U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett will be joining an Indianapolis law firm with a very large lobbying presence at the Indiana State House and the Indianapolis City-County Building. WISH-TV reports that Hogsett is set to join the litigation practice group at Bose McKinney & Evans when he steps down as U.S. Attorney at the end of this month. He will supposedly focus his practice on internal investigations and corporate audits. Hogsett was a partner in the labor practice group at the Bingham Greenebaum Doll before he became U.S. Attorney in 2010. Hogsett, a former Indiana Secretary of State, is expected to make a run for Indianapolis mayor next year so a law firm job is a natural step for him. He can spend as much time as he pleases campaigning for mayor, while drawing a large salary and having ready access to the law firm's influence peddling operation to raise a lot of money for his campaign. And people wonder why he refused to prosecute the rampant public corruption taking place right under his nose the past four years.
Former Indiana governor and U.S. Senator Evan Bayh followed a similar path. Hogsett worked for Bayh when he was Indiana Secretary of State. Bayh worked at the same law firm where Hogsett was later a partner before he became Indiana Secretary of State and then later Governor. Bayh then went to work as a partner at Baker & Daniels for a brief two-year period while he was running for the U.S. Senate after he left the governor's office. Bayh reportedly earned about $1 million working for the firm while he devoted most of his time campaigning and raising money for his Senate bid. Baker & Daniels, of course, has a lobbying arm in Washington that lobbies Congress and executive branch agencies. Bayh now works for a D.C. law firm, an international consulting firm, and he and his wife have both served on numerous corporate boards that have made the couple multi-millionaires. No, they don't work for us when they hold public office.
Man, you got that right!: "No, they don't work for us when they hold public office." I learned this lesson up close and personal in the deep swamp of Marion County politics. What I saw and learned about political self-interest-the taxpayer be damned- is endemic to both political parties.
ReplyDeleteA current (and previous) governor's office staff member suggested I read Rex Early's "Mighty Thin Pancake" booklet which led me to Dick Cady's "Deadline: Indianapolis" and that detail-packed tome helped fill in all the blanks of the how crooks (then and now) run and loot this town.
The Democrats will win the mayor's office this next election because (1) Hogsett is not Ballard [a HUGE advantage in and of itself], (2) Hogsett is the hip looking, urbane appearing, kinda youthful, and warm-ish personality Ballard could never, ever play, and (3) Hogsett is everything Melina Kennedy was not in a mayoral candidate. (I don't think the law firm owners were ever whole-heartedly all-in behind her efforts and campaign.)
The law firm guys must be drooling uncontrollably at the prospect of having one of their own in the form of a finished and smooth cool cat such as Hogsett as the next Mayor of Indianapolis.
And of Delaney..and contacts...Waiting and watching why so many Federal investigations of late...Boone County,,Marion, Fishers, Carmel, Zionsville, Indy..and not those local prosecutors...
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