Loading ...
By BRIAN A. HOWEY
MUNCIE - It started snowing lightly in Middletown, USA late Monday afternoon. Six hours later, 911 dispatchers reported more than 50 traffic accidents on unsalted streets.
Just a normal Hoosier winter day? No. It could become a Michael Bilandic moment with repercussions going all the way to the Indiana Statehouse. Bilandic was the 49th mayor of Chicago, chosen to replace the late Mayor Richard J. Daley in December 1976. He would have won a term of his own except that a blizzard shut the city down and Bilandic lost to Jane Byrne in the Democratic primary in the spring of 1977.
Gov. Daniels with Muncie Mayor McShurley at the Indiana Republican Convention last June. (HPI Photo by Brian A. Howey)
Now there are all sorts of distinctions between Bilandic and Muncie Mayor Sharon McShurley, who took office (albeit by a harrow ingly thin plurality) in January. Since then, McShurley thwarted a bid to have the election overturned, watched the Indiana General Assembly pass the 1-2-3 property tax caps with HB 1001 (which tamped down a property tax rebellion simmering in her city), appeared with Gov. Mitch Daniels at the Indiana Republican Convention, and by this fall declared a “financial emergency” (the first time we’ve ever heard of one). Several weeks ago, the McShurley administration announced that it would only plow the streets during business hours Monday through Friday.
***Please login to view the entire article.*** Tags: Brian Bosma, David Long, Jennifer Simmons, Mitch Daniels, Pat Bauer, Rudy Clay, Sharon McShurley, Vi Simpson
Related posts
This entry was written by and posted on December 4, 2008 at 2:36 pm and filed under HPI Weekly. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.