restoring accountability to government. However, for Mayor Ballard to have the support he needs when elected, it will require a Republican Council and other supportive officeholders. MCRCC is working hard to ensure that. Greg absolutely needs more assistance still, and we encourage you to provide it for Greg Ballard by donating or volunteering by visiting http://www.ballardformayor.com/, or calling us at 317-635-8881.

Critics are not likely to be assuaged by Tierney's words of support for Ballard after today's release of the paltry sum raised by Ballard's campaign by this late date. Campaign reports show Peterson raised 30 times as much as Ballard to date according to a Star analysis. Ballard reported only $225,000 in contributions, more than $100,000 of which came in the form of in-kind contributions. Ballard has but a mere $51,000 on hand to make it through election day. Making matters worse is the fact that Ballard's fundraising is less than Fort Wayne mayoral hopeful Matt Kelty's (R), whose campaign virtually imploded after he was criminally charged for campaign finance irregularities earlier this summer. What this all means is there will be no Ballard TV ads, and a radio ad buy, if any, as small, if not smaller than Eric Dickerson (R) made in his valiant effort last year to unseat Rep. Julia Carson (D) with next to no support from the Marion Co. GOP.

What is particularly sickening is the multi-million dollar war chest Gov. Mitch Daniels is sitting on and refusing to lend to support Ballard's campaign. As I've said before folks, Gov. Daniels is working for the re-election of Bart Peterson. I suspect the favor will be returned by the multitude of disenchanted Marion County Republican who feel completely abandoned by Daniels. If he's lucky, he will lose Marion County by only 20,000 votes next year. What goes around comes around.

12 comments:

Mike Bowman said...

If republicans could give millions of dollars to the Brizzi campaign last year ( but very little to the Dickerson campaign ) where is that republican money this year for the Mayors race ?

Anonymous said...

The republicans are in the Mayors pocket. They were told to throw this race if they want big legal contracts and development contracts.
The mayor won't touch Monroe Gray because Sweet Pea has some dirt on Bart and Bart is playing puppet.

Wilson46201 said...

The complete Ballard campaign finance report (CFA-4)

http://www.indystar.com/assets/pdf/BG891641019.PDF

Anonymous said...

It could have been stated that Bart Peterson has raised 1.1 million dollars since April, adding to the 2.8 million he already had. Thats a 34% gain, roughly.

Greg Ballard went from 9 thousand dollars in April to 112 thousand dollars. Thats about a 1250% gain.

You'll never hear the figures spoken of in that fashion, from lap-dogs of the Dem party such as Jim Shella.

See you on November 6th.

Bart Lies said...

Gary, what's truly sickening is that elections are won or lost on the basis of how much money you have, not on the candidate's qualifications or integrity.

For Bart to spend $2.5M for a position that will only pay him $400K in salary says to me that he and lot of people around him are expecting a big return on their investment. to me that says, 'CROOKS'.

I hope that the $70K from his party didn't cause them too much hardship.

It's heartwarming to see the number of individuals who have contributed (above the reporting threshold) for Greg Ballard.

I checked Bart's 'individual's' CFA-4 and found so much interesting stuff there, like Greg Henneke's $16K, Roland T Salman's $16K and Ralph E Wagle's $11K donations. Hmmm, big construction and civil engineering donors. And "Kite" and "Simon" and others also stood out with their big checks. Lawyers seem to dominate both lists, though, with many smallish donations privately and huge checks from the big downtown firms.

And it's interesting that many of Bart's donors are in far-flung places like Georgia, Wisconsin, Mchigan, not in the Indianapolis area at all.

The $540K to 'GMMB' was most intriguing. GMMB is a 'spin doctor' consultant:

"Founded in 1983, GMMB honed its skills in politics, policy and issue campaigns, where the goal is to change minds and change hearts, win in the court of public opinion and win votes."

All-in-all, the finance reports DO tell a lot about the candidate. Thanks to Wilson for incenting me to read them all.

Anonymous said...

anon 7;22...statistics can be deceiving. Anyone that eat a carrott during the Civil War in the year of 1861 has died. So please don't eat the carrots.

Jeff Cox said...

Given Mitch's current popularity, I don't know that his being tied to Ballard would be a help. But you can't beat somebody with nobody, and right now the Dems have nobody challenging Mitch. He might be sitting on his war chest anticipating the Dems will come up with someone better to challenge him next year (John Gregg?)

The Marion County GOP is inept tactically and quite possibly in bed with Peterson, like the East Chicago GOP was in bed with Pastrick for a long time (another example of Lake County corruption coming down to Indianapolis with Carson's crew). But the real disgrace is the state GOP supporting Kelty in Fort Wayne over Ballard. Utterly inexcusable.

Anonymous said...

This is who we want as mayor--
Greg Ballard quoted by Channel 13, WTHR about the fundraising gap with Bart Peterson:

Explaining the vast difference, Ballard said, "I chalk it up to I was out serving my country, so I didn't make all the connections in Indianapolis, but that's okay, people have been very generous and I appreciate all the support."

Anonymous said...

"The Marion County GOP is completely supporting the Greg Ballard for Mayor Campaign. MCRCC has donated over $70,000 worth of resources to the Ballard for Mayor Campaign this year."

They should be embarrassed to admit this amount of "resources." Not even cash.

Anonymous said...

It is not the fact that the MCRCC Gave $70K to Ballard - it is they have not done anything to convince the Republicans who have the big bucks to donate to Ballard.

Anonymous said...

Apparently, 8:39, you did not grasp my original point, so I will type slower, just for you..
Wanna know the difference between a law firm's $20K donation to Peterson and my $20 donation to Ballard? Not a damn thing..my vote counts just like the money whores. Its just that more voters have given to Ballard, just not as much $
Is that better?

Anonymous said...

Ignore the Wilson Troll. He is just a Denocrap with a one dimensional view.