Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Scales Beats Back Corrupt Marion County Republican Party


The corrupt Marion Co. Republican Party fell short in its efforts to oust the most conscientious and hard-working Republican member of the City-County Council. Despite a barrage of false and negative mailers the party dumped into the District 3 City-County Council race in the final days of the campaign, Christine Scales defeated the slated Republican candidate, Tim Craft, by 110 votes, or a 54%-46% margin. The 839 votes Scales garnered was still more than the 784 votes her fall Democratic opponent, Pamela Hickman, captured in the Democratic Party primary running unopposed.

Unfortunately, Democratic incumbent Councilor Angela Mansfield was unable to turn back a challenge from At-Large Councilor Leroy Robinson in District 1, who only moved into her district last September. Robinson beat Mansfield by a 26-vote margin. Robinson's campaign was bankrolled by lobbyists for the billboard industry who offered large sums of cash to the Marion Co. Democratic Party to slate Robinson over Mansfield. The slated Democratic mayoral candidate, Joe Hogsett, also supported Robinson over Mansfield.

The countywide turnout in Marion County was abysmal. With over 95% of the votes counted, fewer than 50,000 votes appeared to be cast in the primary election, less than 8% of the registered voters. That's well below the nearly 75,000 who cast votes in the 2011 municipal primary election when only about 12.5% of the voters participated in the election. As expected, both party's slated candidates for mayor easily won their respective primaries. Democrat Joe Hogsett captured about 89% of the vote over his lone opponent, Larry Vaughn, while Republican Chuck Brewer captured 76% of the vote over his four primary opponents. Jocelyn-Tandy Adande captured about 10% of the vote in the Republican mayoral primary followed by Terry Michael, who captured about 7% of the vote. About 56% of the people who voted in today's primary took a Democratic ballot compared to the 40% share represented by voters who cast votes in the Republican primary. Voters in Beech Grove, Perry and Wayne Townships all voted in favor of property tax increases for their respective school districts, which will result in substantially higher tax bills for property owners in those school districts well in excess of the now meaningless constitutional caps.

The borrow and spend madness in Hamilton County will continue unabated. All of the RINO mayors easily won re-election, including Carmel's James Brainard and Westfield's Andy Cook. Cook's opponent, Jeff Harpe, ran one of the most incompetent campaigns this year. For whatever reason, he chose not to use the most explosive issues that would have ensured Cook's defeat in the election. He either didn't want to win too bad, or he just had the worst campaign manager advising him. Other incumbent mayors weren't as fortunate. Unless federal prosecutors start prosecuting public corruption happening in plain sight in these communities, the residents of Hamilton County are going to pay dearly for the irresponsible spending by these communities' mayors to reward their political cronies and campaign contributors. Hamilton County is rapidly moving in the direction of DuPage County, Illinois, the once overwhelmingly Republican suburban county in the Chicago area that has now become fertile ground for Democrats to win elections. Incumbents mayors lost in Columbus, Martinsville and Lebanon. Voters in Brownsburg rejected an astronomical property tax increase sought by the school district that might have shut down development in this growing suburban community.

13 comments:

Greg Wright said...

Congratulations Christine.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations To Christine Scales in her victory against the utterly corrupt Marion County GOP machine. It is pleasing to know we have one Republican on the Council who is above reproach.

Also thanks to Jocelyn-Tandy Adande for the courage to stand up to the corrupt attorneys who are doing their best to turn Indianapolis into a debt-ridden suburb of South Detroit. I've never been so proud to cast a vote for Mayor of Indianapolis as I was today when I opted for Jocelyn.

Nick said...

A sad day when a hardworking councillor like Angela Mansfield is booted for the likes of LeRoy Robinson.

Given the election results in Indianapolis and the surrounding counties (Brainard, really?), I'm glad I no longer live in Indiana.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

It's a sad day in Carmel. Not only did the RINO mayor win, but his slate on the council took over incumbents that were his only check and balance. Scary and depressing. I'm glad Scales was a good guy who won.

Sir Hailstone said...

When Jim Brainard completes this term, he'll have served longer than old man Daley and he'll tie Daley the younger in mayoral terms. Ponder this for a second - Kids born and raised in Carmel since Jim Brainard took office are now eligible to vote for him.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Christine Scales for Mayor!!!

She has the skill, ability, and integrity to do it right. I wish to nominate her as a write-in candidate for Mayor!

LamLawIndy said...

So if there's a 12-12 tie after November now that the at-large seats are gone and Scales wins, Scales has the tie-breaking vote. The Dem caucus could vote for Scales for Council President in exchange for committee chairmanships. This just gets more interesting by the day...

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Councilor Scales for winning.

I heard of anecdotal evidence that there were numerous people that crossed over to the Republican primary in District 3 to vote for Councilor Scales, whom likely will come back home in November to the Democratic side.

So I wouldn't read to much into the raw vote numbers for council in District 3. I also know of many people whom if a race is unchallenged don't bother to fill in the oval of the unopposed candidate.

Flogger said...

This may be my first election where I do not vote. I may just vote Libertarian if I do at all.
I suspect the turn out is going to low. I do not believe Brewer vs Smoking Joe Hogsett is going to bring people out to vote.

Anonymous said...

Flogger, The Libertarians are no better. I think the better thing is to vote only for individuals in either party known for honesty. Just skip voting in the rest of the races. If you cannot find an honest candidate, put your ballot in the machine unmarked.

Anonymous said...

As an "R", I walked in, picked up a "D" ballot, voted for Angela and was going to walk out. Then I saw Larry Vaughn's name and had to fill in that little circle too.

Sad that other "R's" didn't do the same thing since they didn't bother to put up anyone up for our district. Guess District 1 doesn't matter.

Congrats to Christine!