Star Editorial Board Sides With Voters

The Star's Editorial Board has come down on the side of the voters and calls on the Election Board and Voter Registration to open voter lists to unslated candidates.

These candidates are legally on the ballot.

The voter lists are public documents.

But the Voter Registration Office is run by the county party chairmen - even though the taxpayers foot the bill.  These men are extreme partisans, to the point where even democracy is less important than the unbridled power they wield.  Slating is a farce and worse.  None the less, one does not need to go through slating in order to put their name on the ballot.  In fact, only Marion County and perhaps Lake County in Indiana even have slating.

Those who give voters a choice in the primary are feared by the party chairmen precisely because they provide a choice for the voters.   So, they put as many hurdles in front of those defenders of democracy as possible - including delaying or  outright denying voter list so these candidates can get their message out.

Running for Judge are Republican Paul Ogden and Democrats Greg Bowes and Mark King.  Democrats running for State Rep are Brian Cooper in District 92 and Zach Mullholland in District 100.

All have filed a lawsuit against the Election Board in an attempt to remedy this problem for all of us here in Marion County - the last bastion of Boss Hog politics.  The case is to be heard tomorrow in Judge Rosenberg's Court.

Ed Treacy - What An Embarassment

Despite Kyle Walker’s plaintive wailings, Mayor Greg Ballard isn’t cut out for the job of leading our city. At each public appearance, he shows more of his blubbering ways.

Thus begins the latest press release from Marion County's Democratic Party Chairman, Ed Treacy. Surely the first draft was scratched out with a crayon.

Here's a couple more snippets from other press releases sent out by the Party in recent days, where Treacy has decided to try to brand opponents with the Tea Party label:

With just 34 days until the 2011 Municipal Election, Mayor Greg Ballard, the first Tea Party candidate, is quickly losing steam and getting sloppy.

I'm sure Ballard's connection with the Tea Party caught both him and that group by surprise - much less his elevation at being their first candidate. But, Treacy is not one to let facts get in between him and his 'political strategy'.

and

At the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum just days ago, incumbent Republican Councilor At-Large Barbara Malone announced the Republican Party’s support for the consolidation of all school districts in Marion County, including Speedway and Beech Grove.

A Tea Party Republican, a leader within the conservative Republican caucus and the sole sponsor of the unpopular 50-year parking deal, Barbara Malone has exercised significant influence within the Republican ranks. This newest proposal, which has no resistance from her fellow Republican candidates, continues to highlight the extraordinary disconnect between Tea Party Republicans and the educational challenges facing the city of Indianapolis and its students.

The headline for this press release was "Making IPS Only Public School District in County Will Be Priority for Republican Council".  Did Malone say "I think we should look at consolidating the school systems in this particular County"?  Yes, she did.  Was she the Councillor who is the named sponsor of the parking meter concession ordianance?  Yes, but it seems like a brain fart caused that fact to be included in that paragraph.  The rest is fantasy and fabrication on Treacy's part. 

Earth to Treacy - the Council is not the school board. The only authority they have is tangential to the charter schools; schools that Treacy supported under Peterson, but now wants to bash under Ballard. There is no continuity of thought, no guiding principles of importance - only trying to score with ill humored name calling.

Treacy's hyperbole harms the Democratic party and any credibility it can have on the important issues affecting our City, much less on any solutions to be offered. His juvenile rantings reflect on the rest of us. Little wonder that the press only calls on Treacy when they want some vitriolic outgassing for the news.

Uh-Oh --- No Slam Dunk For Precinct Committeemen

Well, there seems to be a lot of Democratic panties in a bunch over contested Precinct Committeemen (PC) elections this year. The blame has been lavished upon Brian Williams, announced candidate for Mayor in 2011. Seems Williams brought a stack of PC candidate forms into the Election Board on Friday, just before the noon filing deadline. The 'Behind Closed Doors' column in the Sunday Star said he brought in 200 forms. The word Friday night was 175. All agree they are his supporters. The Star reports that there are 590 total precincts in the County.

So, I looked over the spreadsheet posted on the Election Board website to see what I could see. I filtered and sorted the data and I found that overall, 216 PC slots are uncontested and 152 are contested. 47 of the contested slots have more than two candidates. 08-002 and WAS-050 each have 6 folks running.

Looking at the data from the perspective of when the slots became contested, 47 were contested before Williams dropped his stack on the 19th. And, 23 of the 105 that became contested on the 19th have more than 2 candidates. Now if we think Williams is a smart man, which I do, then I have to guess that he didn't submit more than two candidates for any one PC slot.

Here's how I see the numbers. Roughly a third of all contested PC races were contested prior to Williams showing up in the Election Office. Also, a third of all contested PC races have more than two candidates. This suggests to me, either another agency promoting their own set of PC candidates have been at work, or there is a goodly amount of widespread dissatisfaction with who is in those slots now.

In my opinion, it would be good for the party to see if there is anything it needs to fix before it hoists all manner of derision on Williams.

Lets be frank here. The County Democratic Party was marching in a line to anoint Melina Kennedy as its candidate. Williams actions suggest he wasn't content to go to slating with PCs selected by the 'system'.

Every time I say that slating must go, I am rebutted with the claim that the PCs know the candidates best. Now I am hearing folks that I respect, say that they won't vote for Williams - not because his ideas for Indianapolis are bad - but because he bucked the system. The preservation of the system should not be the goal. We have lost a lot of good people from the Marion County Democratic Party 'system' because those in a position to make changes have not wanted to do so. That is a crying shame.

In any case, here are the numbers Township by Township (I don't know how many precincts in each township, so be aware that these are only the ones for which a person put their name in as a candidate) --

Center (I believe old city limits actually) - 76 uncontested -- 70 contested
Decatur - 6 uncontested -- 4 contested
Franklin - 9 uncontested -- 3 contested
Lawrence - 18 uncontested -- 19 contested
Perry - 18 uncontested -- 8 contested
Pike - 21 uncontested -- 12 contested
Warren - 13 uncontested -- 11 contested
Washington - 34 uncontested -- 15 contested
Wayne - 20 uncontested -- 10 contested