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What I’m Watching

This weekend marked six months of being a very happily married man so I gave local and state politics a break and spent time with my lovely wife.  It was time well spent and I highly recommend some of you getting off the blogs and getting  out of the house and doing something.

With that said, I still kept an eye on local goings on.  Here’s what I’m watching this week.

  • Indiana lawmakers will be back Wednesday figuring out unemployment insurance, education funding and maybe local government reform.  Democrats say talks broke down because State Senator Brandt Hershman went to a Lincoln Day Dinner as part of his 4th District Congressional run.  Now some Republicans are dropping the line that House Speaker Pat Bauer wanted to attend an out-of-state conference this weekend and that’s why he adjourned the House until later this week.  No offense to all parties involved, and you know I like most of you, but the sooner you all leave, the better.
  • I’ll also be watching the Lincoln Plowman resignation on Monday.  There are a couple dynamics at play here.   By stepping down, as opposed to being fired, Plowman will keep his retirement since he has 20 years as an IMPD officer.  Plowman is also resigning from the Council, I’m checking through my list of possible replacements, one person who quickly comes to mind is Tim Ping who briefly ran for State Representative to replace Mike Murphy who is running for Congress.
  • Now that Bart McAtee has beat back a challenge to his status as a candidate for Sheriff for the Republican primary, I’ll be interested to see what the follow up is.  I watched the hearing and Friday and read the briefs of both parties and if I read McAtee’s reply and watched the Election Board properly, McAtee’s attorney admitted that between the time he filed for an exploratory committee for Sheriff and formally announced for Sheriff his job was paid in part by federal funds.  That could provide an opening to file a complaint later that he was in violation of the Hatch Act.  Stay tuned for that one.
  • I’m also hearing that the anti-smoking people are going to try to give it another go around and bring back a smoking ban to Indy since they lost at the legislature.  I really don’t think they’ll have more success this time around than the last, although economic development and tourism seems to be the trial balloon of the day.  In fact I think, they’ll have less success since the newest member of the Council Angel Rivera, opposes an outright total ban.

That’s all for now.  I have a few hours left before it’s time to get back to real work, so I’m going to go hang out with my lovely wife who was gracious enough to let me have a few minutes and scribble down this post.

Posted: 03|7|10 at 9:36 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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  • seanshepard
    I wonder what it is about the anti-smoking folks that make them so adamant in wanting to force their will and opinion onto everyone. Go convince bar owners not try and get the government to use its monopoly on force to violate property rights and voluntary association. Geez, enough already.

    @ TA. I want to take some exception to your comment that "the recent stimulus infusions all over the country are funding hundreds of thousands of jobs."

    I think even Evan Bayh suggested that Congress wasn't creating any jobs. But, mostly the idea that government can "create" jobs is ridiculous. It can, however, move them in geography, industry and time. The only way government can really "create" jobs is to create the environment conducive to the private sector thriving (low taxes, low regulation, free markets, voluntary associations).

    Otherwise, government is doing one of several things:

    Taking money out of the private sector (destroying economic activity there) to create a job in the public sector.

    Taking money out of the private sector to redirect it to some other project or activity. (moving jobs from where they might otherwise have been created to where the, clearly not omniscient, will of Congress and their competing jurisdictions, egos and biases desire the jobs moved to)

    Borrowing against future economic prosperity to try and fuel current. Payment of this borrowing comes in the form of either reduced future government expenditures (a dip in the government portion of GDP) increased taxes or inflation of the currency (leading to overall price increases, destruction of wages and savings and more economic drag). You can only borrow against future economic activity so much before you create a no growth environment. Imagine borrowing against your future paychecks. You get the money now but you're going to suffer in the future and you can only do this so much before you start zeroing them out or falling below what you need to pay the bills.

    So, although I realize that cognitive dissonance often comes into play with people who want to deny that big government is anathema to our dreams and our way of life, we must remember that government creates nothing it merely reallocates and does so without absolute and perfect knowledge. Sure, they may claim to create a highway job somewhere but who is measuring the three barista jobs, the accounting job or the small business owner they destroy in shifting the work?
  • varangianguard
    So far, nobody.

    Twice now it's been, "it wasn't within our jurisdiction", or "you didn't complain when you should have". The second really gets me. The reason the complaint came "late" was that the "evidence" wasn't required to be made public until long after the election campaign cycle had begun.

    I don't know the particulars in the McAtee filing, but the Terre Haute filing came as sour grapes after a loss in a close election. Former Mayor Burke should never have filed the complaint. Ed DeLaney should have never litigated the complaint. And politicos all over Indiana should curse their names for a long time to come for ever bringing it up in the first place.

    Now, every sore loser will be trying to trot the Little Hatch Act horse out whenever they feel slighted, cheated out of something or didn't get their own way.

    And the result? A big, fat nothing, except election board futility and sometimes, attorney fees.
  • Think Again
    Well, Varan, I appreciate your input. Seriously.

    But who enforces federal Hatch Act violations, or accuastions thereto? A local election board? Seems wierd to me.
  • varangianguard
    IIRC, from the Kevin Burke attempt in Terre Haute, there is no threshold or ratios for federal funding in the exclusionary intent of the Little Hatch Act. Just yes, or no.

    Don't worry. Election Boards will just continue the way they always have, until someone files suit and beats them in a long, drawn out legal wrangle. Burke's suit just guaranteed that the Little Hatch Act will continue to be mentioned into the foreseeable future, not that any election board will actually uphold a challenge based on such a claim.
  • Think Again
    Your friends at WRTV are reporting Plowman's resignation is due in part to hie refusal to answer questions from the FBI on an ongoing federal investigation. That should be interesting. I don't wish any ill will on anyone, but I'm glad Plowman's going. A complete gasbag.

    I'm aware that if his district seat is vacant, Republican PCs fill it for the reminder of the term...and the Ping name is as good as any. But when the 2011 election rolls around, look for Democrats to try more aggressively. I hear the name Pat Andrews...she is a vice president of McANA, widely-known and respected...and everyone's tired of Plowman's nonsense so there could be some fireworks next year in that district.

    The Hatch Act situation intrigues me. Does anyone know, if it takes a certain ratio of federal/local funds going toward your salary, to trigger the Hatch questions? If so, good Lord...the recent stimulus infusions all over the country are funding hundreds of thousands of jobs. How do you source those funds and where they end up? Just asking.
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