Have you seen the story of the inmate who was left unattended in a Marion County Jail holding cell for two days with no food?  James Logan was put in the holding cell after being sentenced on drug charges.  He was left there until Sunday afternoon when a deputy noticed him.   All Logan had was a fountain that provided drinking water and a toilet.  One deputy was fired and two were suspended. 

I am told this is not the first time something like this has happened at the Marion County Jail.   I have a couple questions for you to ponder?  Who runs the jail and why should we let them stay in charge of the police department with stories like this running around?

Now this is ironic.  Instead of taking the voting machines back downtown to the election board after Saturday’s Democratic caucus,  some party insiders went to lunch at Binkley’s on College Avenue.  While staffers were having lunch, someone was breaking into one of the vehicles.  According to my sources, the criminals stole some of the voting machines, probably mistaking them for laptops.  The votes had already been counted so it doesn’t change the outcome.  But it is kind of funny that most elections get stolen before the votes get counted, and only in Marion County does it happen after the votes are tallied.

Don’t expect Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to stray too much from the subject of property taxes when he gives his state of the state address on Tuesday. Lt. Governor Becky Skillman says the speech has been written since Thanksgiving and will likely be the shortest of his four State of the State speeches.

Skillman also told me this morning that the Governor will layout where the state was when he took office and where it is now. She also says he will reiterate his call for lawmakers to pass his property tax relief and reform plan. Although lawmakers heard testimony last week on the elimination of property taxes, Skillman says the Governor is open to the idea if lawmakers can make the numbers work.

The Lt. Governor also says there would be no short-term harm done if the General Assembly were to pass SJR-8, a Constitutional amendment that would abolish property taxes in Indiana, because it would be four to five years before the measure would go into effect if it passed as second general Assembly and the voters approved it in a statewide referendum. Skillman says the measure could always be pulled back at a later date and she also reminded Hoosiers that SJR-8 would do nothing in the near term to reduce their property taxes.

The Governor will deliver his address tomorrow night. You can catch expanded coverage of the speech on RTV 6.

Now that we have two candidates for the March 11 special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of Congresswoman Julia Carson, I can handicap the race. While there is no arguing that the 7th District has been strongly Democratic, there is some evidence that this race will be somewhat competitive. I used the last four 7th District races for my analysis: 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Carson beat Marvin Scott in 2000 59-40 percent, by a 30,000-vote margin. She beat Brose McVey in 2002, 53-44 percent, by a 13,000-vote margin. The Congresswoman won in 2004 against Andy Horning by 54-43 percent or by about 24,000 votes. In 2006, Carson won by a smaller spread, 54-46 against Eric Dickerson with about a 10,000-vote margin.

We can extrapolate a couple things from these results. The obvious one is that Marion County has been Democratic for a while. The subtler one is in non-presidential/gubernatorial years the margin of victory is smaller and in 2006 the victory was the smallest being the same as the straight ticket spread, regardless it’s still a victory.

For Democrat Andre Carson and Republican Jon Elrod working against this backdrop, both face unique challenges. Carson only won with a tad more than half the voting delegates at his slating convention so he will have to work to unify his party. He will face primary challenges from State Representative David Orentlicher and former State health Commissioner Woody Meyers. His work will be made more difficult by the fact that Marion County Democrats are split along racial, philosophical and geographical boundaries as evidenced by Saturday’s vote. However the biggest divide is the perception that the “old machine” (i.e. the Center Township crowd) manipulated the slating process to ensure a Carson victory. Carson, a very likeable guy, will have his hands full with that political albatross around his neck.

For Elrod, he doesn’t have to worry about a divided political party however as the numbers demonstrate, he has an uphill fight. He also faces a County Democratic Party that has it’s political back to the wall. After losing the Mayor’s office, the City-County Council local Democrats want to win because they don’t have a choice. To lose the 7th Congressional District would be the equivalent of being cast in the political abyss. Elrod does have two victories under his belt in Center Township, State Representative and Center Township board, those are no small tasks, but you can’t ignore the reality of the numbers.

May the best man win.

By a healthy 66-percent vote total, freshman Republican State Representative Jon Elrod won his party’s nomination tonight to run for Congress in the March 11 special election to replace the late Julia Carson. Elrod will face Carson’s grandson, City-County Councilmember Andre Carson. Elrod beat three other challengers including Tom Rose, a part-time talk show host and youth advocate Gabrielle Campo.

Elrod says he will run on a platform of fiscal reform and constituent services. He says he wants to eliminate wasteful spending and make sure Hoosiers get a good return on the tax dollars they send to Washington.

In his campaign literature, Elrod cited a poll conducted by Democratic State Representative Carolene Mays showing him only three points behind Carson (41-38-21) in a race for the 7th Congressional District. Elrod says he is a proven candidate who can win in Democratic areas. He beat incumbent Democrat Ed Mahern by eight votes in 2006.

Elrod also says he has a local and national fundraiser which he says are crucial in a race he calls a sprint because of the short campaign period.

Elrod also won his party’s slating endorsement over the other candidates.

Indianapolis City-County Councilmember Andre Carson emerged victorious this morning as the winner of the Democratic Caucus to become the nominee for special election for the 7th Congressional District. He won a field of eight candidates with 50.7 percent of the vote. He had 223 of the 439 votes cast.

The second place finisher, David Orentlicher had 123 votes or 27 percent and he plans to run in the May 6th primary. The rest of the candidates were in double or single digits.

I think the big challenge for Carson will be to unite his party behind him. Getting 50.7 percent of the vote means 49.3 percent of the delegates wanted someone else. Carson’s biggest problem will not be him, but the Democratic establishment which backed him and as some candidates and precinct committeemen griped to me personally the establishment force fed Carson down the throats of the rest of the party. Some of that opposition may try to unite behind a primary challenger.

If Carson can unite his party, he will have won half the battle. His next big challenge, if he wins the May primary, will be to fight voter complacency. There is a sense that because his last name is Carson and the the 7th District is primarily Democratic, that he will automatically coast to victory which could lead to a lower voter turnout and perhaps a result no one would have ever expected.

The special election will be held on March 11. Republicans will slate their candidate tomorrow night at the State Fairgrounds. Libertarians will officially nominate their candidate later this week. The likely nominee will be small businessman and local anti-property tax activist Sean Sheppard.

7:30 p.m. Update – The Libertarians tonight did select Sean Sheppard to be their candidate for the 7th Congressional District.   He will be formally nominated later in the week.

The first round of voting is complete out of 599 eligible precinct committeemen, 440 were registered to vote today, or about 73 percent. The vote totals are …

Andre Carson – 223 (he wins with more than 50% of the vote)

Carolene Mays -26

Stephanie McCabe – 1

David Orenlichter – 123

Randle Pollard – 6

Mike Rodman -27

Joanne Sanders – 21

Jeffrey White -8

Andre is now the nominee.

It’s 11 a.m. and the first round of voting is still going on.  There are several more rows of delegates left.  There is some talk that Andre Carson may make it on to the second round, however I just saw supporters of Randle Pollard convince a delegate to not for Carson.  I’ll report back when the first votes are tallied.

The first round of voting has begun. The list of candidates as they appear on the ballot is as follows…

Andre Carson

Carolene Mays

Stephanie McCabe

David Orenlichter

Randle Pollard

Mike Rodman

Joanne Sanders

Jeffrey White

As the candidates were introduced Andre and Carolene seemed to get the loudest applause.

It’s a little after 10 a.m. and  Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker is calling the delegates to order.   There has already been some controversy.  I’ve discovered that a number of candidates were sold the wrong lists of precinct committeemen.  And at $500 a pop, that could be a little annoying.  Especially when you’re trying to contact them to vote for you.   No word yet on whether they will get their money back.