By a vote of 202-27, Marion County Republicans Tuesday night chose Kyle Walker as their new County Chairman.   Walker ran against Lawrence at-large Council member Gary Conner.

While I thought a number of Conner’s positions on issues were a bit unorthodox and incompatible with Marion County, I have to give him credit for running.  As a matter of fact,  I actually expected a lot more people to file.  For all the whining and complaining I heard about the last few elections, you would have thought more people would have stepped up to the plate and offered an idea or two.

What’s even more hilarious are the people (Paul Ogden & Gary Welsh) who complain about the system and how the County organization needs to change, but then when you ask them why don’t they run they whine about “mummy dummies” and how the system is rigged.  Seems like a pretty convenient excuse to politically punk out.  It’s easy to whine, bitch and moan when you don’t actually have to do any real work or can’t even win a school board election.

Say what you will about Walker, or for that matter Democratic Chairman Ed Treacy or Libertarian Chairman Tim Maguire, but I will at least give them credit for stepping up to the plate as opposed to just shooting off their mouths and bringing nothing to the table.

I spoke with U.S. Senator Dick Lugar this past weekend while he was visiting the University of Indianapolis.  We chatted about the tax battle in Congress, the START nuclear treaty, DREAM Act and of course, a primary challenger for 2012. You can hear his comments below.    The entire interview is about 7 minutes long.

Richard Lugar

You can imagine I stayed up all night thinking about that one.  Not really.  But when I saw the story break that Evan Bayh was not going to run for Governor of Indiana in 2012, I was somewhat surprised, but not really shocked at all.  Anyone who’s been paying attention since February should have seen that coming.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about Evan Bayh is that he is not a risk taker by any stretch of the imagination.  I once jokingly said he won’t sneeze without thinking about it for three days.  And if there’s no chance he won’t be successful at an endeavor, it’s not likely he will do it.

Why did he get out of the race for the U.S. Senate back in February, even though he had $12 million in the bank?  He blamed it on Washington’s partisan atmosphere, which I guess must have just come out of nowhere.  He got out because he wasn’t sure he could win.

Why is Evan Bayh getting out of the race for Governor before getting in?  The same reason, he probably doesn’t think he can win.   Hoosiers made it clear in the last election that while they may be willing to split their tickets on occasion, this is still a predominately Republican state.   Second,  Bayh would have had to spend a lot of time mending fences with his own party.  A lot of Democrats are blaming Bayh for their losses this past November.  Liberals, progressives, Blacks, Labor, major Democratic constituencies  have all had an axe to grind with Bayh and those are the people you need if you’re a Democrat running statewide in Indiana.  Also, the fact that Indiana Democratic Chairman Dan Parker has been looking for a new job also tells me that a Bayh run was unlikely as Parker is a close aide and ally.

Bayh getting out of the race for Governor not only opens the race on the Democratic side, but it also opens the race for new leadership to take over the party.   The names that are being circulated for possible contenders are Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel,  Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight, Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, Lake County Roy Dominguez,  State Representative Peggy Welsh of Bloomington,  former Speaker of the House John Gregg and former Congressman Baron Hill .  On the Republican side Lt. Governor Becky Skillman and Congressman Mike Pence are the likely candidates.

When my political counterpart Amos Brown of Radio One can’t yell racism and instead has to argue on the merits, you know something is going on.  Amos, like me and several hundred other people were at Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s re-election announcement Saturday morning at the Indiana War Memorial.  Ballard was introduced by Reginald Jones, a prominent African-American businessman who owns several McDonald’s franchises here in the city.  And he was surrounded by an ethnically and economically diverse crowd of supporters.

The mayor highlighted his accomplishments which he hoped would show voters he deserves a second term.  Those achievements included the following…

• Creating and retaining more than 35,000 jobs in the last three years, as well as attracting more jobs to Indianapolis this year than in the past 10 years.

• Increasing city spending with minority-owned businesses from $15 million in 2007 to more than $57 million this year and with women-owned business, going from $2 million in 2007 to more than $20 million.

• Reducing income taxes by $7 million.

• Working to achieve a “AAA” bond rating for the city.

• Using good financial management to save the city more than $1 billion in costs regarding the Wishard project and re-engineering the city’s agreement with the federal government regarding combined sewer overflow.

• Statistics showing overall violent crime in Indianapolis is down 10% and last year’s murder rate was the lowest in 15 years.

The Mayor also pointed to Citizens Gas deal which provided nearly $425 million for infrastructure improvements, as well as the repair of city pools which had been leaking millions of gallons of water and costing taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Despite those achievements the Mayor acknowledged challenges, including continuing reforms with the police department as well as finding ways to keep the libraries open with running up deficits or tax increases.

The Mayor also acknowledged something he’s needed to do for a while, which is tell the story of Indianapolis’ successes.   It’s no big secret I agree with most of the Mayor’s agenda, I have always thought they could have done a better job of getting that message out to the voters and residents.   Now they have that chance.

No one doubts for a moment that next year’s Mayoral race won’t be competitive, to say the least.   Democrats have a clear voting edge in Marion County. The Mayor will be challenged on his handling of public safety as well things like the Pacers deal.  However I think Ballard is in a much better position today than six months ago.   The Mayor’s fundraising machine is dusting off the mothballs.  By my count  he raised more than $300,000 at a fundraiser Friday night.  Second in the back and forth with the Fraternal Order of Police, I think the FOP gave the Mayor the upper ground when it voted to pay for the legal defense for David Bisard who is accused of  killing one motorist and injuring two others earlier this year.  And I also think the Mayor’s political arm understands that they cannot take for granted that Republicans will show up at the polls, nor will they automatically write off the votes of African-Americans, Hispanics, the LGBT community or anyone else for that matter.  It also doesn’t hurt when the Marion County Democratic County Chairman is quoted as saying “unemployment, not job growth, should have been Ballard’s focus…”

I’m frankly looking forward to see what 2011 brings here in Indianapolis.  After Saturday morning, it just got a lot more interesting.

Indianapolis City-County Jackie Nytes told me Thursday night that she is not going to run for another term.  This is really bad news for the city because in my six years of covering city-county government I’ve always found Jackie to be thoughtful, articulate and overall what a good local representative should be.

Jackie told me she has a number of professional and personal commitments on her plate and she needed to focus her attention there.   I first got to know her during the debate over the human rights ordinance which prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation.  Jackie has also always had  a passion for the arts and culture, but her strongest point has always been when it came to the budget.  And we have had our philosophical differences on some local matters, there is never any doubt about her passion and love for the city of Indianapolis.

Whether it was finding money for libraries, IndyGo, calling the state on the carpet for not giving local governments more control over their financial destinies, Jackie was always a strong advocate.

By stepping down though, there is really going to be a “mind trust” deficit in the Democratic caucus.   In addition, the person named as the front-runner for her replacement is Washington Township Board President Joe Simpson whose claim to fame is giving himself a 60-percent pay raise and later falsely accusing a local television camera man of calling him a racial slur.

Luckily she will still be in office through next year.  And the even better news is that by not running for re-election she is completely free to vote her conscious and keep doing what’s right for the city without worrying about consequences and repercussions.

You go girl!

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett unveiled the details of school reform at Wednesday’s meeting of the Education Roundtable.

The main goals include…

• Identifying and rewarding great teachers and principals.

• Empowering school leaders and bring success to failing schools.

• Offering equal educational opportunities to all children and give parents a voice.

One thing I would like to see pushed in Indiana this upcoming session is a straight education voucher for parents to send their children to the schools of their choice.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that vouchers for private and parochial schools do not violate the 1st Amendment if money is given to the family and not directly to the school, so there is no legal prohibition on vouchers if done properly.   And Indiana already offers limited tax credits for school tuition, however you don’t get the tax credit until after you spend the money.

Under my “pre-voucher” plan the State can come up with a formula to figure out how much it costs to educate the average child.  Have parents fill out a form designating where their child is going and have the money electronically transferred into that school’s account.   Monthly payments can be deposited to the school in the event the child leaves during the school year and transfers to another school district.  And a certain amount of reserves can be held back to schools minimize harm if there is a major population shift during the school year.

By doing this, a parent does not have to pay twice for education if they choose to send their child to a private or parochial school.   For those who think this a continued war on public education, it isn’t.  We do this at the college and university level all the time.  Whether someone goes to Notre Dame, Butler University or Indiana Tech they still get federal financial aid. So if this system is good enough for higher education and why not do it for lower education?

And what better way to hold schools accountable than to have the parents vote with their dollars?  If we want schools to improve, we should tie their performance to the pay they get from parents.   Who’ll vouch for this?

Well, I did it.  I got a job!

You might recall less than a week ago I expressed my outrage at the thought of extending unemployment benefits because if you’ve been out of work for 99 weeks, then maybe the problem is you.    My criteria were pretty simple: no legal, governmental or media related work, I couldn’t use my extensive network of professionals and I had to take my Master’s and law degrees off the table.  I basically took 3/4ths of my life experience off the table and still found work in five days.

I applied for a job as a customer service representative at an ACS facility in Anderson, Indiana.  They’re expanding and from what I was told were looking for up 1,100 people.  I applied on-line Thursday and got a call from a recruiter on Friday.  My interview was on Tuesday.

There were a couple times during the process that everything almost went south.   One lady helping out with hiring kept looking at me like she recognized me from television.  And during the first interview the hiring manager looked my undergraduate degree in communications and journalism and asked me if I knew I was applying for a job at call center?  I told her yes, and she asked me if I was sure about what I was doing.  I told her we were good and the interview went ahead.

It was pretty standard and I was able to answer their questions in a mostly truthful manner.  They asked me what I did at my other jobs, to which I replied, I spent a lot of time taking calls from angry people and helping them solve their problems.  They asked me if I could handle with an irate caller who was abusive and uninformed.  I just smiled and said yes.  I did have to take a drug test.  Here’s a tip, never joke about have poppy seed bagels for breakfast.  Drug testers aren’t known for their sense of humor.

While waiting around I got a chance to meet some of the people who were applying for work.   I met a woman who used to manage a department store that went under.  I met an older gentleman who lost his job.  There were some younger people looking for jobs, although someone needed to tell them how to dress for an interview.  An Abercrombie sweat shirt, torn jeans and sneakers doesn’t quite say “hire me”.

I eventually met with the main hiring manager and we had a nice chat.  She walked me through a number of questions at the end of the interview she offered me a job.   The starting pay was $9 an hour, but that’s a training wage.  After 8 weeks, depending on your performance, you can make up to $13 an hour and if you work Saturdays, you get an extra dollar an hour.  There’s no limit on overtime and there’s ample opportunity for promotion and advancement.  Your only limit is what you put on yourself.  And yes, it does come with full benefits.   And since I’d likely be on the morning shift, 6:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., I could still teach and do my other part-time jobs.

Now I know some of you are going to bring up issues like child care, transportation, education, etc.  My reply, “so what”.  As my grandmother used to say  “all God’s children got problems” and you play with the hand you are dealt and deal with it.  If you are a high school dropout in the 21st Century I have very little sympathy for you.

And just for the record, I am not taking the job.  This was about proving a point.  The point was that there is work out there if you are willing to work to look for it.   And here’s another little twist for your amusement, by not taking the job I am freeing up the position for someone else who needs it.  So my experiment not only proved that there is work out there, but it also created a job.

No need to thank me, the look on your face right now is more than enough.

There’s a trick some comedians will use at open mic night contests.  If you’re playing a room you’re not familiar with, you invite all your friends, scatter them throughout the club and make sure they laugh loudly at all your jokes.   If they do it right, you win the contest.  David Bisard must be a real comedian deep down inside.

Just four days after 100 members of the Fraternal Order of Police voted to pay for Bisard’s legal defense, I’m hearing from very reliable sources who were at the vote that Bisard managed to stack the deck in his favor.   The sources, speaking on anonymity, laid out the following fact pattern.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving Bisard reportedly went to the FOP headquarters and filed an official request for representation.  I’m told the Executive Board of the FOP usually meets on the last Thursday of the month and the general membership meets on the first Thursday of the month.  In this case the last meeting would have been the 18th since the last Thursday was Thanksgiving.

Sources say when Bisard filed his request the Board was not aware of it because they had already met and according to FOP bylaws any request for representation must be heard at the next business meeting.    Therefore, sources tell me, when December 2 came around, the day of the business meeting, Bisard had time to get the message out to his supporters and friends to show up and vote for him.   On average I’m told only 30-40 people show up for general FOP business meetings, this time it was 100.

This entire matter has outraged a number of officers who say they did not know about the vote, and if they had, they would have shown up and voted no.  A number of them plan to show up at the next general meeting of the FOP in January and vote to revoke the legal representation.

For the past few days I’ve been trying to get my arms around the decision by the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police to pay for the legal defense of David Bisard.    We all know the story, Bisard is accused of reckless homicide for killing one motorist and injuring two others back in August.   Although he did not show any signs of intoxication at the scene, it was later discovered his blood alcohol content level was 0.19.

FOP President Bill Owensby says the organization voted to defend Bisard because he’s entitled to due process.  When asked about the BAC test Owensby said it didn’t come up in discussions and had Bisard been charged with OWI, he would not have received representation.  He pointed to the city’s report of the Bisard case that noted more than five dozen witnesses did not notice any sign of impairment by Bisard.  He then went on to say the FOP is not defending Bisard’s actions, but making sure he has due process.

I understand the point of the FOP, like any professional organization, is to defend its members who are accused of wrongdoing in the course of their duties.  But I can’t understand for the life of me why the FOP would want to take on something this toxic, particularly when the organization has a choice.

The FOP did not defend officer Candi Perry who was accused last year of  concealing information regarding a homicide.  Perry was later exonerated.  The FOP did defend Jerry Piland who was accused of using excessive force against Brandon Johnson.  I can understand the Piland decision because there was an issue about whether the force was excessive, but David Bisard, I can’t grasp.  Yes, everyone is entitled to due process, but that doesn’t mean you have to foot the bill for their day in court.

In addition, in the back and forth public relations war between the FOP and Public Safety Director Frank Straub, the defense of Bisard doesn’t score any points in the eyes of the public.   Owensby did tell me that the membership could come together and vote to revoke Bisard’s representation.  No word yet on whether that will happen.

You can hear my entire 12-minute interview with Owensby from this morning by clicking below.

Bill Owensby Interview

As always there’s nothing like a few Sunday morning tidbits to get the week started.   I do plan to expand on some of these items this week, particularly the Mayor’s re-election bid and the Indianapolis FOP’s decision to pay for David Bisard’s legal defense.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard all but announced he is going to run for re-election.  A formal announcement is expected this coming Saturday.  I’ll be interested in seeing if anyone has done any polling over the course of the next 30 days to see how the incumbent matches up against the challengers.  Democrats reportedly have done a poll, but the results, obviously, haven’t been made public.  The Mayor will be a guest on the morning show Tuesday at 8:08 a.m.

The Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police’s decision to pay for the legal defense of David Bisard has a lot of people in this town scratching their heads.  Bisard is accused of driving drunk in a squad car back in August and killing one motorist while injuring two others.  I’m told there were about 200-300 officers present at the vote which was overwhelmingly in favor of paying for Bisard’s defense.  According to media reports newly re-elected FOP President Bill Owensby because the report concerning the case revealed none of the witnesses at the scene saw Bisard was intoxicated he entitled to defense since he was performing within the scope of his duties.   This raises a couple questions; what about the blood alcohol draw?  While inadmissible, no one has contested its validity.  Secondly, the only way Bisard’s attorney can mount a credible defense is to attack other officers for not following procedure and if the attorney is representing Bisard can he do that without a serious ethical breach?  And why vote to defend Bisard and not Candi Perry? Bill Owensby will be our guest Monday at 8:38 a.m.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of  Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett will unveil the details of their school reform plan this Wednesday at the Education Roundtable.  I spoke to the Governor at an Economic Club of Indiana lunch on Friday.  He said his plan will pretty much be what he’s been discussing publicly, more choice for parents, better measurements for accountability and allowing seniors who can finish high school in three years to start college early using the state dollars they would have spent in their senior year.   I’m also hearing the state may offer parents a “tuition refund” which they can use to send their children to the public or private school of their choice.  Since the tax dollars are being refunded to the parent, the Courts have recognized that does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution since the parents would be paying for religious-based education and not the state.    Dr. Tony Bennett will be a guest on the morning show this coming Thursday at 7:08 a.m.

The maneuvering continues in the 2012 race for Governor.  I’m told that despite the talk of running for President, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence has quietly lining up support for a gubernatorial bid by reaching to key lobbyists and fundraisers.  Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, I am told, is in the race regardless of what Pence decides to do and she may have a trick or two up her sleeve ready to go for the primary.  Stay tuned.  Lt. Governor Becky Skillman will be a guest on the morning show this Wednesday at 8:08 a.m.

That’s all for now.  There are some other things going this week, but I wanted to keep this blog post to about 600 words.  By the way, the “job search” continues to go well.  I’ll fill you in later.