I’m sitting in the balcony at Shortridge Middle School waiting for Marion County Democrats to begin slating their candidate for the 7th Congressional District to replace the late Julia Carson. The voting starts at 10 a.m. and 599 precinct committeemen are eligible to vote.

I’ve run into a number of candidates, Andre Carson, Carolene Mays, David Orentlicher, Randle Pollard and Mike Rodman and they all feel good about today. None of them feel this matter will be settled in the first few rounds of voting.

I’ll be live blogging all day so check back frequently.

We’re a little more than 24 hours away from Democrats slating their candidate for the 7th Congressional District and 48 hours from the Republicans slating theirs. There has been quite a bit of behind the scenes activity on both sides and that makes me think the slatings will either go very quickly or very slowly.

On the Republican side the party divisions seem to break along 46th Street. The folks who live above 46th Street tend to favor former Jerusalem Post editor and sometimes fill-in talk show host Tom Rose while everyone south of 46th Street is more partial to State Representative Jon Elrod. There is also talk that some of the GOP’s power base is backing Rose because he can raise the money needed to run in a special race and, ironically, he would have almost no chance at winning over voters in the 7th District with his “enthusiastic” ideological conservative views. Thereby, Democrats would not be motivated to take the seat back in November 2008, coming out in droves in Marion County, and hindering Governor Mitch Daniels chances for re-election. I am not making this up. I just tell you what I’ve been able to gather. 

On the Democratic side, my guess is their slating will either go by very quickly or Jesus will be back before they’re done. I am hearing rumblings of disgruntled precinct committeemen and candidates from all over the place, dirty tricks, intimidation, etc. It’s no big secret City-County Councilmember Andre Carson is the early favorite, however the way the power brokers have pushed Carson on the party all they’ve managed to do is get under the skin of a lot of people. It looks like coalitions are being formed to unite the opposition as candidates become eliminated from slating as the votes are tallied. If Carson can’t get more than 40 percent of the vote on the first round, we are going to be in for a long day.

By the way, the most fun match up would be Tom Rose and Andre Carson, because I can’t wait to see what happens when Rose loses it and calls Carson (who is a Muslim) an “Islamofacist” during a debate and all hell breaks loose.

Play ball!

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday for and against Indiana’s Voter ID law.  You know the routine.  Proponents says it’s necessary to protect the voting process.  Opponents say it disenfranchises the poor (even though you need a photo ID to get poor relief in any township in Marion County), minorities and the elderly, even though they never brought one plaintiff who was denied the right to vote.   If opponents of voter ID want to find disenfranchised voters, I know where they can get at least 3100.

There were the 3100 who were disenfranchised when their polling places didn’t open during the May 2007 primary.  You remember that fiasco, don’t you?  You remember when several polling places either opened late or didn’t open at all?  You remember when more than 3100 voters were disenfranchised because the Clerk’s Office didn’t do it’s job by having the necessary manpower?  Of course you do!  Well, could you do a brotha’ a favor and go sue somebody on their behalf?  I think they will be easier to find than the voters who were “disenfranchised” because of Voter ID.

Anyone hoping to walk after being arrested by a member of the Indianapolis Police Department because the officers were not officially sworn in can forget about it. The Indiana Supreme Court unanimously upheld the drunk driving arrest of Chery Oddi-Smith, who challenged the arrest saying the officer had not been sworn in as a new member of the department following the merger last year.

In its six-page opinion the Court said there was no requirement in law or statute that the officers be re-sworn following the merger of the Indianapolis Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, therefore the arrest was upheld.

The opinion was written by Chief Justice Randall Shepard.

I have a date with the dentist today, so I only have a couple items to post quickly about.

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing Indiana Voter ID case at this hour.  Proponents says it’s necessary to prevent voter fraud.  Opponents say it disenfranchises the poor, elderly and minorities.  I frankly don’t see what the big deal is and I question where these advocates for the poor, elderly and disenfranchised were when more than 3100 Marion County voters were disenfranchised when their polling places didn’t open in the 2007 May Primary.

Also, the list of finalists are in for the Democrats’ Saturday slating for the 7th Congressional District.  The nominees are City-County Councilors André Carson and Joanne Sanders, State Representatives Carolene Mays and David Orentlicher, local attorney Randle Pollard, Marion County Treasurer Mike Rodman, IPS Principal Jeffrey White, Stephanie McCabe and Frances Nelson Williams.  Former State Health Commissioner Woody Meyers is avoiding the special election and will run in the May Primary.  My sources tell me State Rep Greg Porter was “convinced” to step aside by some local power brokers.

On the Republican side the two candidates are still State Rep Jon Elrod and sometimes talk show host, Tom Rose.  There is some funny business going on in this race, but I’m running late for the dentist, so I’ll try to have more later today.

Now I have to sit in a chair for a few hours with my mouth open and unable to talk.  Death, where is thy sting?!

I’ve been doing some homework on the race for the 7th Congressional District, mainly the mechanics of how all this is going to work. The race on the Democratic side is obviously more interesting than the Republicans because there are more characters involved. But here is how it is going to work. There are 590 precinct committeemen eligible to vote in the special Saturday caucus. However a candidate only needs a majority of the committeemen present to win and assuming all eight candidates who have been named show up, they will fight for those votes. Think of it as “political Survivor.”

The ballots are cast and the lowest vote getter is eliminated. The party will then do another round of voting and the lowest vote getter will be eliminated and so on and so on. So we could literally see eight rounds of voting on Saturday. And take note, the voting will be done on electronic voting machines which will need 30 minutes to be reset after each round of voting, so this could take a few hours. And in those 30-minute windows expect some serious lobbying to be taking place.

While I still think the dynamics inherently favor Carson, the more I talk to local Democrats the more resentment there is toward the way he is being presented by local power brokers as the “heir apparent” to his late grandmother’s seat. There are even accusations that the County Democratic organization has been using employees and other office resources to contact precinct committeemen to convince them to vote for Carson, much to the chagrin of other candidates.

I argue if Carson doesn’t get more than 40-percent of the precinct committeemen vote on the first round, he is going to have some serious issues. Because he will have to find votes from people who want someone else.

I plan to live blog from the event so check back here this weekend.

Registration starts at 8:45 a.m. and the voting begins at 10 a.m.

There have been rumors circulating for months about the mental health capacity of Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson. I personally don’t believe them, but I do wonder what is going through his head these days.

An ordinance was officially introduced last night to put control of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department under the control of the Mayor’s Office. Anderson is renewing his call for a referendum on who should control IMPD. I will forgo the usual line that there was already a referendum that was called the last election, but instead point out that in the original consolidation legislation there was referendum language, but it was opposed by former Mayor Bart Peterson and taken out.

Anderson is leaving office after this term, so why should he care about who is in control of IMPD? What is this really all about? This is about his chief deputy Kerry Forestal. Forestal has been running for the job since the Spring of 2007 and Anderson has endorsed him. (Forestal is white by the way, so any argument that power is being taken away from the Black sheriff is silly and without merit.) If IMPD is taken away from the Sheriff’s department then Forestall won’t have any toys to play with and no power to get intoxicated on.

This is not about referendums and the will of the people, this about power and politics. Anderson and his cronies are about to lose it and they are desperately trying to hold on to it for as long as possible.

Control of IMPD can’t be taken away from these guys soon enough.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has set March 11 as the date for the special election to fill the vacancy left by the late Congresswoman Julia Carson. I told you back in December that this was one of the dates to pay attention to. When it comes to Indiana politics, why read any other blog in town, except for Capitol Watchblog? :-)

And remember, Democrats and Republicans will slate their candidates this weekend.

Now I’m offended. During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Hilary Clinton held back tears saying it’s not easy to run for President. She just came off a major loss in Iowa and now falling behind in New Hampshire at every tick of the clock. I was always skeptical of Hilary’s candidacy to begin with and this just makes me even more cynical. Save the tears for somebody else, you’re not helping your candidacy and in fact setting back the cause of female elected officials about 100 years.

The Washington Post’s website has a clip of Hilary almost crying right here.

It was a busy day for a Monday.

Two candidates for the 7th Congressional District stopped by, local attorney Randle Pollard and County Treasurer Mike Rodman. Both had similar positions on Iraq and health care. They want to bring the troops home, but do it in an orderly fashion that doesn’t jeopardize democracy in Iraq nor security in the United States. When asked about Andre Carson, the current front runner on the Democratic side, Rodman said he was focusing on his own race. Pollard says Democrats need someone they can unite behind because there is no guarantee that they will hold on to the seat after the March 11 special election.  He also says he was not put up by local power brokers to split the anti-Carson vote.  Pollard is an attorney at Ice Miller and he says he’s putting his career on the line by running for the job.

State Senator Jim Merritt also stopped by this morning. He’s amended his Marion County Government Reduction plan. It would create one county-wide fire department, with professional standards and put control of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police department solely under the control of the Mayor’s Office. It will also allow the City-County Council to vote on abolishing the Township Trustees’ offices by 2011. It will put the small claims courts under the Superior Courts and reduce the number from nine to five. The township constables would be eliminated in favor of a warrant officer put under control of the Superior courts. Separate legislation is being introduced to combine the offices of Country Treasurer, Auditor and City Comptroller and would eliminate the Coroner’s Office in favor of a regional medical examiner.