A Kennedy Campaign Conundrum
Believe it or not, the race I think I will enjoy watching the most this election season may also be the one I least enjoy, the Marion County Prosecutor’s race. As you know Republican incumbent Carl Brizzi will face Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy. Both are smart, capable attorneys as I have written before. And we pundits have labeled this as the one of the most important races in Indiana this year. There are very high stakes involved and no candidate can afford too much of a screw up. And while I don’t think what I am about to write will derail the Kennedy campaign, this certainly won’t help.
One of the big criticisms against Kennedy is her experience, or lack thereof, in trying cases. She has a lot of policy experience, but not a lot of flight time in the courtroom. And a check of the Indiana Roll of Attorneys only adds to that problem for the Democrat. Allow me to explain. An attorney can only practice in Indiana if they are considered to be on the “active” roll. An attorney on “inactive” status cannot practice law. An attorney remains on active status by paying their annual dues ($105), taking the proper amount of Continuing Legal Education classes (CLEs) and not doing anything unethical and getting disbarred. A notice goes out to attorneys in August that they have to pay their bar dues by October 1, or pay a late fee to be returned to active status.
The potential problem for Kennedy is that for nearly nine months, September 18, 2004 through June 6, 2005, Kennedy was on the inactive list. She left the Mayor’s office in September 2005, created an exploratory committee for prosecutor in October 2005 and officially field for prosecutor on February 1, 2006. Kennedy would not have been able to legally serve as prosecutor one year prior to forming her exploratory committee.
Usually when attorneys go on “inactive” status it is because they leave the state, the profession or have committed some misconduct. Sometimes, like me earlier this year, they forget to pay their registration fee. They send in a check and get back on the list. I sent mine after getting the letter in the mail and am in good standing in the State of Illinois. To the best of my knowledge, none of those circumstances apply to Kennedy, which makes the nine-month absence rather odd. Why would someone who is considering running for Prosecutor, who knows experience will be an issue, take a nearly nine-month absence from the active list? She was still in the Mayor’s office while inactive. While she could not practice law, she was still a key aide to Mayor Peterson in the area of economic development.
Kennedy did become a mother in January, but many women have children and maintain their law license and never go on the inactive rolls. This will likely be a major campaign issue. It goes to the issue of experience and it also poses some questions as to why would Kennedy go on the inactive list and renew four months before forming a committee to explore running for County Prosecutor? She had been rumored to be a candidate for months to challenge Brizzi. One could speculate that she was planning to leave the profession and take up motherhood, but was later convinced by the powers that be to run for prosecutor so she renewed her license. But that’s speculation.
I asked the Kennedy camp about this entire situation this afternoon. The response from campaign manager Andy Miller and spokesman Tim Moriarty was essentially, “It doesn’t matter.” They maintain that Kennedy’s work in the Mayor’s office fighting domestic violence and promoting economic development are experience enough. They also point to her work on the State Supreme Court and the fact she is in good standing now. They argue Kennedy’s experience speaks for itself and they don’t see how not being able to practice law for close to nine months is an issue.
While the Democrats don’t think it’s an issue, the Republicans will likely make it one. Marion County GOP Chairman Mike Murphy said “the nine-month lapse reveals Kennedy was not serious about being prosecutor or a lawyer.” This is just the beginning.
I doubt if this issue will kill her campaign, but it won’t go away and it definitely doesn’t help, unless you’re talking about her opponent. If I were the Melina Kennedy, I would use a better argument than “it doesn’t matter” because trust me, it will.
March 28th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Abdul,
Sheila Kennedy explains Melina’s “inactive status” due to the birth of her twins on a comment to my post at Advance Indiana. I’m surprised her campaign didn’t provide that explanation–it does paint the picture a little differentlly–at least from my perspective. This issue could cut both ways–I don’t think this issue will play well with women voters if the GOP plays it up too much. Your thoughts? And I think Melina should replace her current spokesperson with Sheila–she seems to handle the issue much more effectively than they did.
March 28th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Gary,
There were a million different ways the Kennedy camp could have handled this issue and it would have been a non-story. But now this is a story and one that will come up again because now there are two public versions out there. And also I think the birth may not work because of lot of female lawyers keep their licenses current during their pregnancy. It will be interesting to see how this is handled in the next few days. I appreciate your post though. Take care,
March 29th, 2006 at 1:05 am
You’re kidding me right? Abdul, I know you like to bring listeners in by stirring the pot, but this one is obvious, my friend. Outside of fellow attorneys no one cares about if she went inactive. If the Republicans plan on using this in the election, it will only serve to make them seem desperate.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:28 am
I find the topic interesting however, let’s remember that her license didn’t “expire”, rather it was merely placed in an “inactive” status.
a non-issue, regardless of the inept response by her campaign people.
March 30th, 2006 at 3:22 am
First Abdul, I’d like to answer your comment from over on Gary’s blog. It wouldn’t matter a hill of beans if it was Carl Brizzi or Jesus Christ. You may peg me as a liberal (which is correct), but I’m not stupid… I’ve NEVER voted straight ticket.
You might be surprised that I voted for Mitch and Sue Ellen Reid in 2004. I met Mitch and he wasn’t afraid to speak to the gay community and respond with honest, truthful responses. Kernan, on the other hand, would evade answering the tough questions and suggested we just continue on doing things the same way.
What really pissed me off about your broadcast is that A. I believe you were fishing… and B. You said that “plenty of women attorneys have had kids and kept their status active.” Did plenty of those women have twins? I’m not sure if you’ve ever been a parent, but one newborn is a handful… two has to be exhausting.
It’s obvious that the Republicans are running scared and resorting to dirty tricks. They try to rule with an iron fist. Just ask Lance Langsford. It was OK to have Becky sit in Lance’s seat when he was away before, but suddenly (after the HRO/police merger vote) it’s not?
Punishing a Afghanistan veteran and attacking a mother, that’s a brillant strategy. I hope they keep it up… this kind of stuff will make Marion County a Democrat stronghold for years to come.
March 30th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Marti,
Thanks for the reply, but let me throw in some reality. First, you’re right I was fishing. It’s what reporters and pundits do. We look for information, do a little checking and if it’s worth reporting, we do.
With respect to the Melina story, when I found out the information I gave her campaign 24 hours to come up with the response you just gave me. Instead they just said it didn’t matter and was immaterial. The experience issue is going to dog Melina in this campaign and their response doesn’t help. I don’t think the twins issue would have totally quashed the question but it would have been better than saying it doesn’t matter. All they had to say was that she pregnant with twins, and so many responsibilities that keeping up with the CLE requirements would have been too much for her, so she put her priorities in order. She knew she was going to renew her license eventually and that’s what she did. She would have been questioned about the timing, but it would have been a much better response.
If Melina was going to let her license lapse, her campaign should have known and been ready to respond. When I called her campaign with the initial information I was asked what rumor mill did I get the information from, and I told them the Indiana Roll of Attorneys. I will go so far as to speculate that her own campaign staff was not aware of this information. That is frightening. For the campaign not to know that crucial information and not have an answer for it when it comes up is ridiculous.
And I find it interesting that is labeled as GOP dirty tricks. I argue this is one of those rare instances where the local GOP got it right. They’ve known about this for a while, but never said anything. They just waited for someone in the media to start asking questions. The way the local folks have dropped the ball lately, I was surprised they got this right.
If anyone should be upset, it should be Melina at her staff. A campaign with this much at stake can’t afford to make these kinds of mistakes. By saying it doesn’t matter, they just gave the Brizzi folks a campaign commercial. What kind of political strategy is that?
Abdul
March 30th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
LOL. I knew you were fishing… and I know it’s your gig, but usually you don’t make it look so obvious. ;) Isn’t that the magic of what you do?
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. This is Carl’s race to lose. If he makes a commercial about this, it’ll make him look weak and desperate… especially if she plays the mommy card. Reality is that most people don’t give two shits about a lawyer’s status. Reality is that smarmy, warm piles of useless emotionally based dung are what people lap up. The reality is that in elections facts don’t matter, it’s the rhetoric that counts.
March 31st, 2006 at 6:31 am
Could it be that she expected the Mayor’s office to pick up the tab? Yes, this is only a few hundred dollars, but this is also a government lifer who I’m sure has taken a liking to the taxpayer picking up her bills.
Just a thought from the cheapseats.