This week is going to be insanely busy in the world of Indiana government and politics.  Here’s a summary…

Monday – The first meeting of the new City-County Council.  Measures have been introduced to put IMPD back under the control of the Mayor and to ban Council attorneys from representing Councilmembers in their private matters. 

Also, there is a forum tonight at the Fire Fighters union hall on Mass Ave.  Democratic candidates who are running for the 7th Congressional District will be there.

Tuesday – The first day of the Indiana General Assembly and perhaps the last day of some presidential campaigns with the New Hampshire primary.

Wednesday – The U.S. Supreme Court hears Indiana’s Voter ID Case.

Saturday – Democrats slate their candidate for the 7th Congressional District.

Sunday – Republicans slate their candidate for the 7th Congressional District.

I originally wrote this piece for this past Friday’s TV editorial for RTV 6. With the New Hampshire Primary just a couple days away, I thought it was worth repeating here.

Before anyone gets too excited or too depressed about the Iowa caucus victories for Barack Obama or Mike Huckabee and losses for Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romeny, allow me to sprinkle a little rain on your parade and add some sunshine to your cloudy day.

A win in Iowa doesn’t mean you will win your party’s nomination for the Presidency. Just look back at Bob Dole in 1988 or Tom Harkin in 1992. And to be honest if you lose Iowa in a contested primary, I argue you’re not only more likely to not only win your party’s nomination but also the Presidency: Jimmy Carter in 1976, Reagan in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Bill Clinton in 1992.

Now that doesn’t mean Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney can fully count on history as past indicators of future performance. They both spent a lot of time and money to build an organization in Iowa and this is a major setback on the road to New Hampshire.

What should scare Hillary are the independents that came out strongly for Barack because there are a lot of them in New Hampshire and what should scare Romney is that John McCain is running strong in the Granite state and he may deliver the knockout blow to his multi-million dollar campaign.

This is just the first round folks. And there are a lot more rounds to go until Election Day. The Huckaboom could become a Huckabust and Hillary could find a way to get out from between Barack and a hard place. We’ll be watching.

For those of you interested in the race to fill the vacancy in the 7th  Congressional District, I’ll be speaking to two of the candidates on my radio show (1430 AM, WXNT) Monday morning.   I’ll be interviewing Marion County Treasurer Mike Rodman at 7:10 a.m. and Ice Miller Attorney Randle Pollard at 7:35 a.m.

Democrats will slate their candidate on January 12 and Republicans on the 13th.  Both State Party Chairman are asking Governor Mitch Daniels to set the special election date for March 11.

State party leaders are recommending Governor Mitch Daniels set March 11 as the date for the special election to fill the Congressional vacancy left by the late Julia Carson.

Republican State Chairman Murray Clark says they wanted to have the election on Saturday the 8th, however there were several concerns that a special election would take place on the same day as the NCAA women’s tournament in Indianapolis. In addition, no alcohol could be sold on an election day, regardless of when it takes place.

In addition there were some religious concerns that an election would be held on the Sabbath, which would complicate matters for some voters of the Jewish faith.

Democrats will slate their candidate to replace the late Carson on January 12.  Republicans will slate on the 13th.

Former City-County Council Attorney Aaron Haith will have to find a new line of work to earn extra income. A Council proposal has been introduced that would bar Council attorneys (majority and minority) from representing Councilors in private matters.

While he was Council Attorney Haith represented former President Monroe Gray in business matters as well as former at-large Ron Gibson who was accused of shoving a police officer outside a night club last summer.

Haith has been retained as Minority Counsel for the Democrats. He is also the subject of an investigation by the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary review arm.

The author of the ordinance is District 2 Councilor Angela Mansfield, a Democrat.

Heads up! An ordinance will be introduced on Monday’s first City-County Council meeting to take control of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department from Sheriff Frank Anderson and put it under the control of Mayor Greg Ballard. Republicans have a 16-13 majority on the Council, so I don’t think there will be much of a problem getting it passed.

I’m also hearing that language will be included in Marion County Government consolidation legislation this session that will require the General Assembly to approve any effort to return control of IMPD back to the Sheriff.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has chosen his Director of Public Works. Ballard selected David Sherman for the position. According to the Mayor’ office Sherman brings more than 30 years of executive management to the job.

A statement released says Sherman has expertise in public-private partnerships, labor relations, construction and operational management, minority business development, and community partnerships.

In 2003, Sherman retired from United Water, a partner in White River Environmental Partnership (WREP) that manages wastewater treatment plants in Indianapolis and Gary, and manages numerous municipal water and wastewater projects across the U.S. While leading the WREP project in Indianapolis, Sherman developed a technical and academic program with Arlington High School (similar to the Adopt-A-School program) and developed mentoring programs to help women and minority owned businesses.

Sherman has also received several national awards for projects in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Burbank and Los Angeles in California.

The Ballard administration also says Sherman has created effective public-private partnerships that “streamline municipal operations while providing higher quality service at a lower cost.”

Throw another name into the hat for the Congress in the 7th District.  City-County Councilor and Minority leader Joanne Sanders is getting into the race.  My fellow blogger Bil Browning at The Bilerico Project has more details.  I have gathered from my Democratic sources that Sanders support comes mostly from southside Democrats who are looking for an alternative to Andre Carson,  presumed front-runner and the grandson of the late Julia Carson.

Marion County Republicans will slate their candidate for the 7th Congressional District on January 13, the day after Democrats slate theirs.  The slating will take place that day at the State Fairgrounds before the Colts playoff game at 4:30 p.m.   The date was originally set for January 12.   It also looks like the special election will occur sometime between March 4 and 11. Stay tuned.

Well it wasn’t dinner, but a very polite conversation and I couldn’t come up with a better blog title. I spoke with Democratic City-County Councilor Andre Carson tonight about his candidacy for the seat that was held by his grandmother, Julia Carson, until her death last year.

Carson says he’s been hitting the precincts pretty hard in anticipation of the January 12 special slating of Marion County Democrats to nominate a candidate to run in a special election to fill out the rest of the late Congresswoman’s term. He says he expects a competitive race as some of his opponents worked to line up precinct committeeman votes while he was in mourning and he also expects some to run against the slate in a general election.

I asked Carson about the criticism levied at him that he is being “anointed” for the seat because he is Julia’s grandson. He says it is legitimate concern because of the potential for abuse, but he he was running to continue his grandmother’s tradition of being a voice for those citizens who had none and not about carrying on a family name. He also says he supports removing most American troops from Iraq, but realizes some would have to stay for stability. And while he believes in universal health care, universal insurance will likely be the more pragmatic route to go. He also said he would be an advocate for community block grants and providing schools with funding so they could comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Carson also said his age and experience are legitimate issues, acknowledging that the candidates who have filed or will soon file have impressive resumes, but he does question whether some of those candidates are running because they want to be advocates, saying he is not going for the job to add to his resume. He also pointed to other elected officials such as former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford who had little political experience before taking office.

I also asked Carson about his ties with controversial figure Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan, who spoke at Julia’s funeral. He says Farrakhan spoke at his grandmother’s request and he takes a more moderate approach to his Islamic faith, even though he was raised a Christian.

Carson was just elected to his first full-term as a City-County Councilor in District 15. He ran unopposed. He was appointed last year to take the place of former Councilor Patrice Abduallah who resigned after it was discovered he did not live in his District.

On the Democratic side, the list of contenders includes State Representatives Carolene Mays, David Orentlicher, Greg Porter, County Treasurer Mike Rodman, former State Party Chairman Robin Winston and former state health commissioner Woody Myers.