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COCHRAN, CLERE RACE NOT OVER YET: The race for State Representative District 72 between Republican Ed Clere and incumbent Democrat Bill Cochran isn’t over yet (News & Tribune). 
Clere was named the unofficial winner after besting Cochran by 114 votes Tuesday. Provisional ballots could narrow or even erase that gap, with those votes still waiting to be tallied in Floyd County and the one precinct District 72 covers in Clark County. Though one election official estimated there were about 200 provisional votes to be counted in Floyd County, Clerk Linda Moeller said there is no way to know for sure as they have remained sealed since being cast. The ballots have stayed in a safe with two locks protecting them — one lock belongs to the county’s Republican committee, the other to its Democratic counterpart. The provisionals will be counted Wednesday by the county’s election board, which consists of Democrat William Lohmeyer, Republican James Hancock and Moeller. “Nobody has looked at them and nobody knows how many we have,” Moeller said.
TIME TO PONDER THE HPI POWER 50: The time of year has come to ponder the Howey Politics Indiana Power 50 along with an expanded format. In addition to the HPI Power 50, we will also be publishing the Power 5s: The Power Staffers, Power Lobbyists, Power Financiers, and Power Press. The HPI Power 50 will be published next January. As we have for the past decade, our lists come together with the input from Howey Politics subscribers. We’ll publish last year’s list in Thursday’s edition and we ask that you put your own list together or nominate specific people. Send your lists or thoughts to: bhowey2@gmail.com
COCHRAN MET WITH CLERK: The New Albany Tribune reported during Tuesday’s precinct at the clerk’s office that Cochran and some of his supporters were seen entering Moeller’s office, shutting the door behind them. Moeller was in an adjacent office at the time helping with vote counting. Clere, after seeing the door closed, immediately brought the situation to the attention of Moeller and threatened to call for the sheriff since he didn’t know if there was sensitive material in the office. The Tribune reported Moeller asked Cochran to leave her office, as he and his supporters were seen leaving immediately after she opened the door and told them it was not to be closed. Moeller said she didn’t ask Cochran or anybody to leave, only to leave the door open. “To me it was appearances. I wanted them to leave the door open. It was stressful for both [Cochran and Clere]. I thought for appearance everything should be open,” she said Thursday. Cochran has yet to return phone calls made by The Tribune. Clere said he just felt uncomfortable to see Cochran and his supporters in the clerk’s office with the door closed.
ELWOOD BACKED OBAMA: Democrats here said the 2008 presidential race gave them an opportunity to showcase the city’s blue history (Anderson Herald-Bulletin). After favoring George W. Bush four years ago, Elwood precincts did a flip to the left in support of Sen. Barack Obama last Tuesday. The election results did not surprise Debra Seres, an organizer in Pike Creek Township’s Fourth Precinct. “This has been a Democrat stronghold for eons,” she said. “When manufacturing went out, things kind of changed. I think the Democrats let their guard down, and now we’re organized again.” Seres and others said the area’s suffering economy motivated many people to support a change in the nation’s leading party. Elwood has suffered through several business closings this year, resulting in high unemployment and home foreclosures. “Everyone is fed up with the Republicans and they way Bush has done things,” said Steve Richards, another Democrat organizer. HR Miller, a Republican precinct committeeman in Elwood, agreed the economy hurt his party, but the blame was unjust. “You just blame it on whoever is in power,” he said. “With all the news media that’s been given to Obama, people just went wild for the idea and didn’t really know who he was.” Also, in a community where only three decades ago the Ku Klux Klan held major sway, some Democrats worried that people wouldn’t support a black presidential candidate. But Seres said she was surprised by how eager many people were to support Obama without any regard for his race. And as Richards said, “It’s not 1970 anymore.”
PROPERTY TAX CUTS COULD HURT BUSINESSES: Residents across the state next year will see the value of their homes slashed - for taxing purposes - in an effort to keep homeowners’ taxes low (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). But those massive cuts in assessed property values - estimated by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce at $50 billion in 2009 - aren’t free. Owners of businesses and other properties that don’t receive those cuts are expected to pay more. Rising property taxes across Indiana led to a public backlash against the longtime revenue stream for government. To help appease voters and diversify the tax base, the state this year offered massive property tax cuts to homeowners, along with long-term caps to prevent any single-year spikes. The cuts were paid in part by an increase in the state sales tax and by capping local government revenues. While this legislation helped homeowners, cutting their bills by almost a third, business owners are concerned it will force businesses and other non-residential property owners to pay even more taxes in the future - creating an additional burden on top of the existing struggling economy. Part of the legislation - House Bill 1001 - was the creation of a new homestead deduction starting next year. Currently, owners of homes assessed at $100,000 get a $45,000 deduction, meaning they only pay taxes on $55,000 worth of property. Under the new law, homeowners get an additional 35 percent of their home’s value reduced up to $600,000. For the extremely expensive homes, 25 percent of the value is reduced above $600,000. Deputy Allen County Auditor Tera Klutz said this extra deduction will cut assessed values across Allen County by $2.9 billion.
HISPANICS SHIFTED TO OBAMA: According to the Pew Research Center, Obama defeated McCain by a two-to-one margin among Hispanics. In 2004, Bush won 40% of the Hispanic vote nationally. Obama’s wins in battleground states with a high Hispanic population, including Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico, is explained by the shift in support from Bush in 2004 to Obama in 2008. Bush carried 54% of the Hispanic vote in Florida, while Obama carried 57% of the Hispanic vote in the Sunshine State. Additionally, in states like Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, which Obama carried by small margins, the added support from Hispanic voters turned these red states to blue this year. Obama had a 1-point margin in Indiana and North Carolina, a 4-point margin in Ohio and a 5-point margin in Virginia.
Presidential
OBAMA TO GET FIRST OVAL OFFICE LOOK: Barack Obama has never set foot in the Oval Office. Talk about making an entrance. In a sit-down discussion Monday with President Bush, the president-elect will get his first feel for the place where momentous decisions will soon fall to him (Associated Press). Bush invited Obama for the private talk, a rite of passage between presidents and successors that extends for decades. The moment is sure to be steeped in history, part of a symbolic changing of a guard to Democratic leadership and the country’s first black president. But it will be substantive as well, as Bush and Obama are expected to review the nation’s enormous economic downturn and the war in Iraq. “I’m going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship, and a sense that both the president and various leaders of Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done,” Obama said last week when asked about his meeting with Bush.
OBAMA PLANNING TERROR TRIALS: President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice (Associated Press). During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a “sad chapter in American history” and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed. Under plans being put together in Obama’s camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts. A third group of detainees - the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information - might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren’t final.
ROEMER MUM ON OBAMA CABINET: Former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer is being mentioned by fellow Democrats as one of the individuals President-elect Obama might tap as he assembles his Cabinet (Associated Press). Roemer, who represented the South Bend area in the U.S. House from 1991 to 2003, is “certainly being considered for high office in the Obama administration,” said former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton. Like Hamilton — who represented southern Indiana from 1965 to 1999 — Roemer is a former member of the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. He also serves on a federal committee to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons and is president of the Center for National Policy, a Washington-based think tank. But most visibly, he’s been a vocal Obama supporter since the primary season. “Tim did some marvelous work for Obama throughout the campaign, not just in Indiana but in many places as well,” Hamilton told the South Bend Tribune for a story published Sunday. Roemer, who campaigned for Obama in 11 states throughout the year, served as a foreign policy adviser to Obama’s campaign alongside Hamilton. Roemer said he’s heard the rumors that he’s being considered for Obama’s administration, but up until now, he said he’s been “entirely focused and consumed” on the campaign. “I have not looked one minute past midnight of last night,” he said Wednesday, hours after Obama’s election victory. “I would highly recommend Lee Hamilton and Evan Bayh.” Hamilton, who is 77, said he isn’t likely to take a job in Obama’s administration, “Oh, I think I’m too old,” he said. “I have a good relationship with Obama, but I’m not at an age where I can take over a major responsibility.”
NW INDIANA HOPEFUL OBAMA WILL HELP: Might Northwest Indiana fare well now that Chicago’s favorite son is the most powerful man in the world? Gary Mayor Rudy Clay hopes so (Post-Tribune). Obama lives just a stone’s throw from Lake County, Clay observed, and the president-elect’s work as a Chicago community organizer makes him sympathetic to the problems besetting Northwest Indiana’s urban corridor. “Throughout President Obama’s platform I see planks that speak to Gary,” Clay said. “He talks about an initiative for urban areas with high unemployment, job training grants and the COPS program, which he hopes to use to put 100,000 more police on the street,” Clay said. “These are all things we’ll be applying for.” “Obama’s plane landed recently at the Gary airport, he has been to the city a few times and he definitely knows where we are,” Clay added. “But I think he’s going to be a huge help to urban areas across the country.” U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, said Obama’s sweeping victory across the country means a great many counties feel they had a hand in the Illinois senator’s success. Visclosky cautioned against overreaching optimism, however, that local agencies soon will be flush with cash from Washington, D.C. America’s dire economic straits mean the Obama administration won’t have much money to throw around. “The economic bailout has cost us $935 billion, so that’s money the federal government no longer has,” Visclosky said. “There will certainly be a greater empathy from the Obama administration than we have seen for the past eight years,” he added. “But you will also see people applying for federal grants who never would have in recent years, because they knew they would never get the grants. So the line, so to speak, will be longer.”
DA SPECULATION GROWS: President-elect Barack Obama has named his chief of staff, and is expected to announce members of his economic and national security teams within days (Post-Tribune). It likely will be months, however, before he names appointees to a handful of key judicial posts in Northwest Indiana. But local political players surely are speculating about who’ll be tapped for a handful of Northern District court appointments, notably U.S. attorney. A new U.S. attorney may or may not continue to make public corruption a top priority of the office. There also is an opening on the District Court in South Bend, and current District Court Judge Philip Simon was nominated just months ago for a seat on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. Attorney David Capp has been at the center of speculation about whether he’d retain the post during Obama’s administration. Capp had been rumored as a candidate for the South Bend court seat. Capp declined to comment. Since the Jimmy Carter administration, the U.S. attorney appointee has come from Lake or Porter counties and the office is based in Hammond. Most often, the pick has been taken from private practice, but has had experience as a state or federal prosecutor. Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez, who has a close relationship with U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, was rumored to have been among the candidates to replace Republican Joe Van Bokkelen as U.S. attorney had Democrat John Kerry won the presidency in 2004.
MADISON COUNTY VOTED OBAMA: America awoke Wednesday morning to find itself forever changed (Anderson Herald-Bulletin). Many called the election of Barack Obama historic. Some even hailed him as a political savior. But instead of water into wine, Obama’s miracle was turning red into blue. In Madison County and all across the U.S., so-called swing voters cast their vote for the Democratic nominee instead of Republican John McCain. “When I looked at the results, it looked like a lot of split-ticket results,” said Ron McNabney, chairman of the Madison County Democrat Party. “I think that today in Madison County, the independent voter determines the outcome of elections. Not to say that the Democrat and Republican voters are not important, but the independents voted for Barack, and I think they voted for Barack because of the condition of our country during the last eight years of a Republican in power.” Obama won over many voters with his confidence and charisma, and was often referred to as a “rock star” candidate. He beat McCain handily on Tuesday, with a 364-163 advantage in electoral votes, wresting from Republican control the states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. And, of course, Indiana, a state that had famously voted Republican in 10 previous presidential elections, dating back to Richard Nixon in 1968. Obama won just 15 of Indiana’s 92 counties, but those counties — Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Starke, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, Delaware, Marion, Vigo, Vermillion, Monroe, Vanderburgh, Spencer, Perry and Madison — comprise 44 percent of the state’s population. In the end, Obama earned 49.93 percent of the statewide popular vote (1,367,503 votes) to McCain’s 48.98 percent (1,341,667). The margin was greater in Madison County, where Obama garnered 52.49 percent of the vote (30.152 votes) to 45.96 percent for McCain (26,403). It was a far cry from 2004 and 2000, when Republican George W. Bush dominated John Kerry (58.9 percent to 39.62 percent) and Al Gore (53.5 percent to 44.82 percent).
Indiana Governor
LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM ON FRONT BURNER: Gov. Mitch Daniels did not campaign on the politically risky subject of shrinking local government, but he is expected to make a push for that now that he’s won re-election (Indianapolis Star). Whether Daniels is able to push government consolidation through the legislature next year likely will hinge on two key factors: With other pressing concerns to resolve, including passing a budget during tight fiscal conditions, there might not be time to tackle the issue. Resistance is expected to be stiff from local government officials who don’t want to lose their jobs. Daniels, responding to the state’s property-tax crisis, appointed the state Commission on Local Government Reform in July 2007 to recommend changes that would provide long-term savings to taxpayers and more accountability for local tax increases. “If you want to get property taxes down and keep ‘em down, this commission has given us a terrific road map for doing that,” Daniels said. The commission, co-chaired by former Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard, made 27 recommendations to streamline local government. Daniels and state lawmakers were unable to act on many of the proposals during this year’s legislative session because much of their time was consumed with providing immediate property tax relief. Next year could be a different story. “The governor supports the thrust of the Kernan-Shepard report,” said Jane Jankowski, Daniels’ press secretary. “He has said he doesn’t expect all 27 of the recommendations to be approved, but he will see how many of them he can get approved, because he thinks it is very important to make progress on local government reform in the next session of the General Assembly.” Daniels, however, has yet to say which of the recommendations he favors most.
JLT’S HISTORIC BAD DAY: So just how bad was Democrat Jill Long Thompson’s showing in this year’s race for governor? We all know she lost – 58 percent to 39 percent according to unofficial election results – but let’s try to put her vote total in historical perspective (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). She received fewer votes – 837,748 – than any Democratic gubernatorial candidate going back to at least 1948 (as far back as Political Notebook could find data). Tuesday’s race was so lopsided, it was called by 7:05 p.m., just minutes after the polls closed in Lake County, a normally Democratic stronghold. But she can take solace – she is not the first Democrat running for governor in Indiana to receive fewer votes than the Democratic presidential candidate. That happened at least twice before.
MITCH FOR PRESIDENT? As Republicans do some soul-searching about the future of the GOP, political analysts say they should look to their crop of progressive governors — including Indiana’s Mitch Daniels — to help mold the party’s future (Weidenbener, Louisville Courier-Journal). That may mean Daniels, who won a commanding victory Tuesday to a second term, has a future as a candidate for higher office — an idea he has shunned so far. But it might also mean that Republicans nationally adopt his approach to governing and politics, which combines conservative principles with pragmatism and competence, said Norman Ornstein, a senior scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. “One of the questions for Republicans is: Where do you turn for examples of competent leadership and electoral success? And the election doesn’t offer all that many examples,” he said. “Mitch stands out because … Indiana went for (Barack) Obama and at the same time Daniels won, not in a squeaker, but very comfortably,” Ornstein said. “That’s got to increase his stock.” Republican pollster Whit Ayres said governors are great choices because the office is “the best possible preparation for serving as president.” “You’re the chief executive of what is frequently a large organization. You have to deal with members of the state legislature,” Ayres said. “You’re also making real life-and-death decisions. A decision about whether or not to evacuate a coastal area before a hurricane is about as close as you get to life-and-death decisions a president needs to make.” “Being an OMB director is a big deal,” Ayres said. “Few other people learn the totality of the federal government quite like the director of OMB.” There’s already a Draft Mitch Daniels 2012 page on the social networking site Facebook, which was started by some Southern Indiana supporters and now has 95 members.
2008 Election
HAMILTON COUNTY BALLOTS THROWN OUT: The pressures of dealing with an unusually high voter turnout and poll workers’ inexperience with paper ballots resulted in at least 130 ballots from Tuesday’s election being tossed out, a Hamilton County election official said (Associated Press). The paper ballots, used to speed up voting because of a heavy turnout at Carmel’s University High School, were discarded Tuesday night because poll workers didn’t initial them as required by state law, said Tory Callaghan Castor, president of the county’s election board. She chalked up the mistake to the high turnout and inexperience. Throughout most of Election Day, voters at the school endured lines several hours long before being able to cast their ballots. “I don’t fault any of our volunteers,” Callaghan Castor said. “The code is very specific, and there were some unfortunate consequences.
MUNCIE POLL BOOKS THROWN IN TRASH: The head of the Delaware County Democratic Party said she regrets that party workers dumped dozens of election poll books containing information on voters into the trash after Election Day (Associated Press). Margie Landers, the party’s chair, said she wished the poll books had not been thrown into a trash bin behind the party’s Muncie headquarters, and she doesn’t believe it will happen again. “I truly hated it happened,” she said. Muncie resident Bob Wolf was tossing campaign yard signs into the trash bin Wednesday when he found the poll books, which have the names, addresses, dates of birth, and copies of signatures for voters who cast ballots in last Tuesday’s election. While some of the copied signatures are illegible, others are not and could be reproduced. “This is reprehensible,” Wolf told The Star Press, pointing to names and dates of birth.
Congress
PENCE WILL BE ‘CHEERFUL’ OPPONENT: Two top House Republicans said there is a willingness to try to work with Obama to get things done. But they said to expect Republicans to serve as a check against the power held by Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress (Indianapolis Star). “It’s going to be a cheerful opposition,” said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. “We’re going to carry those timeless principles of limited government, a strong defense, traditional values, to the American people.” Pence, of Indiana, is expected to take over the No. 3 leadership post among House Republicans.
SOUDER EYES GOP PROBLEMS: Despite winning a lopsided re-election last week, Rep. Mark Souder was anything but a ray of sunshine at the Allen County Republicans post-election luncheon (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). Souder told the group the party faces some serious challenges nationwide, especially after losing seats in the House and Senate. He said the party can’t just be a rural and suburban party: noting he was one of the few Republican members of Congress to represent a city of 250,000 people. He added the GOP needs to make better use of the Internet in attracting voters, saying direct mailers are not enough. “We will never regain the presidency … unless we go beyond our base,” he said. Souder added he will try to work with Democrats next year to get things accomplished for northeast Indiana, but he also needs to serve as a voice for the minority party. He did take time to criticize the local Democratic Party, saying it was foolish not to run a full slate of candidates this year in Allen County with so much energy on their side. No Democrat won the majority of votes on the Allen County ballot.
SCHANSBERG EYES GOP: While Republican Mike Sodrel lost to Democratic Rep. Baron Hill by nearly 42,000 votes during last week’s election, Libertarian Eric Schansberg managed to gain the overall number of votes he received (News & Tribune). Schansberg, still a distant third to his major party counterparts, said the difference was in the amount of campaigning he did this time. “I campaigned a lot harder this year,” he said, noting that he walked business districts, ran radio and TV ads and participated in more parades. The campaign did everything it could do with the resources it had, he said. Sodrel and Hill have faced each other four times now. Schansberg entered the race for the first time in 2006. That year, he received 9,893 votes, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office. The votes are not completely counted yet, but he’s received 10,090 this year, according to the office. Schansberg expects that number to rise as totals trickle in, saying he’s heard that he’s gotten 12,000 votes. Historically, the third-party candidate rarely does well enough to win. There’s much talk about change, Schansberg said, but it seems that change is narrowly defined within the two-party system. But the Libertarian says he’s not opposed to running as a major party candidate. “I’ve had people approach me on both sides, saying ‘wow I wish you were our candidate,’” he said.
Indiana General Assembly
SENATE REPUBLICANS SET AGENDA: Indiana Senate Republicans said yesterday that enacting a balanced budget, protecting education funding and taking the next step toward making property-tax caps a constitutional amendment are priorities in the upcoming session (Associated Press). Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley of Noblesville said that given the slumping economy, the state might not take in enough revenue to increase funding for schools and universities in the two-year budget bill the General Assembly must pass next year. But Kenley said avoiding cuts from current levels was a top goal for Republicans, who have a 33-17 majority in the Senate. Senate leaders also said that adopting a resolution a second time this year to include caps on property-tax bills in the state constitution is a must. Doing so would put the measure before the voters in 2010. That priority, however, could set the stage for a battle with Democrats who control the House. Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, has strongly suggested waiting until 2010 before deciding whether to approve the resolution a second time.
BIPARTISAN TEST LOOMS: Last Wednesday, the day after Daniels won a second term and it became clear that Democrats would retain control of the House by at least a 52-48 margin, the governor said he expected to have a good, cooperative relationship with House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend (Smith, Associated Press). The two have proven they can work together, but they also have brawled at times. “We proved in the last two years that great things can happen on a bipartisan basis,” Daniels said. He told reporters that because of the tanking economy and flat state revenues, he and lawmakers will have to be very frugal in drafting a new two-year budget in the upcoming session. He said Bauer would be up to that task. “The challenges that we face, he has faced some of them before,” Daniels said. “He has been through at least one national recession as a legislator. He knows how very, very careful we’re going to have to be.” Bauer said during Daniels’ first two years, when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate, the governor took a “thunder-and-lightning approach pushing something through with an iron fist.” But with Democrats leading the chamber 51-49 the past two years, Bauer said Daniels was more willing to compromise. “I think we will be working together in a positive manner,” Bauer said, adding that it would take bipartisanship on everyone’s part to draft a new budget that adequately funded education and health care during tough economic times. New Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, said it would be a very difficult and stressful session, but Tuesday’s election had been about bipartisanship and unity. “The people of Indiana have spoken loud and clear that they want people before politics, and that’s what we intend to do,” she said.
BOSMA HAD AGGRESSIVE AGENDA: House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said he was disappointed that Republicans did not regain control of the House, but said his caucus pledged to do its very best to work with Democrats in seeking needed reforms (Associated Press). But he gave a couple of signals that it won’t be smooth sailing, first by predicting that two initiatives sought by House Republicans — taking the next step toward amending property tax caps into the state constitution and beginning a new college scholarship program — would be difficult to get through the House with Democrats in control. Then he said later, “We had very aggressive plans. We didn’t see any plans from the other guys other than ’no’s’ here and there.” There does seem to be a partisan fight brewing on whether to advance a resolution this year that would let voters decide in a 2010 referendum whether caps on property tax bills — which are in law now — should be amended into the constitution.
BAUER WILL CONSIDER CAPS: Bauer shares concerns with local government and school officials that the caps could force cuts in public safety and other local services, or lead to big increases in local option income taxes. He said lawmakers should gauge the impact of the caps this year and decide in 2010 whether to move forward on a constitutional amendment (Associated Press). Under the law, property-tax bills on homeowners this year are limited to 1.5 percent of their home’s assessed value, with 2.5 percent limits on rental property and 3.5 percent on business property. In 2010, the caps on bills would drop to 1 percent of assessed value for homes, 2 percent for rental property and 3 percent for business property. Those are the levels that would be amended into the constitution. If the resolution is not approved a second time this year or next, then the process of amending the constitution would have to start over. Bauer said this week that the reason the caps were phased in “is to make sure that this is something workable and you could continue to have public safety, for instance, and other services and it wouldn’t force up other taxes in an outrageous manner.” He said he was open to amending the caps into the constitution, “but it is subject to the actual experience in ‘09.”
IGA BLAMED FOR LEVEE DELAY: When the still embattled Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission met last week, this time at the Lake County Visitors and Recreation Center to accommodate homeowners living in the flood plain, the question of state funding surfaced yet again (Times of Northwest Indiana). Over the years, the commission and others familiar with the project have heaped the blame for the long delay in completing the federal levee project on the General Assembly. In contrast, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., is consistently praised for his ability to bring in federal dollars. “The money just dribbled in,” commission attorney Lou Casale said of the state’s contributions at the close of another long evening of blistering attacks on the commission. The state appropriations are used to cover land acquisition, utility relocation and escrow accounts, Casale said. During the past two years, a frustrated Visclosky has used his influence to pry more money out of the General Assembly, this year securing a $6 million loan from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority with the cooperation of Gov. Mitch Daniels. The state, through the Indiana Economic Development Commission, earlier had been persuaded to commit $6 million to expedite the levee project at the site of Cabela’s in Hammond. With the expected addition of another $2 million as the state’s biennium contribution, that brought a total of $14 million into play, and Visclosky wants to know where it went and how the commission has been spending its money.
Townships
TOWNSHIPS UNDER THE GUN: Although voters had their say on township assessors last week, it’s not clear whether that decision will hold (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). Wayne Township was the lone local assessor’s office in Allen County to remain after election night as voters in Aboite and St. Joseph townships decided to eliminate their assessors’ offices and send those duties to the county. Across the state, 12 other township assessors’ offices remain in addition to Wayne’s. But several business and real estate groups plan to ask legislators to do away with those remaining offices during the next General Assembly session in January. Because of those plans, Wayne Township Assessor Bev Zuber doesn’t know how long she’ll keep her office. But she hopes the matter is finally settled after what she called a long, drawn-out process. “I hope that legislators understand that the voters have spoken, and I hope that their wishes will be honored,” Zuber said Friday.
Counties
FLOYD BECOMING MORE REPUBLICAN: This is not your grandmother’s Floyd County (News & Tribune). Once considered a safe haven for Democrats, the political dynamics of the county are changing. Tuesday’s election proved that once again. Of the 37,254 votes cast in Floyd County, only 6,572, or 49.39 percent, voted straight Democrat ticket. There were almost that many voters — 6,559, or 49.30 percent — who voted a straight Republican ticket. “Straight party voting is about even, this election really showed that,” said Floyd County Democrat Chairwoman Marcey Wisman. “I think it shows more people are voting as Independents. I think candidates on both sides are going to have to rethink how they campaign.” Both parties left their respective headquarters Tuesday with a half-empty feeling. Republicans won four county races — Floyd County Recorder, Treasurer, Surveyor and Commissioner — and claimed the State Representative District 72 seat as Ed Clere defeated 34-year Democrat incumbent Bill Cochran. Floyd County voters also sided with Republican John McCain in the presidential race going against state and national voters. McCain collected 19,944 votes, or 54.44 percent, to Barack Obama’s 16,248 votes, or 44.35 percent, in Floyd County. However, Obama won the state. Democrats, however, swept the three Floyd County Council at-large seats, the Superior Court Judge’s No. 2 and No. 3 races as well as the race for coroner.
WHEN WILL PHILPOT TAKE OFFICE? Figuring out who’s taking office on what day could get a bit tricky as legislation takes effect that standardizes elections schedules around the state (Associated Press). The legislative fix has created a tangled time in the political career of Lake County Clerk Thomas Philpot. Philpot was elected Lake County coroner on Tuesday. But he won’t take his new office until Jan. 1, 2010, and then he’ll serve a three-year term. To make things more complicated, a year will remain on Philpot’s term as clerk when he becomes coroner - meaning Democrats will have to caucus to replace him as clerk. The office will be on the ballot again in 2012. The complexities result from a state law passed in 2005 to standardize elections for about 80 offices that had a one-year lag between a candidate’s election and when that candidate took office.
Cities
GARY COUNCIL SPENT MILLIONS: Gary City Council members use broad spending power and minimal public oversight to quietly cut checks worth thousands of dollars to recipients of their own choosing every year (Post-Tribune). Between 2004 and 2007, as the city hurtled closer toward a time of annual budget shortfalls worth millions of dollars, council members spent $2.1 million from a “promotional account” designed to shore up beneficial community programs, city records show. A nine-month Post-Tribune review also found thousands of dollars landed in bank accounts of groups tied to, or falling directly under, federal scrutiny. When the council voted on a 2009 budget filled with job cuts last week, it earmarked another $217,515 for this promotional fund, officially labeled “grants and subsidies.” Monitoring the money as it is spent can be difficult, though. Gary’s Board of Public Works and Safety votes only on individual council expenses if they involve contracts worth more than $5,000. Otherwise, the board votes on spending in bulk.
COUNCILWOMAN SPENT $40K ON VIDEO: A video production company owned by Otho Lyles III benefited in 2006 and 2007 from a Gary City Council promotional account that is meant to assist Gary’s not-for-profit agencies (Post-Tribune). Lyles pleaded guilty in 2004 to lying to federal investigators as they tried to root out corruption at Gary City Hall, and he served probation. He later pleaded guilty to a charge of tax evasion and as of February, records show, he owed more than $260,000 in federal taxes. Carolyn Rogers, the 4th District’s representative on the City Council, directed a total of $40,400 in City Council money toward Lyles’ NPC LLC in 2006 and 2007, records show. Rogers paid NPC to produce educational videos about the city’s demolition process in the 4th District. A spokeswoman for the Internal Revenue Service couldn’t find any record that listed NPC as a not-for-profit organization. Although Rogers acknowledges she once had a personal relationship with Lyles, she said it has ended. The money directed to NPC, she said, was “strictly business.” “I think that he’s the best video company business in the county,” Rogers said.
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