While they say that negative ads are used because they work, results from yesterday's elections are suggestive of a different paradigm. Yesterday there was some backlash on the Melina Kennedy campaign because of race baiting tactics undoubtedly initiated by Ed Treacy, Chairman of the Democratic County Party, but likely signed off on by Kennedy herself.
Treacy engaged in a laundry list of gutter politics and attempted intimidation. He is a stain upon the Party and the good people in it.
Up in the northside, Christine Scales appears to have won reelection as District 4 Councillor, defeating the the enormously funded Kostas Poulakidas by all of 39 votes. One of the mysteries of this campaign season is why the Star remained silent about the postcard smear tactics used by the Poulakidas' side against Scales. Well, at least they will be following what anyone would expect now - a recount.
So, for this time at least, nasty politics did not determine the ultimate outcome. That is a good thing.
The Council and the Mayor are of different political persuasions for the next four years. Facts are, beyond the political posturing for impact's sake, there is not a huge difference between the 'sides' and there is much room for amicable relations - if hatchets can be buried, politics removed for a while, and clear heads prevail. Another thing is, there is not much wiggle room to finance any modest, much less grandiose, 'visions'. The budget I saw passed by the Council for 2012 is likely too 'small' to actually do all the things that were promised, much less accommodate many additional services.
But, at the end of the day, two honest perspectives offered without hidden agendas can often lead to improved outcomes. Let us hope that the Council and the Mayor can find their way to move in that direction and lay the best foundation for Indianapolis' future.
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It's encouraging & refreshing to read your thoughts- emphasis on thinking. Your logic is clean & straightforward. Thank you.
The reason she lost was simple, she did NOT have a plan, period. She kept on saying IMPD supported her, Really? When she stood with Bart Peterson's plan to hand over his duties as mayor to police our city to Sheriff Anderson, remember that? Reminds me of that ol' song "Stand by your man".The police officers and deputies did not support Bart nor Frank Anderson on this move. The new mayor came in took back the police department from the sheriff, cut taxes, and spending. People DON'T FORGET why Ballard was elected in the first place.
I think Pat hit the nail on the head with regard to the race card-playing of Ed Treacy and Melina's stammering, evasive response when the media asked her straight-up if she approved of Treacy's racism ads against Ballard. I also overheard a good deal of talk when Melina glowingly accepted $25,000 from NYC Mayor Bloomberg, and then started bashing Ballard because he wouldn't 'join' 600 other mayors on eliminating illegal guns. Anyone who knows Bloomberg and those 600 other mayors knows that an "illegal" gun to them is a gun in the possession of anyone other than the military and police. Melina should have known that Bloomberg-style gun control won't fly here. I suppose it all turned out for the best, though. In retrospect, who wants a mayor who takes her marching orders from the likes of Ed Treacy? He handed the win to Ballard with his brainy tactics.
Recount? Recount?
A new opportunity for theft?
A "different paradigm"? Ridiculous. Politicians have been savaging each other since before Roman times. I doubt that Indianapolis is the harbinger of a new Homo politicus.
Mencken, the most astute and honest political observer, observed:
"In a democracy, each party devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed and are right."
G. Washington noted, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force." Why would the people who control it be any different?
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