Sunday, January 06, 2008

Gray Eying State House Seat

Let me begin by saying this is not a joke. A reliable Democratic source says City-County Councilor Monroe Gray is eying the House seat currently held by State Rep. David Orentlicher (D). Orentlicher is giving up his seat to seek the 7th District congressional seat of the late U.S. Rep. Julia Carson (D). It appears Orentlicher plans to run in the May primary whether he wins the party's caucus this Saturday for the special election on March 11. Gray is telling fellow Democrats he would like to run for the seat. It is regarded as a competitive district, although Orentlicher easily defeated Republican Kathryn Densborn in the 2006 race. There is at least one Republican candidate who has reportedly expressed an interest in the race, Adam Nelson, a Warren Township school teacher.

UPDATE: An anonymous person, who will not identify herself, insists that Gray does not live in Orentlicher's district, although his council district overlaps Orentlicher's district somewhat. This post never attested to whether Gray lived in the district. It merely reported what a reliable Democratic source heard from several Democratic committeepersons--that Gray expressed interest in running for Orentlicher's seat if it opens up. God knows there are plenty of examples of people who are or have held offices around here who don't live in their districts.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adam Nelson

Anonymous said...

HA HA HA HA HA

Anonymous said...

Has he talked to the Democratic Caucus yet? I would like to be there when the does.

arnie

Gary R. Welsh said...

Thanks, anon 7:20.

Anonymous said...

LMAO!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The latest word is that Tim Oakes is re-thinking the judge thing and looking at taking a run at house district 86

Anonymous said...

wonder if GOP could get lucky enough to have Gray as the Dem. nominee??

Anonymous said...

could you clarify when david o. is leaving? i hope it is not until after the session. he really needs to be there on the property tax issue.

surely someone in the dem party will corner gray and talk him out of this. i live in his district and am continously amazed at the support for him. yes, i know the house district is much larger but don't be fooled, he could win it.

AI once again has the scoop of the day. amazing. everyone in central indiana should read this every day.

Gary R. Welsh said...

anon 8:03, Thanks. There would be no reason for David O to leave his House seat before the end of the current term unless he is slated for and wins the special election on March 11, in which case he would have to resign to take a seat in Congress.

Anonymous said...

So, thats waht is on Mr. Grays agender He can do more damage in the house than he can on the council.
Now that he is on a pension, he can't have the garnishments like he had from the FD pay. Smart move on his part. He owes a bill that he won't have to pay.

ruth holladay said...

I am blown away that a citizen blogger/reporter (Gary) continues to scoop the Star and everyone else in town. Where are the Star's bloggers? Why are people who get paid to do this so clueless, or do the powers that be sit on stories?
Crazy.
At any rate, I agree with 8:03. It's a good scoop.

Anonymous said...

Monroe Gray would get demolished...Bauer will not let this happen. There are a lot of good Dem candidates in that district that are as capable as David O that would just as hard has he does to keep that district in Dem control...could you imagine Gray going door to door in Home Place or Meridian Kessler?

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to the second home (supposedly his daughters) that he was taking the Homestead credit on? Illegal, but "I got the juice".

Anonymous said...

Gary: Sometimes you have good sources and sometimes they are flat wrong. Monroe Gray lives in House District 99 which is represented by Vanessa Sommers. You must live in the district one year prior to the November election. Monroe will not be a candidate for that office. Even just a little research on your part would have shown this.

Anonymous said...

Then where is the 'daughters' house?

Anonymous said...

The address Monroe was registered at is not in the district, public records show that he owns 2 other homes one of these is located in Vanessa's district and other is located in Porter's district.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Look, the guy is not being truthful about his residence. He could try to run, but here's hoping calmer heads will prevail. Since when does a little thing like residency stop folks?

And, if David O. stays in the Congressional fight until the primary, he could not run for re-election to this State House seat and run for Congress. So, 86 would technically be open.

Gary R. Welsh said...

A prominent Marion County Democrat provided me the information about Gray's interest in this House seat. The person has provided me many tips in the past and never led me astray. As for where he lives, Win Moses has lived in Broad Ripple for years while representing a Fort Wayne district. People dispute whether Ed Mahern actually lived in his district before Jon Elrod beat him. Gray's council district absolutely overlaps substantially with Orentlicher's district.

Gary R. Welsh said...

"Since when has truth ever been a factor in the posts or comments on this site. I have come to expect more heat than light out of this site. Entertaining nonetheless. A guilty pleasure."

Okay, anonymous, how about giving some examples. This blog has provided more factual information on local politics than any virtually any other site. And if you care to post a response, please put your name to it.

Gary R. Welsh said...

If you want to attack me, have at it, but if you can't put your name to your personal attacks on me, your comments will not be published.

Anonymous said...

As the initial source for Gary's post (I had no idea he'd post it, but didn't care), I can tell you: multiple committeemen (more than a couple, one also a ward chair) have been told the same thing in the last 24 hours. From very credible sources.

Now, none of those sources said they'd support such a move. Or that Monroe lived in the right district, in any of his houses. But it started with a credible person and moved around.

The phones are hot right now--as Congressional candidates call committeepersons for support. That can, of course, lead to mass speculation about a number of persons.

The Democratic Congressional Special Election Caucus is five and a half days away. You're going to hear many, many more political rumors over the next few days. Most of them will be true, if only for awhile. It's a fast-changing landscape.

I'm waiting with baited breath for Carolene Mays to make any calls to anyone--she seems to be running a stealth campaign. We'll see if she shows up to tomorrow evening's impromptu GLBT committeemen session at the firefighters union hall. Should be real interesting.

Relax, folks...even when I disagree with Gary, he doesn't ever post known lies. This isn't IndyU, after all.
In a week it'll all be over.

Anonymous said...

Gary: You know now that you ran the post without checking out some facts. I am just asking that you go back to the original post and explain that Monroe does not live in that district and he could not run for this state rep. seat and that your democrat source was wrong or had bad information. I know that you went back to include the name of Adam Nelson which was not in the original post.

Anonymous said...

No personal attacks were made. Just an observation.

Your post about Monroe is fatally factual flawed. (that is an alliteration for those scoring at home).

I know that you are used to just pointing out the mistakes of others. Sometime you have to do that with yourself, Gary.

Do the right thing and either pull down the Monroe story or say that you were wrong.

Your credibility is riding on it.

Gary R. Welsh said...

There will be no retraction on my part because no part of it is factually inaccurate. I reported what an impecably reliable source heard first-hand from several persons. My post never stated Gray lives in the district. You get over it, anon 11:13.

Gary R. Welsh said...

I should add that Wilson Allen has been logged into this post for quite some time now. He's had a busy day trashing Randle Pollard today. Have you got the call from Andre yet, Wilson, to let up. You aren't helping his cause. As I understand it, his precinct count actually fell during the day. Keep up the good work.

Wilson46201 said...

I have posted absolutely NOTHING against Randle Pollard. You are just making stuff up again. Do you enjoy misleading your readers? Are you so hate-filled against all the Carsons?

I certainly have been reading with amusement the discussion of other candidates but I have posted absolutely NOTHING against any of them.

GARY LIES

(how 'bout them apples?)

Anonymous said...
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Gary R. Welsh said...

Wilson, you always have to stink up the place. Yes, comment moderation is now turned on.

Wilson46201 said...

It's also very curious that Gary would imagine that Gary would have any access to the vote-counting by André Carson --- as you know, in politics that's a closely held secret at this part of the process...

Anonymous said...

According to the State GIS mapping program on IN.gov, Gray's "declared" address of 4822 Seville Dr, 46228 is in House District 99.

Anonymous said...

Gary: Thanks for the correction to the original post.

Anonymous said...

Gary,

I am curious if the residency requirements are the same for a caucus selection following a state legislative resignation as they are for a November general election. I don't have any idea. Do you?

indyernie said...

"Have you got the call from Andre yet, Wilson, to let up. You aren't helping his cause."

How about it Wilson. You haven't answered Gary's question.
Andre got your tongue?

Anonymous said...

I think that you have the Ed Mahern and Jon Elrod thing backward. It was Elrod who is rumored to not live in that House District.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Erin, yes, the residency requirements are supposed to be the same.

Jon Elrod owns two houses. One is in his House district, and the other is just outside it. He has stated previously on this blog he lives at the one inside his House district, which is where he announced his candidacy for Congress in the presence of many reporters.

People were on the phones working committeepersons all day yesterday, Wilson, they learn more information than you care to know.

Anonymous said...

this site has an impeccable record for veracity of information as well as having a story well in advance of any other source.

gray has a history of doing shady things to get what he wants and not believing that rules apply to him. does the law say you have to own in the district? no. just reside. i have a feeling a change of location to a rental in the 40th/boulevard area could occur.

having studied the district a little further, this one looks extremely competitive if not likely to go republican in the next election. the district includes a part of hamilton county that is growing as well as northern marion county precincts that went strongly republican in the november election. it was close in david o's first run and, with a motivated electorate, it will be again.

Anonymous said...

Jon Elrod does not now and never has lived in the 97th house district. Owning a house in a district does not make you a resident....the house that Elrod "claims" to live in is not fit for humans or animals....it needs to be renovated or torn down if it is too far in disrepair........

Wilson46201 said...

I find it most peculiar the silence from the Republicans about their race for the caucus/convention for the 7th District? Isn't anybody over there interested in being thrown under the bus for the sake of their party?

Anonymous said...

Ruth.. Bloggers ALWAYS scoop the media!
The media is so lame in thic city, it's a disgrace to call them media!
They only report what they think will destroy a (R), while the (D)'s get away with murder.

Anonymous said...

Wilson,

Just go AWAY!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wilson wrote:
"I find it most peculiar the silence from the Republicans about their race for the caucus/convention for the 7th District? "

Perhaps they don't want to blab all over the blogs like some Democrats. Who knows? Perhaps they aren't wanting to share that information just yet?

AR

Anonymous said...

Wilson the dumpster diver only wants to begin trashing Republicans before their caucus.

He should concentrate on the Dems candidates and stay out of the Republicans selection process.