Monday, December 17, 2007

Dickinson's Replacement To Be Chosen In The Dark Of Night

A little more than a week ago, State Rep. Mae Dickinson abruptly announced she was resigning from her seat, effective immediately. With virtually no public discussion of her replacement, the Marion County Democrats are calling together precinct committeepersons together to select her replacement. The only reporting I've seen on the calling of this caucus meeting anywhere is from Ed Feigenbaum at the Indiana Daily Insight. "The House vacancy caused by the resignation of Mae Dickinson (D) will apparently be filled this evening," Feigbenbaum writes today.

With the death of U.S. Rep. Julia Carson on Saturday, Marion County Democrats will be convening sometime in January to slate a person to run in the the special election to complete her term, which most likely will occur in late February or early March. That caucus could effectively determine who the next member of Congress from the 7th District is if the Democratic candidate prevails as has happened in every race since 1972. Let's hope that caucus is held a little bit more out in the open than tonight's caucus meeting.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Duh...When precinct committee-
persons vote, they must be a member
of that party to vote and also the candidate to be ultimately selected. Blame the lack of
updates on this particular process on the local media outlets. The
mainstream media could phone the County Chairman, if they thought that it was newsworthy enough to be reported, to get an update, correct??

Gary R. Welsh said...

The party hasn't even bothered to let the public know who the candidates to replace Dickinson are. If it had at least done that, there would be some opportunity for public comment before the committeepersons meet to make their selection.

Wilson46201 said...

Old news, Gary! Amos Brown already carried the info in the Recorder:

"The sudden resignation of state Rep. Mae Dickinson from District 95 on the Eastside has set off a scramble on who will replace her in the Legislature come January. I’m hearing that outgoing City-County Councilman Lonnel “King Ro” Conley’s planning to lobby precinct committeepersons to replace Dickinson. Also in the race is UAW official John Bartlett, said to be Rep. Dickinson’s choice.

Party leaders will choose a replacement Monday."

Gary R. Welsh said...

Amos is reporting rumor, Wilson. We did the same thing here the day that Dickinson announced her retirement and came up with Bartlett's name. Did Bartlett announce he was a candidate? Did you see a press release announcing the date of the caucus?

Wilson46201 said...

The caucus was properly and legally announced via mail to all the voting precinct committeepeople affected. All candidates duly registered with the MCDCC. I heard about it and even helped produce some campaign material for Bartlett.

I guess they forgot to notify the downtown GOP kibitzers and bloggers...

Anonymous said...

Press releases? There's no need for a press release to announce this event. The State Party complied with Indiana Code and sent notice of the caucus, which is occuring ten days after Mae's resignation. The candidates have been lobbying precinct committee people very, very hard. The voters eligible to vote in the caucus are very aware of the candidates and the date of the vote. Don't worry your little mind at all about it Gary...

Anonymous said...

You mean Abdul, who is supposed to be all knowing about politics didn't know?

Anonymous said...

Does this differ in any way from how other replacements for those who resigned before end of term (or died, as happened a couple times) were chosen?

Anonymous said...

The Marion County Dems didn't alert you Gary? Well, maybe you can register as a precinct committeeman next time.

Gary R. Welsh said...

When Billie Breaux's Senate seat opened up a year ago, her daugther, Jean, and Ron Gibson both announced their candidacies publicly for the vacancy. A public discussion ensued, which I think worked very much to the benefit of Jean. Perhaps the party doesn't want any discussion to take place publicly about who they intend to install tonight.

Anonymous said...

Gary, you are invited to the caucus tonight at the Union Painter Hall, 6507 Massachusetts Ave starting at 7:00 pm. All the committee-persons and the candidate supporters will be there to greet you. Jim

Anonymous said...

The process was fully complied with, Gary, but your point is very well taken.

There's no reason for the smarminess, Wilson...I'll write it off to Carson grief. Which is understandable, given how close you were to her. Condolences, by the way.

The mainstrema media haas been lazy about this--but the affected precinct committeepersons did get their legal notice. If there's a God in heaven, King Ro will lose, and we'll have finally driven a wooden stake through his political ehart.

He was an ineffective councilman, unless you call bullying fellow caucus members over his wife's ridiculous zoning decisions "effective."

And you're also right about the Senate vacancy earlier this year, Gary...the more Ron Gibson talked, the less votes he got. Ms. Breaux was fully qualified to succeed her able mother.

I am not sure what happens if a quorum doesn't show for this special caucus.

Anonymous said...

The local media can barely handle more than one major story at a time.

Since the Star/Ryerson admittedly no longer have the staff to cover local and state government issues (or "accountability reporting" as I recall) I guess that's probably why there has been little publicity.

What with being on the heels of the Tajanay Bailey/DCS story (which seemed like a whole lot more "reporting" than we'd seen in a long time) the death of Julia Carson combined with a moderate snow storm was more than the local media could handle.

It's really no wonder no one heard anything.

Anonymous said...

"kibitzers"-->> Wow, do you use Websters dictionary on a daily basis?

At least the "INDYUNDERCOVER" thing has died out!

Anonymous said...

John Bartlett wins in a landslide.

Anonymous said...

You can't make this stuff up, and you can't write a better political obituary for King Ro.

Ro skipped his last City Council meeting--a job to which he was elected--with some other Dems. He attended some or all of this caucus, and got his ass kicked in the process.

Extremely fitting.

Go away, Ro. And take your wife, too. Our city has suffered quite enough from your brand of "public service."

Now, to get into the City County Building, you've got to park outside somewhere and go through the security lines like a common person.