In a an editorial endorsing incumbent Sen. Teresa Lubbers today, the Star notes Democrat Todd DeGroff's "severe illness" and only evaluates Lubbers and Libertarian Steve Keltner in the race. The Star editorial has kind things to say about Keltner but chooses Lubbers over him. "He's developed thoughtful, reasoned proposals on health care, education and taxes," the editorial says of Keltner. The Star dubs Lubbers as one of the General Assembly's "leading lights" because of her work on education issues.
Advance Indiana noted in a post last week that DeGroff had been unable to campaign for the senate seat because of his health problems and urged Democrats to be more forthcoming about the issue because of the problems voters in the 7th District and Senate District 33 confronted when U.S. Rep. Julia Carson and Sen. Glenn Howard became unable to perform their jobs because of terminal health problems. Senate Democratic spokesman Russell Bennett acknowledged in a comment posted on this blog that DeGroff had been hospitalized with health problems and was a candidate for a heart transplant, but he assured voters DeGroff would be able to serve if elected. DeGroff did not respond to the post.
The Star also endorsed Senate incumbents Jean Breaux and Greg Taylor, who are running unopposed, Sen. Pat Miller over attorney Ken Kern, and Sen. Mike Young over Michael Cesnik. The Star endorsed Democratic challenger Terry Rice over Sen. Brent Waltz.
Just to clarify: I never confirmed that he was a candidate for a heart transplant, I said that the rumors range anywhere from an infection to a transplant. In fact, my original quote was:
ReplyDelete"I don't know why Todd is in the hospital right now, we've heard different stories ranging from an infection to a transplant. However, I do know what his overall health condition is and I have every confidence that it would not stop him from being able to serve in the Senate if elected."
Just wanted to clarify that point. Thanks!
Something else I forgot to mention: The reason that the Star knows that Todd has a "severe illness" is because I informed them of it several month ago. In setting up the editorial board interviews for the Star, I informed them of DeGroff's condition. Regardless of his condition, Todd showed up for the interview, and from the fact that you never saw a story in the Star about his illness indicates that even after meeting with him they had no concerns about his ability to hold office.
ReplyDeleteThank you for helping to get this out into the public eye, Gary.
ReplyDeleteTo add more insult on top of injury, Russell Bennett (the democrat spokesperson)is over on the HFFT blog trying to intimidate me. Today he slandered me and said I am "a washed up prostitute".
I thought something was only slander if it was untrue...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Steve Keltner was at the Washington Township early vote center reading the editorial to voters. I felt bad for him.
Do the democrats really care about DeGroff's health? The compassionate thing to do would be to with draw him because even if he does win, a term in the state legislature couldn't be good for the guy's heart. Isn't he suffering enough?
ReplyDeleteThe real reason they are running DeGroff is to force Lubbers to spend money to defend her seat against this poor man they are running.
It is shameful how the democrats are using the taxpayers to play petty politics.
Thank you Vox, you beat me to my point.
ReplyDeleteExactly how is giving the voters a choice in this election a bad thing? And seeing as how the taxpayers don't pay for campaigns, they aren't being used for any petty games. It's called politics, people run against each other, it's pretty much a building block of Democracy.
ReplyDeleteVox, It is comments like this that forced David Orentlicher to distance himself from you. Russell, I'm surprised you still have a job after the comments you posted in response to DeGroff's health issues. "Regardless of his condition, Todd showed up for the interview, and from the fact that you never saw a story in the Star about his illness indicates that even after meeting with him they had no concerns about his ability to hold office," you wrote. Did it not occur to you that the editors reached the opposite conclusion after meeting with DeGroff? As for their decision not to report on his health problems, it is journalistic malpractice. The Star also had plenty of sources that told them Carson was dying of a terminal illness during her last campaign, but Mary Beth Schneider, Tully, et al. decided the voters didn't need to know about it. As a consequence, we were without a representative for close to a year and we got stuck with a backroom, deal-making caucus which stacked the deck for the unqualified grandson who finished 88th out of 89th in his police academy class.
ReplyDeleteWhere did he distance himself from me? I didn't realize we were close to begin with lol
ReplyDeleteRussell, Ask Barack Obama that question. Why did he endeavor to have every single one of his black opponents removed from the ballot in his first run for the state senate so he could run unopposed? In his first real campaign, Bobby Rush crushed him by a better than two to one margin. He couldn't win fairly so when he ran for the Senate, he dug up divorce records on the leading Democratic candidate to destroy his campaign. He did the same thing to his Republican opponent in the general election, forcing him to drop out of the race. He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, but he stole caucus vote after caucus vote using his old Chicago-style political tricks to win the nomination. Yep, That's change I can believe in.
ReplyDeleteGary:
ReplyDeleteI don't lose my job by telling Republicans to piss off, I actually keep my job by doing so.
You know as well as I do that if the Star had any reason to believe that DeGroff's medical condition would disqualify him from office, then they would have used it in their endorsements info. The fact is, no one gives two hoots about it because it is a non-issue. You tried to make a big issue out of it, no one took the bait, and now you know that the people you wanted to look into already knew about it and didn't think it was an issue. If it's that big of a deal to you, buy a press, some barrels of ink, and start your own paper.
I also forgot to mention that I got a call today from one of Melyssa's honcho's who works for "the national media" to tell me they would be doing a report on professionalism at work. I am so scared, I don't know what to do! I mean, it's the "NATIONAL MEDIA" that's coming after me! Shreek, yell, run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteRussell, I don't think you have to worry about national media. They've got their hands full with Obama supporters illegally registering voters and brutalizing young women for exercising their right to free speech.
ReplyDelete.