Saturday, December 17, 2011

John Gregg Fails First Test Of Leadership

John Gregg wants to be Indiana's next governor, but he's having trouble leading his own political party. This week, Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker, a Bayh appointee, announced he was stepping down from his post ahead of next year's election. Gregg immediately put out the word that he wanted his former chief of staff from his days as House Speaker, Tim Jeffers, to lead the party. Jeffers' candidacy immediately met with resistance from party leaders in the state's largest counties, Marion and Lake. Jeffers dropped out of the race Thursday, leaving a contest between a Marion Co. political operative backed by Ed Treacy, Joel Miller, and attorney Sara Reardon of Indianapolis, who reportedly had Gregg's support. When the party's state committee met to choose its new chairman today, a circular firing squad broke out. Rather than take the chance on Miller winning the post, Parker withdrew his resignation and received the support of a majority of the state committee to continue in his role through next year's election. It certainly doesn't bode well for Gregg's leadership that he couldn't convince the state party to name his choice to run the party, and that he's stuck with a person who obviously would prefer doing something else than serve as the party's chairman.

3 comments:

  1. Parker is a loser. He is a Bayh lackey who is as spineless as Bayh. I hope the candidates can do it on their own as the state committee has been neutered.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe John Gregg will rethink about doing this run. Did he not retire to spend more time with his family?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like Ed Treacy thinks he has as much right to name a state party chairman as does the lead Democrat in the state. Hmmm...

    I'd keep Parker over Miller, too, although Reardon would be interesting. Her brother would be a much better pick overall, not having been tainted by too much exposure to Treacy and his uber-controlling ways.

    ReplyDelete