Today has not been a great day for Marion County Democrats.

City-County Council Member Patrice Abduallah formally tendered his resignation today, admitting he did not live in his district. Abduallah admitted he did not live in his district as reported here. He said he was devested at the decision, but proud to have served.

Meanwhile Lawrence Township Trustee Mike Hobbs was charged with theft and misconduct for reportedly taking a check from the Castleton Fire Department to pay his rent.

And to add insult to injury City-County Council President Monroe Gray says he got robbed. Gray went to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office to file charges against an employee for theft but was told he had to do it from his office, but Gray no longer has an office with IFD so he had to file the report from home.

Ironically, Gray recently told me that he and his fellow Democrats have new nickname for me. They call me “13” because they think my radio show is 13th in the ratings, however by looking at the above event, I’m not the one having an unlucky day.

I will freely admit to engaging in some speculation right now so take this with a big grain of salt.

City officials say outgoing Councilor Patrice Abduallah’s votes were valid and there is case law to prove it. They haven’t cited the cases yet, but one they may to try cite a case involving U.S. Senator Evan Bayh. When Bayh ran for Governor in 1988 some citizens challenged his residency saying he was a D.C. resident and not one of Indiana. Bayh defeated the challenge as the courts fundamentally held that intent defines residency more than where you are.

Since then there has been more statutory clarification such as where you sleep, what’s on your driver’s license, the address in your checkbook, etc. The city may argue that even though Abduallah did not live in his district, his intent was to be there, therefore his votes were valid.

They may also try to argue that courts have been hesitant to negate votes of lawmakers who are found to be ineligible to hold an office because they were appointed or elected to another.

The problem with both those analysis is that by resigning his position, one could argue that Abduallah admitted he never should have been in the District. And if his intent was to stay he would have never stepped down.

This is all speculation on my part and we’ll know more later this afternoon.

Stick around.

Indianapolis City-County Council Member Patrice Abduallah is resigning his council seat. I reported this week that documents filed with the Marion County Clerk showed Abduallah did not live in his district, as required by law.

On his way out the door Abduallah took a swipe at the media, the blogs and his own Democratic Party. He blamed the media and blogs for hounding him and blowing the story out of proportion. And he blamed his fellow Democrats for not standing up for him.

Blame aside, this controversy is not over as it only raises more questions. Will Abduallah have to give back any pay? What about his votes, were they legal? If not, what does that mean for all the 15-14, including the public safety tax? City officials say they have case law that says those votes are legal. I’ll be interested to see it. Speaking of 15-14, with Abduallah off the Council, the balance of power has shifted and Democrats are no longer the majority. What does this do for the budget and other proposals?

There is a news conference planned for later this morning. I’ll try to have details.

It’s definitely official now. District 15 City-County Councilor Patrice Abduallah doesn’t live in his district. On his declaration of candidacy filed with the Marion County Clerk Abduallah lists his address as 1144 N. Warman, which is in District 14. A district occupied by Marylin Pfisterer.

The form was flied with the clerk on January 24, 2007. Under state law a Councilor must reside in his district at least two years before filing, so this brings his eligibility for the office into question. And to make matters worse, under state law a Councilor must give up his seat once he no longers lives in his District. And to add insult to injury, the Clerk’s office told Abdulallah that his residency addresses on his voter registration form did not match the one on his candidacy form, however Abdulallah did not file an amendment to his candidacy form.

If we go by the form filed in the Clerk’s office, Abduallah should have stepped down eight months ago.

This brings into serious question, all his votes that have been cast since then and whether they were valid. In addition, there were a number of party-line votes of 15-14 that are now suspect, including the public safety tax which was passed in July.

City officials say they’re confident this issue will be resolved once all the facts come out and don’t think it will have much impact on past votes.

It’s nice to know they’re so confident with everything they’ve worked for this year potentially in jeopardy.

I’m going to surprise a lot of you today by taking conservatives to task. You can pick yourself off the floor now. I have always considered my own politics best summed up as a socially progressive, capitalist pig. In other words, do what you want, just don’t ask me to pay for it. And I find it offensive when elected officials use morality as a ploy to get ahead in politics, but when you look at the skeletons in their closet you’ll find they have swords and shields.

Just go down the list, U.S. Senator David Vitter, evangelist Ted Haggard, Indiana Republican activist Glen Murphy and now Ft. Wayne Mayoral candidate Matt Kelty. Each of these individuals made a political living pointing out the flaws in the moral characters of others and now, with the exception of Murphy, found themselves on the receiving end (insert joke here) of scandal.

I accept scandals and politics. However, I like most voters, can’t stand hypocrisy. If you’re going to run on a platform of family values, it would be nice if you actually had some and left me and mine alone.

You may have heard the story today that about 500 IPS families went to the Center Township Trustee’s office seeking poor relief so they can afford to buy school uniforms. I’m all for helping the poor, but you have to ask what have these parents been doing all summer?

It’s not a new story that IPS students were going to have to be in uniform this year. There are a number of places where parents could get uniforms cheap. Pick a department store, dollar store or go to a Goodwill.

I’m not saying I would never help people in need, but I maintain most poor people are poor because they don’t know how to manage their money.

If they did, they wouldn’t be poor.

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson says he doesn’t expect an easy road to re-election. Peterson responded to a Marion County Republican party poll which said 64 percent of voters think the County is going in the wrong direction and 53 percent want someone other than Peterson as Mayor.

Peterson says he doesn’t take re-election for granted and that he’s out everyday talking to voters. He says he gets a good reception from the public. He pointed to city budget cuts and his efforts to reduce city and county property tax collections by $50 million.

The Mayor also said he doesn’t agree that 64 percent of voters think the county is headed the wrong way, however he does see voter anger. He says no one could look at Indianapolis and not say something wrong however most of those concerns are limited to crime and taxes, which he says the city is addressing.

When it comes to the controversy surrounding the residency of City-County Council Member Patrice Abdullah, the Mayor would not go into details, but he did say his staff was looking into the matter to find out what the facts are and what impact the news will have.

I did some more checking on the residency status of City-County Council member Patrice Abdullah. His address is listed as 1144 Warman on the Council’s website and in candidate paper’s filed with the Clerk’s Office. However, that address is right on the border between District’s 14 and 15.

According to the Council’s website, 1144 Warman is listed in District 14, which is Marilyn Pfisterer’s, however 1143 Warman which is on the east side of the street is in District 15.

According the Council’s own website, Abdullah does not live in his district, which raises the spectre of whether his votes on the Council were legal, including the vote for the $90 million public safety tax increase.

The controversy is continuing surrounding the residency of Indianapolis City-County Council Member Patrice Abdullah. Not only are local Democrats privately expressing concerns that Abdullah could be removed from the Council because his listed home address on the Council’s website is not in his district, but now the controversy has gotten the attention of the State of Indiana.

It is unclear what the outcome would be, however under Indiana law a candidate for membership on the county council of a county must: have resided in the county for at least one year before the election, as provided in Article 6, Section 4 of the Constitution of the State of Indiana; and have resided in the district in which seeking election, if applicable, for at least six (6) months before the election.

If the State finds Abdullah did not meet those requirements he could be removed from his seat. In addition, research is being conducted into whether Abdullah’s votes on the Council were valid. If they weren’t, a number of important votes such as the public safety tax increase could be in potential jeopardy because Abdullah did not legally reside in the district, when he voted.

Already the spin is coming on the poll recently released that says a majority of voters think Marion County is on the wrong track and want someone other than Bart Peterson as Mayor.

Let’s establish a couple things. A poll is a snapshot of the mood of the voters. Second, the poll done on Peterson was done by Republicans but it was the same company that predicted victories for Mitch Daniels, Carl Brizzi and Todd Rokita. And even as my counterpart and friendly rival Amos Brown pointed out, the poll sampled a representative number of African-Americans who have always been strong supporters of the Mayor.

With that said, say what you will about the poll, but there is clearly a lot of dissent in the County right now. Whether it is taxes, crime or other quality of life issues. Property taxes skyrocketed and the “relief” taxpayers were supposed to get will only be a fraction of what they were hoping for. The Uniform Crime Statistics show robberies and aggravated assaults on the rise. And we solved our jail overcrowding problem, in part, by making it easier for criminals to walk. The Council is mired in controversy and ethical clouds under the leadership of Monroe Gray.

I don’t know about you, but with this kind of climate, are you surprised the Mayor’s poll numbers are what they are? And here’s something else to ponder, if these many people are mad at the Mayor, will $3 million worth of TV commericials really do anything to change that? If you know something different, please tell me because unless something major happens, I don’t see this shaping up any other way but bad for the party in power.