Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Quick Take On Marion County Primary Election Results: Don't Buck The Slate

The first rule is not to buck the party slate. Non-slated Democratic judicial candidates fared poorly in yesterday's Marion County Democratic primary race for the superior court. The same held true in races for the county sheriff's race where John Layton outdistanced challenger Mark Brown despite an abysmal record of gross-overspending, replete with the hiring of dozens of useless political hacks who do nothing but draw a paycheck and the witnessing of at least a dozen of his badged officers being arrested for criminal acts over the past year. Center Township Small Claims Court Judge Michelle Scott's successful legal battle to prevent Township Trustee Eugene Akers from moving her court to the Julia Carson Government Center proved to be a Pyrrhic victory. The Center Township Democratic machine handed it to her when their backed candidate, Brenda Roper, defeated her by a nearly 2-1 margin. Former Wayne Township Trustee David Baird's attempt to make a comeback was met with a brick wall. He fell to the slated candidate, Renee Pack, by a more than 2-1 margin.

In the only contested Republican countywide race, slated candidate Christine Bischoff trounced Jocelyn Tandy-Adande. The county party sent out an extremely negative hit piece to Republican voters on Tandy-Adande, hitting her for her past affiliation and work for the Democratic Party and some of its candidates. Tandy-Adande also complained that the GOP refused to let her buy a ticket it to its annual fundraising dinner prior to the primary. A spokesman told her that the event was reserved for those people backing the party-supported candidates. Unslated Perry Township Trustee Daniel Moriarty lost to slated candidate, Susie Day, by a 55-45% margin. On a lighter note, City-County Councilor Jefferson Shreve, the guy from Bloomington appointed to Jeff Cardwell's seat, finished dead last in a race for state convention delegate. It's good to see you folks down in Perry Township are reading this blog. Now let the party know that you want one of your own, not some guy from Bloomington, representing you on the council, preferably one who doesn't vote for every tax increase and public giveaway touted by the downtown mafia.

JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
          Vote For Not More Than  8
              (WITH 600 OF 600 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           GREG BOWES .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     8,549    5.12
           ANNIE CHRIST-GARCIA .  .  .  .  18,774   11.25
           BARBARA COOK CRAWFORD  19,773   11.85
           ANGELA DAVIS  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    20,241   12.13
           DAVID J. DREYER  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,227    9.72
           SHATRESE M. FLOWERS .  .  .    17,414   10.44
           DAVID R. HENNESSY.  .  .  .  .  .   10,059    6.03
           CHRISTINA R. KLINEMAN  .  .    16,602    9.95
           JAMES B. OSBORN  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   15,512    9.30
           MARCEL A. PRATT, JR..  .  .  .  .  18,033   10.81
           CHRISTOPHER K. STARKEY .  .    5,695    3.41

MARION COUNTY SHERIFF
          Vote For Not More Than  1
              (WITH 600 OF 600 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           MARK BROWN .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    9,627   35.91
           JOHN R. LAYTON.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  17,183   64.09

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE WAYNE TOWNSHIP
          Vote For Not More Than  1
              (WITH 89 OF 89 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           DAVID KING BAIRD .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     657   25.03
           RENEE PACK .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         1,601   60.99
           DOUGLAS WHITE .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       367   13.98

JUDGE OF THE SMALL CLAIMS COURT CENTER TOWNSHIP
          Vote For Not More Than  1
              (WITH 104 OF 104 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           BRENDA A. ROPER  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    3,415   63.53
           MICHELLE SMITH SCOTT.  .  .  .  .  .1,960   36.47

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE WAYNE TOWNSHIP
          Vote For Not More Than  1
              (WITH 89 OF 89 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           DAVID KING BAIRD .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      657   25.03
           RENEE PACK .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          1,601   60.99
           DOUGLAS WHITE .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       367   13.98

MARION COUNTY CLERK
          Vote For Not More Than  1
              (WITH 600 OF 600 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           JOCELYN-TANDY ADANDE.  .  .  .  . 3,085   15.07
           CHRISTINE BISCHOFF  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   7,382   84.93

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE PERRY TOWNSHIP
          Vote For Not More Than  1
              (WITH 61 OF 61 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           SUSIE DAY  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .              2,241   55.50
           DANIEL T. MORIARTY  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  1,797   44.50

Delegate to the 2014 Republican State Co DISTRICT 7:5-1
          Vote For Not More Than  4
              (WITH 14 OF 14 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           JOEY FOX.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .                 317   17.33
           JIM GRIMES .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .               332   18.15
           ERIN K. SHERIDAN .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        343   18.75
           JEFFERSON SHREVE .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     238   13.01
           ANDREW CLIFTON STEPHENS.  .  .  .283   15.47
           JEREMIAH STUMP.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       316   17.28

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did anyone vote in this outside of vested party interests?

As fewer people identify with the established parties and are willing to formally pledge support to either party, these primaries seem to be anachronistic.

Paul K. Ogden said...

My research has consistently shown that the lower the turnout the better the party slate performs. In order to have a shot at beating the slate, you really need a large turnout.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why Smith-Scott wasn't slated again (although I assume it was due to the location suit), but it's no great loss to have her removed. I hope Judge-elect Roper does a better job.

local landlord said...

Center Township Judge Michelle Smith Scott was a very good Judge with a very good personality. She gave every person who appeared in her Courtroom an opportunity to tell their side of the story and I always found her to be respectful to every person in her Courtroom. That alone is a breath of fresh air, because as a landlord who appears in several Courts, I can tell you that we have some Judges who should not be sitting on the bench. But Judge Scott was well liked, I always got my properties back in timely fashion, and I always told my tenants they could tell their entire side to Judge Scott and she would listen to them, that she was fair. I’m sorry to see her go. I didn’t get to vote in that race because I don’t live in Center Township, and I imagine there must be many landlords of properties in Center Township who appeared in that Court who liked Judge Scott but weren’t able to vote for her. She will be missed. And I hope that some visionary will try to put her extraordinary people skills to work for Indianapolis in some larger capacity. Its really hard to imagine that Courtroom without Judge Scott. If this was retribution by the party for her wise decision to fight that move of her Courtroom to the Center Township Trustee building on Mass. Avenue, she was quite right; that would have been an awful location and everyone with any lick of sense knew that was a politically motivated attempt to force a bad decision on her and swipe her budget out from under her. Whoever is really responsible should be ashamed of themselves, but Judge Scott has no choice but to object to that blatant hijacking. This business of throwing out a good, honest Judge for political retribution is an ugly business. If we end up with a bad Judge as her replacement I will talk about it out loud for a long time to come.

Anonymous said...

Greg Bowes loses again. He was a terrible Assessor. And then he ruined his run for Prosecutor by accepting a big donation from a strip club even though Lincoln Plowman just got plowed for associating with strip club guys. And then he thought he would make a good Superior Court Judge, but he was wrong, really, really wrong. There are still thousands of people waiting to have their appeals of his outrageous property tax assessments heard. At one point there were 12,000 backlogged appeals, and people were having their homes foreclosed on because their mortgages were resetting because of doubling property taxes based on his shockingly bad assessments. The public will never forgive this. Never. Bowes is damaged goods in this County.