The anti-smoking people are about to be at it again. They are holding a town hall meeting next week at the IUPUI campus.   The main purpose of the meeting is that it is about the dangers of second hand smoke, but remember these are the same people who would like to expand the anti-smoking ordinance to ALL bars, restaurants and private clubs in Marion County. Under the current rules smoking is only allowed in establishments that don’t allow minors. The meeting will be on the 24th. Stay tuned and smoke ’em while you can.

Here’s some food for thought.  I’m running into more and more people who tell me that if Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee for President they will vote for him, but also vote for Mitch Daniels for Governor.  What do you make of it?

I’ve been making some calls about Barack Obama and Andre Carson’s endorsements of each other and the members of the political class I spoke with all seem to agree that the race is now Carson’s to lose.

Obama will likely win the the 7th District by a strong margin over Hillary Clinton and there was nothing in it for Carson to support Clinton.  If anything, he would have probably  lost votes to one of his other three main competitors.  By tying his name to Obama, Carson hopes to keep some of those voters (mainly the new ones) and get them to keep their ballot long enough to vote for him.  I argue this shows the race is probably a lot closer than anyone feels comfortable with.  Also, it will be interesting to see the impact on Dr. Woody Myers’ campaign, because he has been targeting new voters with his commercials.

A few other things to keep in mind, first if you are Jim Schellinger or Jill Long Thompson, you want those new voters to stick around and vote for you and not turn in their ballots after voting for the President or Congress.

Second, Karl Rove was in town yesterday for a fundraiser for Mike Sodrel.  He told the small crowd that Obama would be his candidate of choice, because Republicans could compete better against him in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio. Be careful what you wish for.

And this 7th Congressional District candidate would be happy to get any attention.

I’m hearing 7th District Congressman and candidate Andre Carson may endorse Barack Obama today. Carson has been on the fence for a few months every time I asked him. Carson is also a super delegate.

A formal endorsement would also signal a tight race in the 7th and by supporting Obama, Carson would be endearing himself to the 7th District Democratic voters where polls show Obama is winning overwhelmingly against Hillary Clinton.

11:05 a.m. Update:  Apparently on a conference call this morning, Carson told reporters Obama is going to endorse him for Congress and that the deal was worked out prior to his support for Obama.

A new poll out by the LA Times and Bloomberg found Barack Obama ahead of Hillary Clinton by 5 points here in the Hoosier state. The poll surveyed 691 likely voters. However it was done right as the latest Obama controversy was taking shape. Obama leads 40-35 with 19 percent undecided, so the dynamics could still change according to the poll. The poll also shows Clinton’s Pennsylvania lead narrowing to 5 points and Obama ahead by 13 in North Carolina.

Two measures were introduced at last night’s City-County Council meeting; one would reduce the Public Safety Tax by 0.5 percent.  Sponsor Vernon Brown says part of the tax was increased to cover the pre-1977 police pension debt, but since the state has now picked up that burden, Brown says the money should be returned to the taxpayers.  Mayor Greg Ballard says he wants to repeal the entire tax increase, however he wants to do it as part of government reform and overhaul. 

I always said the tax increase was a bad idea at the time because Hoosiers were facing massive increases in their property taxes.  In the wake of events at the Legislature, I would rather keep the tax in place and use it to ease the burden on property taxpayers. Officials continue to look for ways to cut spending and find efficiencies.

The second proposal (actually there are two versions pending before the Council) would alter the city personnel code and allow the Mayor to name a fire chief from outside the Indianapolis Fire Department.  Currently the chief must come from within IFD.  The Mayor wants to change the rule and do a nationwide search.  The fire fighters union is very skeptical of the plan, saying the best candidates for chief would come from within the department because they would understand the culture of IFD.  My thought, the best person should be hired for the job, regardless of where they are from.

Say what you will about Barack Obama, but I don’t think you want to use the term “boy” anywhere near his name.

Someone recently asked me what I thought when politicians misspeak?  I said “not much.”   It happens all the time.  Whether it’s Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain.  I expect them to make misstatements.   It happens when you talk a lot and live in the age of YouTube and camera phones.

The trick is what you do afterwards.  You can try to clarify them like Barack has done with “clinging” comment or McCain with his “in Iraq for 100 years” comments.   Or you can keep repeating the misstatement as Hillary did with her trip to Bosnia. 

Fundamentally, I don’t think they change too much of anything.   What you take from these comments is pretty much what you bring to them.  If you like the candidate, nothing changes.  If you don’t like them, nothing changes. 

If you really want to know what someone thinks, look at what they write.   That is a lot more telling than what they say.

Well, I went and did it. I panhandled in downtown Indianapolis on Friday for a couple hours. It was an interesting experiment to say the least. Let me share my story.

I didn’t go with the total “bum” look. I just wore clothes, that for me were very dressed down. I had my change cup. It was one I got from Victory Field so I could help promote the city with my experiment. And the corner I chose to shake my cup and ask for change was Washington and Meridian. I chose it not only because it was a very busy intersection, but it was the volunteer headquarters for Barack Obama. Insert your own joke here about asking for change.

I held up my sign (I had four made and would rotate. Each had a clever message about change) and waited for the money to come rolling in. I made it a point to obey the law. I stayed away from banks and ATMs. I never asked anyone directly for cash. I just stood there and smiled. I didn’t go near the street, nor next to another panhandler.

I started panhandling at 11:55 a.m. I had the first bit of change come in at 11:58. A lot of people walked by and didn’t want to make eye contact. The ones that did and read the sign would smile, but the real smart ones got the whole joke about someone standing by Barack Obama’s office and asking for change. They were the ones who dropped the coins in the cup.

I ran into IMPD police chief Mike Spears while begging and he and I were chatting about what I was doing and people still dropped change in the cup. Despite the fact there was the chief and another officer there. Mayor Greg Ballard and Dr. Woody Myers both stopped by. The Mayor gave me a quarter; Dr. Myers, two cents. One of his staffers later brought me a beer in a paper bag, which I did not drink until I got to my downtown place.  The Obama people were cool about the whole deal.  A couple of them came out and took pictures with me.

One passerby asked me what I was going to do with the money, I told him buy alcohol and tobacco (actually a martini and cigar) and give the rest to charity.* He told me was impressed with my honesty and entrepreneurial spirit and gave me a couple bucks. Even some of the downtown panhandlers who walked by were impressed by my operation.

By the time I was done I managed to collect about $30; most of it came between noon and one. $30 for two hours worth of begging wasn’t bad coinage. I made $15 an hour which is slightly less than the average paying job in Indiana. The way I figured it out, if I converted that cash into a real job I either made the equivalent of $31,000 annually in pre-tax income or $44,000 a year if that was my after tax income. Nice work if you can get it.

I now understand why people panhandle, there’s money in it. I was shocked by how much money you can make if this is all you do. Granted some days will be better than others, but if you beg between the hours of 7-9, 11-1 and 4-6, and find the right corner of town you can rake in a lot of tax free money. I’m not even counting big convention events.

But despite all that, the real culprits in the panhandling scam are us, the givers. If we didn’t give, the panhandlers would go away. It’s like why Willie Sutton robbed banks, because that’s where the money was. Why do people beg downtown? Because that’s where we give them money. The city is starting a new anti-panhandling program encouraging the public to give to charity instead of beggars. I agree.

If more people gave to charity and none to the beggars this problem would all but vanish overnight. And I could spend my Friday afternoons at the Columbia Club, instead of standing on a corner asking for change.

*Editor’s note: I am not keeping the money I raised. It’s going to the Wheeler Mission on Monday. They could use it a lot more than me.

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton swung through Indianapolis this morning taking swipes at China and Barack Obama.   Hillary visited the Allison Transmission plant on the city’s west side touting it as a good example of the American economy being tied to American defense.

She took aim at what she called the outsourcing of America’s security by having parts of America’s defense systems being manufactured overseas, China in particular.   She said as President she would make sure that parts necessary to America’s defense were made in America.

Clinton also took aim at remarks made by rival Barack Obama which she said were elitist.  Obama said some voters in “small town” Pennsylvania   were bitter about the government and so they held on tightly to their “God and guns.”

Clinton said people don’t need a President who looks down on them.

Clinton supporter, U.S. Senator Evan Bayh said he did not think Obama was an elitist, but he did think the remarks would just give fodder to use against the candidate should he win his parties nomination.

In a related sidebar two prominent local Democrats says Clinton has her work cut our for her in Marion County.  Both County Auditor  Billie Breaux and County Chairman Mike O’Connor say Obama will likely do very well in Indianapolis; mainly because of the voters in the 7th Congressional District.