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NO FARM BUREAU ENDORSEMENT FOR GOV: Indiana Farm Bureau ELECT, the political action committee affiliated with Indiana Farm Bureau, the state¹s largest general farm organization, has decided to it will not endorse a candidate for Indiana governor this year (Howey Politics Indiana). 
Meeting in conjunction with Farm Bureau¹s annual policy-setting delegate session, the PAC¹s state committee of trustees considered both major party gubernatorial tickets. The state committee of trustees consists of the presidents of the 92 county Farm Bureaus in Indiana. A super-majority of two-thirds was needed for the endorsement. “The bar for any candidate to receive our endorsement is extremely high,” said Farm Bureau President Don Villwock. “There were trustees who were impressed with each of the candidates, but in the end, neither received the large number of votes needed for an endorsement. The trustees’ failure to reach this threshold is simply that; it should not be interpreted in any negative manner with respect to either of the candidates.” Villwock’s wife had made an e-mail appeal to support Gov. Mitch Daniels earlier this month.
Democratic National Convention
MEET MRS. OBAMA: Michelle Obama, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago and is poised to become the first African-American First Lady, addressed the Democratic National Convention, attempting to put behind controversial remarks from earlier this year to with the story of her American life (Howey Politics Indiana). On the way, she became the first in the Obama circle to pay tribute to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, thanking her for “those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.” Mrs. Obama talked of her husband’s single mother and her father, who struggled with MS. “Barack doesn’t care where you’re from, or what your background is, or what party - if any - you belong to. That’s not how he sees the world,” she said. “He knows that thread that connects us - our belief in America’s promise, our commitment to our children’s future - is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree.” Barack Obama later appeared on a video screen from Kansas City. “How about Michelle Obama?” he asked. “Now you know why I asked her out so many times even though she said no. You want a persistent president.” Last winter, Mrs. Obama had talked about falling in love with America “for the first time” during her husband’s campaign, comments that conservative talk radio jumped on in painting her as a radical. Last night was about accenting the Obama’s middle class struggles with single parents, grandparents who contributed to the arsenal of democracy, and the couple’s unique journey that landed them at the precipice of power.
CAROLINE, UNCLE TEDDY STEAL SHOW: America’s First Daughter - Caroline Kennedy - paid moving tributes to Barack Obama and her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver (Howey Politics Indiana). “Their stories are very different, but they share a commitment to the timeless American ideals of justice and fairness, service and sacrifice, faith and family,” said Kennedy. “Leaders like them come along rarely. But once or twice in a lifetime, they come along just when we need them the most. I have never had someone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them - but I do now. And I know someone else who’s been inspired all over again by Senator Obama. In our family, he’ll always be known as Uncle Teddy. More than any senator of his generation, or perhaps any generation, Teddy has made life better for people in this country and around the world. For 46 years, he has been so much more than just a Senator for the people of Massachusetts, he’s been a Senator for all who believe in a dream that’s never died.” Kennedy appeared afterwards despite is battle with brain cancer, telling the delegates, “This November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. The work begins anew. The hope rises again and the dream lives on.” Many delegates openly wept after Sen. Kennedy finished speaking.
BOCHNOWSKI TO REPLACE PASTRICK: Robert Pastrick is hanging it up. A fixture in Democratic Party politics for decades, Pastrick will step down from his seat on the Democratic National Committee at the end of the Democratic convention this week (Byrne, Post-Tribune). Speaking after the Indiana delegation’s Monday morning breakfast meeting, the former mayor of East Chicago said it’s appropriate to cede his final party post. “I’m not a mayor anymore, I don’t hold public office,” Pastrick said. “The great thing about serving on the DNC was the opportunity it gave me to provide things for my city and my region. The time has come to step aside and give somebody else an opportunity.” Ann Bochnowski of Munster will take Pastrick’s place when the DNC meets in Denver on Friday. She is a former member of the Indiana Gaming Commission and the wife of David Bochnowski, the president of People’s Bank. The Bochnowskis are longtime Democratic activists and allies of Sen. Evan Bayh and U.S. Rep. Peter J. Visclosky, D-Merrillville. “I’m just here to get my feet wet and learn the ropes,” Bochnowski said at the breakfast Monday. “I’m looking forward to a chance to help the party in Northwest Indiana and across the state.” “This is my retirement, my swan song, so to speak,” said Pastrick on the first day of the 13th Democratic National Convention he has attended. “I probably won’t return to a convention as a delegate.”
MIKE FISHER ENDORSES CONVENTION: Mike Fisher hopes that Sen. Barack Obama will get elected president, and that maybe he’ll have played a small part in making that happen (Indianapolis Star). Fisher, an Amtrak employee from Beech Grove, talked of meeting Obama to the 20,000 delegates at Monday’s opening night of the Democratic National Convention, and to millions more watching across the nation. Obama and his wife, Michelle, came to the Fisher home in April, sharing lunch and family stories. Obama, Fisher told the crowd, told him he wasn’t there to politick, but to listen. Fisher told him of his fears of losing his job; his daughter-in-law’s health insurance problems; and the chances of his son-in-law being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. “Barack and Michelle listened, and they understood. It was like talking to family,” he said, his wife Cheryl at his side. “It became clear they’re regular people.” Now, Fisher said, “Barack Obama is the only person I trust to do the right thing for all of us.” Afterward, a relieved Fishers said he’d been “very nervous, but I was also numb at the same time.”
OBAMA CALLS PARKER: Indiana and Kentucky are likely to play drastically different roles in Democratic presidential politics this year — a point driven home by two events at the party’s national convention (Louisville Courier-Journal). On Sunday, as Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker was headed into a baseball game between the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds, he took a cell-phone call from Barack Obama. Parker was among about 150 top Hoosier Democrats on the conference call with Obama, who reiterated his intention to make Indiana a battleground in the race for the White House. Then, at the Kentucky delegation’s breakfast yesterday, the room featured a cardboard cutout of Obama with a Kentucky Democratic Party sticker on his chest. “We’ve got Senator Obama here,” party Chairwoman Jennifer Moore said to laughter from the delegates. But the cutout may well be the extent of Obama’s presence among Kentuckians during the weeks before the election. Obama’s campaign insists that it is running in 50 states — a familiar promise of past presidential hopefuls in both parties. But not all states are equal, either in terms of electoral votes or opportunity for victory. It is no secret that Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia are among the most-prized of the larger tossup states this year. In another category are states such as Indiana, a dependable GOP stronghold in presidential elections going back to 1968, but perceived by Democrats as winnable this time. That’s what the phone call from Obama to Parker and the other Hoosiers was all about. Parker said the message was that Indiana was very much a battleground state. “He renewed his commitment to the fact that Indiana is in play,” Parker said. “He’s making a big commitment of money and time.”
CLAY, McDERMOTT SAY THEY ARE UNITED BEHIND OBAMA: At a party on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, conventioneers kept recognizing Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. They know McDermott as the man who argued with the mayor of Gary on CNN on primary night while sleepy Democrats wondered if Lake County would ever finish counting votes. “It’s sort of funny (Times of Northwest Indiana). It’s my little claim to fame,” McDermott said. McDermott, who supported U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Mayor Rudy Clay, a backer of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, said they are friends and collaborators in the same Democratic cause. That sentiment matches the upper-case, underlined talking point Democrats want to transmit from Denver: After a bruising primary fight, the party has united. Lake County’s Democrats — months after an uncomfortable moment in the late-night spotlight of impatient TV news pundits — are united behind Obama and U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, Clay said. Clay employed an Olympic metaphor to voice his expectation that Lake County will win Indiana for Obama and Biden. “And when that happens, Indiana will win the gold medal, and that means winning the presidential election here because of the fact that Lake County voted in large, large numbers,” Clay said. Clay said local officials are working to ensure the ballots of those large numbers are more efficiently counted Nov. 4. Other local Democrats suspect the primary fight is reverberating at the convention. Indiana state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said the Indiana delegation’s hotel is as far from the convention site as Gary is from Crown Point. Brown thinks party leaders are punishing Indiana for Clinton’s primary victory.
3 DEM CLANS MIX UNEASILY: Neither family wanted it this way, neither the Kennedys nor the Clintons. But the opening of the Democratic convention on Monday brought a stark contrast: a bittersweet public celebration of the life of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who is suffering from brain cancer, and an embittered private drama about the terms on which the Clintons would yield the party to Senator Barack Obama (Healy, New York Times). Mr. Kennedy, who endorsed Mr. Obama in January, had hoped to lead a hearty, full-throated night of anointing the next generation. Instead, the tribute to him took on the weight of a farewell to the last of the storied Kennedy brothers, with an intensity that rivaled the excitement around Michelle Obama’s speech about the Democrats’ next standard-bearer, her husband. As one political dynasty was celebrating its legacy and ceding the political stage on Monday night, the other dominant family of the Democratic Party was struggling to protect its legacy and accept its own exit from the spotlight. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton had once hoped this convention would be theirs, an exultation of past and future Clinton White Houses. Instead, they were coming face to face with shrunken, supporting roles. Frustrations abounded most pointedly for Mrs. Clinton: at a breakfast with New York Democrats on Monday morning, she was forced to rebut a new television advertisement for Senator John McCain that used her past attacks on Mr. Obama against him. And she faced questions about comments from Clinton friends that Mr. Clinton remained aggrieved from the bruising primary battle and was unhappy with his speaking assignment at the convention. At one point she told aides the Obama campaign could end the bad blood with her husband by simply acknowledging his policy accomplishments and efforts at racial reconciliation in the 1990s — in amends for what the Clintons saw as a lack of respect from Mr. Obama during the primaries. One aide, recounting this conversation on Monday, observed that Mrs. Clinton was in an old role, looking out for her husband while trying to protect her own future. As one Clinton fund-raiser put it in an interview on Monday, “Hillary often says that Bill isn’t a complicated person — the Obama people don’t have to do much to make peace with him.”
NO CREDIBLE THREAT TO OBAMA: Authorities are investigating whether a man arrested with rifles, ammunition and drugs in his truck made statements threatening Barack Obama, but emphasize he never posed a “credible threat” to the candidate or the Democratic National Convention (Associated Press). Federal and local authorities had scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon, but U.S. Attorney Troy Eid downplayed the case. “We’re absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado,” Eid said in a statement.
Presidential
GALLUP HAS RACE TIED: Gallup Daily Tracking as the Obama/McCain race tied at 45%.
OBAMA CANVASSERS HIT MICHIGAN CITY: On a nearly perfect Sunday afternoon, The Campaign for Change dispersed about 60 volunteers through the neighborhoods of Michigan City (Michigan City News-Dispatch). The Campaign for Change is the national campaign for Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Volunteers left literature about other Democratic campaigns as well, including Jill Long Thompson’s run for governor.
EDWARDS SPURNED: John Edwards is burning up the phone lines, begging former aides and backers to forgive him for lying about his affair - but hearing their rage instead (New York Daily News). As Democrats kick off their convention Monday, the onetime presidential contender is a man without a party - or a political future - trying to rebuild bridges through dozens of remorseful phone calls. It’s proving a hard sell with onetime true believers. Many are bitter and disillusioned after swallowing his lies about his affair with a campaign staffer and vouching for his credibility with friends and journalists. Some ignore his plaintive phone entreaties and don’t call back - even when Edwards leaves follow-up messages. A few return his calls - and give him a piece of their angry minds. When Edwards reached one longtime confidant asking for advice, he was cut off with a terse: “I don’t want you to call me again.” The conversation ended abruptly.
Congress
LUGAR OVERSEES GEORGIAN AID DELIVERY: U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar visited Georgia August 23-24. His visit came on the day that the first U.S. Navy ship delivered massive amounts of humanitarian assistance to the Black Sea port of Batumi. Lugar welcomed the arrival of a C-17 military transport plane delivering aiD, met with refugees receiving the first cots, and visited a shelter for families displaced by the Russian incursion into Georgia, At the shelter, Lugar visited the Kapanadze family from the village of Avnevi , South Ossetia. The mother, Marina, and a daughter and son under the age of five have been at the shelter since fleeing the conflict zone on August 9 with a few personal possessions, including a few of the children’s favorite toys. (Howey Politics Indiana)
PENCE TO CONTINUE DRILLING PROTEST: U.S. Rep. Mike Pence will return to Washington on Tuesday to participate in the House floor protest urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow an up or down vote on comprehensive energy legislation that includes domestic oil drilling (Howey Politics Indiana).
Indiana General Assembly
GARY MAY SEEK STATE BAILOUT: State lawmakers from Gary are hoping its $13 million budget shortfall will persuade their colleagues to consider some kind of a bailout for the city (Associated Press). “There’s no better way to show lawmakers from around the state the special circumstances Gary deals with than to ask them to look at the current fiscal situation,” said state Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary. Gary Mayor Rudy Clay estimates the city could be bankrupt by early October without drastic spending cuts. Clay already has ordered the city’s employees to switch to 32-hour work weeks in a money-saving effort. State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said now is the time for local officials to press the case to legislators throughout the state that Gary needs a special dispensation. But he said Clay needs to share more details about the city’s financial situation. Brown said he would like to make the case for the city’s needs, but so far Clay and other city officials have not provided him with the information he needs. “The mayor needs to involve the rest of us,” Brown said.
IMMIGRATION STUDY TO BEGIN: State lawmakers assigned to study illegal immigration hope to deal with facts — not political grandstanding or heated rhetoric — during meetings next month (Associated Press). The summer study committee on immigration issues has scheduled Statehouse meetings Sept. 9 and Sept. 16. The co-chairmen — Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, and Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City — said they may hold other meetings around the state. Pelath said the first meeting will focus on the scope of illegal immigration in Indiana. “We want to find out how many illegal aliens are in our state right now, where they live and what they are doing to earn a living,” Pelath said. The committee is made up of House and Senate members, including Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, who is the only Hispanic member of the House. Also on the panel is Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, who pushed this year for a bill to crack down on companies that employ illegal workers.
RIVER HUNTING BAN EXPLORED: State lawmakers took testimony here Monday on a bill that could regulate hunting along the St. Joseph River (South Bend Tribune). The Indiana General Assembly’s Natural Resources Study Committee is considering a measure introduced last session by state Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka, that would forbid hunting along densely populated rivers in counties with more than 250,000 people. Dense population is defined as three or more people per acre. That would include portions of the St. Joseph River in unincorporated areas of St. Joseph County.
Economy
MONACO TO KEEP ELKHART PLANT OPEN: Recreational vehicle workers Monday saw a silver lining to the cloud of layoffs that has been hovering over the area lately (South Bend Tribune). RV maker Monaco Coach Corp. has decided to keep its chassis-building operation open in Elkhart. The company had announced last month it was closing three factories in northern Indiana’s Elkhart County, eliminating 1,400 jobs, or about a third of its work force nationally. Monaco said Monday that its joint venture with Navistar International Corp. will continue production here. The Coburg, Ore.-based company did not disclose how many people will continue working at the plant. “I think it’s good news,” said Kyle Hannon, vice president of public policy for the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce. “The bottom line is, we have a lot of workers who are ready, willing and able to make things. If Monaco is looking at what they need made, it kind of makes sense (to say), maybe we can send … this work back to Elkhart.”
State
DANIELS TO SURVEY TORNADO DAMAGE: Gov. Mitch Daniels will join Griffith town officials to assess recent tornado damage and check on recovery efforts today (Howey Politics Indiana).
STATE SENDS MORE CHECKS TO SCHOOLS: State officials announced Monday that they are sending 385 rebate checks worth $872,000 to local schools, libraries and other units of government for computer purchases made through the state’s contract with Dell Computers (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). About two dozen entities in northeast Indiana will receive rebates, which were provided because the total state contract reached $10 million. Individual rebates are about 2 percent of what the entity spent as part of the contract as long as it spent at least $10,000. For instance, East Allen County Schools will get a check for $16,997 after it spent $849,899 to replace computers, laptops and printers throughout the district. “It’ll help us because we are going to have to make some reductions,” in the overall budget, said Kirby Stahly, chief financial officer for EACS. He said the district takes advantage of the state’s program in various areas but especially.
ZOELLER, BENNETT STUMP TOGETHER: Teachers and school districts bullied by frivolous lawsuits may have a virtual bodyguard in place if candidates Greg Zoeller and Tony Bennett are elected attorney general and state superintendent of public instruction, respectively (Post-Tribune). The two Republican candidates stopped by Lake County Republican Headquarters in Crown Point on Monday to throw support behind Gov. Mitch Daniels’ school discipline initiative, which would broaden protection to teachers who are sued over disciplinary actions against students. Trivial lawsuits alleging misconduct or abuse have plagued teachers and school systems in recent years, the candidates said, by forcing teachers to pay thousands of dollars defending themselves or forcing districts to settle out of court or absorb heavy legal costs. Under Daniels’ plan, as long as the teachers have acted within the law and within reason, they would be given legal immunity. If the case should go to court, the attorney general’s office would defend the teacher free of charge. Bennett called the initiative “bold” and said it’ll have a direct, positive impact on learning. “I’ve worked in several different school systems, and we face those cases where the school system ends up settling them through insurance,” he said. “Teachers end up leaving because they don’t have the authority to discipline.” Zoeller said should he be elected, he wouldn’t substitute his judgement for that of the school board once it takes a position. “If you’re in an urban setting with thousands of teens, (individual school corporations) may take a different view of discipline,” he said. “In any case, there won’t be a settlement for these cases; we go to trial.”
Cities
COSTAS CALLS FOR CREATIVE FRUGALITY: Mayor Jon Costas presented the Valparaiso City Council with a proposed budget and salary ordinance for 2009 during a meeting Monday night (Times of Northwest Indiana). He told the council the focus is to be “creatively frugal” in the coming year in preparation for 2010, a year that will bring drastic reductions in revenue because of tax caps. “We have carefully budgeted for the needs of the city and have looked back at our strategic plan, our ongoing operations, our capital needs, and are prioritizing to get the best value for our city. It’s about value,” Costas said.
CROWN POINT TO SEEK STORM WATER FEE: To be proactive about flooding, Mayor David Uran will ask the City Council in September to consider a monthly stormwater fee of $6 per household and the creation of a stormwater utility (Times of Northwest Indiana). “It’s not because I want to start at $6, it’s because we have to,” Uran said.
MAYOR ARMSTRONG REMEMBERED: Fort Wayne’s late Mayor Robert E. Armstrong on Monday was remembered as a politician, mentor and coach, but likely the most passionate memory was of his dancing (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). Armstrong, who died Thursday evening after suffering a stroke, had his funeral Monday at Trinity English Lutheran Church in downtown Fort Wayne. About 150 friends, contemporaries and relatives attended the hour-long service. Numerous local dignitaries attended, including Indiana Auditor Tim Berry, Allen County Commissioner Bill Brown and Jeff Krull, director of the Allen County Public Library. Rick Stevenson, Wayne Township trustee and a Democrat, was the first to offer reflections on the former mayor, who coached Stevenson in basketball at Central High School.
Counties
DRUG MONEY INSPIRES SPENDING SPREE: The Muncie-Delaware County Drug Task Force and former Police Chief Joe Winkle went on a spending spree last year with forfeited drug money, including expenses for a personal trainer and a 50-inch plasma television for the city hall gym (Yencer, Muncie Star Press). Even bigger expenses questioned in a State Board of Account audit of 2007 city spending include payments of $31,199 for two high-end sport-utility vehicles for DTF officers, and paying off the remaining $17,873 loan balance on accused drug dealer Adrian Kirtz’s confiscated 2003 GMC Denali that sits in storage. More than $100,000 in DTF and Muncie police spending was questioned by auditors, who shut down the DTF’s checkbook last year after a decade of telling city officials that forfeited drug money and assets had to go to the city’s general fund to cover law enforcement expenses. More than $200,000 was spent out of DTF and Muncie police forfeiture funds last year, according city records. “Based on what we know now, I think it is very easy to say those things should not have been authorized,” said Mayor Sharon McShurley, who took office Jan. 1, and raised questions about the spending and Delaware County Prosecutor Mark McKinney’s dual role as prosecutor and civil forfeiture attorney.
MARION CORONER SEEKS SALARY: The Marion County coroner is suing state and city officials for withholding his pay because he has not passed a state-ordered training course (Indianapolis Star). In March, the City-county Council voted 20-8 to withhold the salary of Coroner Kenneth Ackles. A 2007 state law requires that the council freeze the coroner’s $38,501 annual salary if he did not complete, by Jan. 1, a 40-hour course and test that coroners view as basic knowledge of death investigations. The law was enacted in response to a mix-up in which a Taylor University student who survived a 2006 crash was misidentified as another student who died. The law allows coroners and deputy coroners an exception if they have a good reason for their failure to pass the test and can show they have made progress. Officials said Ackles passed seven of 10 portions but had not signed up to retake the last three portions.
TIPPECANOE STUDIES SALARY: A salary proposal being considered by the Tippecanoe County Council for next year would give some county employees healthy raises — and others nothing (Lafayette Journal & Courier). The county is considering the proposal because a study of its wages showed some positions are underpaid as compared to the fair market rate. The salaries were last studied in 1998. A review of the salaries showed some employees should get nearly 11.5 percent salary increases, while a few would face a wage freeze because their current salaries are already above the market rate. “It kind of got out of sync,” Shirley Mennen, human services coordinator, said of the pay grid. Many of the lower-paid positions are classified as clerical, labor trade and non-merit police, and Mennen said they are jobs with lower retention rates.
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