So with about 30 days to go until E-Day (Election Day), what’s your prediction? Here are the categories.
Enjoy.
As part of tonight’s Presidential Debate coverage, I’ll be tweeting along with several other media and political types as part of the Indianapolis Star’s debate coverage. 
We will be tweeting with the hashtag #StarDebate
Scheduled to participate are…
The debate begins at 9 p.m. ET. Come hang out. It should be fun.
A number of candidates have unveiled their latest Television ads either promoting themselves or attacking their opponents. Here are a few of the latest ones.
Richard Mourdock – Republican candidate U.S. Senate
Joe Donnelly – Democratic candidate U.S. Senate
John Gregg – Democratic candidate for Governor
Mike Pence – Republican candidate for Governor
Tony Bennett – Superintendent of Public Instruction
Mary Ann Sullivan – Democratic candidate for SD 36
Todd Young – Republican candidate 9th Congressional District
Dave Crooks – Democratic candidate, 8th Congressional District
Just like we did back in the May Primary, we are giving the candidates for federal, state and local offices here in Indiana the chance to tells voters why they are running and more importantly, why they should vote for them.
Indiana Barrister is making space available on this blog, as well as our sister blog Indy Politics.
Our only requirements are that your column be as close to 500 words as possible and you include a photograph of yourself that is at least 640 x 400. Ask your campaign person what that means if you aren’t sure.
Just like last time, there is no deadline, per se. But the sooner you send it, the sooner we can post it. Send your column to either abdul@indypolitics.org or info@indypolitics.org. We’ll also link back to your website from the column.
We’d love to hear from you. More importantly, so would the voters.
And if you don’t think it’s worth your time, let me throw a couple quick stats at you. Since January 1, both Indy Politics and Indiana Barrister have had a combined total of nearly 300,000 unique page views and the average reader spends more than two minutes on each page.
Early voting starts soon. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
With 40 days left to go in the 2012 Election cycle, I figured that would be as good time as any to offer a few assessments and even worse – predictions – regarding the races here in Indiana.
As always, a day is like a lifetime in politics and anything can, and usually does, change. So keep that in mind as you read this.
Presidential
The good news for the Obama folks, though, is that right now they have the national momentum and will likely walk away with a second term.
U.S. Senate
Governor
Indiana Attorney General
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Indiana House and Senate
Indiana Congressional Seats
These are my thoughts based on today. Talk to me tomorrow and you might get a different answer.
About seven or 8 years ago, a child who was a victim of abuse or neglect was probably better off being in the abusive household rather than being put in the hands of the Indiana Department of Child Services. Here’s why.
That was then. And then Mitch Daniels and Judge James Payne took over. Here’s what’s happening now.
Indiana used to rank near the bottom when it came to dealing with child abuse and neglect. However, as the Annie E. Casey Foundation noted in a recent report; the state is 10th in family reunification, 2nd in timeliness of adoption, 11th in placement stability and 3rd in permanency.
How soon we tend to forget.
The Indiana Department of Child Services is disputing allegations in Sunday’s Indianapolis Star that alleges Commissioner Judge James Payne tried to influence a custody case involving his grandchildren.
In the story Payne is accused of waging a behind-the-scenes fight against the agency and derail recommendations in a child neglect case involving his grandchildren. The Star story also included a slew of documents.
DCS Chief of Staff John Ryan released the following statement on the matter.
When the call came into the Hotline from law enforcement in May 2010 about his grandchildren being left alone while their custodial parent had taken a trip out of state, initially – for the immediate safety of the children – DCS did send out a family case manager to take the children, and they were placed temporarily with the Paynes (Judge and Terrie).
If you look at the confidential assessment report the Star posted online, you’ll see that the mother indicated to the case manager that she wanted the children placed with the parental grandparents.
When DCS and law enforcement were called to the residents, neither had any idea the children were Judge Payne’s grandchildren. We were crystal clear that we had to approach this situation in a manner that definitively separated Judge Payne’s professional role from that of his personal role as a grandfather.
After fact-finding by the court revealed this was going to be a CHINS we made phone calls to Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois to ask if any of their child-protective agencies could take the case. Unfortunately, none could do so. Illinois, however, did share a recommendation with us on how to manage it, given they have experience with high-level officials being involved in sensitive situations from time to time.
They recommended two retired, but licensed Illinois case workers. We then interviewed both and hired the second caseworker recommended: Sandy Downs. > Sandy is, as mentioned, a licensed Illinois case worker with years of experience in working directly with children and families in the field. We hired her on a contractual basis that ranged from June 2010 through May 2011.
In addition, we also reached out to the Office of the Attorney General to address the CHINS case, and manage legal matters associated with the case proceedings. As to Judge Payne’s involvement, it was strictly limited to being a grandparent of the children.
As you may recall from our presentation on Aug. 22 at the legislative study summer committee, DCS does follow the practice model across the board in placing children with stable relatives when possible. Given the children had lived with the Paynes for two years of their lives, and their mother had indicated she wanted the children placed with the Payne’s, placing the children with their grandparents was a clearly viable and appropriate option—rather than increasing their trauma by placing them with a foster family they did not know
The Hamilton County court agreed. Because the Paynes were temporary custodians of the children while the CHINS case was in progress, they were involved in the Child Family Team Meetings, and had interactions with the case manager and service providers – which is standard procedure for all CHINS cases.
The children’s mother and father also had regular interaction with the case manager, as well as service providers and other professionals associated with the case. We will not disclose the non-procedural specifics of this case, as we believe that all children – whether they are your children or Judge Payne’s children – are entitled to confidentiality under federal and state law.
But we will share that the children were returned eventually to the custodial parent from where they were removed. So to assert that Judge Payne influenced this situation with his professional position is false.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg has called for Payne’s resignation.
If City-County Council Democrats have a secret plan to pay for public safety that does not involve the elimination of the property tax homestead credit I for one will be waiting with baited breath to see exactly what it is and whether it will actually add up.
My colleague Jon Murray pens an article in this morning’s Indianapolis Star where Democrats say they have a plan that will give IMPD and IFD their raises while still keeping the homestead credit in place. Here’s the problem Democrats face.
The raises for IMPD and IFD would cost $5.5 million, a new recruit class would cost about $6 million and keeping the homestead would cost $13 million. So where are the Democrats going to find close to $25 million? With all due respect, these guys don’t have the best track record when it comes to finances.
The city is paying $9 million in interest annually because of a $100 million loan taken out a few years back to pay for operating expenses. Council Vice-President Brian Mahern has proposed tapping the CIB budget until he realized it had already been passed. I know where the Council could find $100,000, they could take it out of their budget which they have included to do redistricting that has already been done and passed. They could try and tap the city’s reserves, but all that does is kick the can down the road because that $25 million is not a one-time expenditure it’s on-going and only gets bigger as time goes by.
So if my Democratic friends have a secret plan to solve this financial problem, I hope it’s a good one because past experiences lead me to think otherwise.
Democratic candidate for Governor John Gregg’s latest TV shows signs his campaign is likely either all wet or running dry. As you can see below, Gregg uses his hometown of Sandborn and an umbrella to make the case that Republican Mike Pence would raid the state rainy day fund and leave Hoosiers high and dry. Unfortunately for Gregg, the facts don’t back that up.
On Pence’s own website he calls for reserves to stay at least 12.5% of state appropriations, current estimates have that number at 14%. In addition, WISH-TV’s Jim Shella cites the following inconsistency from Gregg’s ad.
Supporting documentation for the ad references a story in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in which Pence says, “My inclination would be to spend past our reserves.” I’m not sure what that means but the article also says that Pence “believes that a 10 percent reserve is a good minimum target.” 10 percent has long been considered the logical standard in Statehouse money circles. Plus, Gregg won’t commit to a reserve target.
Throw in the fact that several of Gregg’s tax proposals come with a hefty price tag. For example, his repeal of the gas tax would cost at least $520 million which he says he would pay for by cutting “fraud, waste and abuse”.
There are seven weeks left in the campaign.
Democrat John Gregg unveils a new ad where he criticizes Republican challenger Mike Pence about wanting to spend down the “rainy day” fund. Republicans counter that when Gregg was Speaker of the House he helped take the state from a surplus to a deficit.
