Wednesday’s Puzzling Politicking…
I spent yesterday covering two major political events here in town. The Indiana House of Representatives vote on Major Moves and the announcement by former Deputy Mayor Melina Kennedy that she will challenge Carl Brizzi for Marion County Prosecutor. In both cases I found myself somewhat confused at what I was seeing.
On the House side, Democrats voted as a block against Major Moves; Governor Mitch Daniels’ plan to lease the Indiana Toll Road for nearly $4 billion to pay for state road projects. The final vote was 52-47; one member abstained because of a conflict of interest. Democrats argued it was a bad deal because the state was leasing its roads to a foreign company and sending money away from Indiana.
That strategy confused me because there are a number of foreign companies that operate in Indiana and no one complains about them (Toyota, Rolls Royce, the British Company that runs the airport and the French company that runs the water company in Indianapolis.) There was no reason for a lawmaker in Central Indiana to vote against Major Moves. And trust me this will be a campaign issue. I can see the signs right now “This new road was not brought to you by Rep. (fill in the blank here) because he/she did not support Major Moves.”
I honestly think a better strategy would have been to accept the plan and offer and amendment creating a special panel that would make sure the money raised from Major Moves went exactly where taxpayers were told it was going. Democrats could have scored major points this way by telling voters, “Mitch brought you $4 billion, we made sure you received it.” There would have been no issue and Dems could have shared the credit with the Governor.
The other issue that had me raise an eyebrow occurred during former Deputy Mayor Melina Kennedy’s announcement for County Prosecutor. (Full disclosure moment, Carl Brizzi is a friend of mine as we are both attorneys) During her speech Kennedy focused on the increase in crime in Marion County and how leadership was needed to tackle the problem of “weak pleas and free passes”. What surprised me about this is why would Kennedy, a sharp lawyer, talk about the increase in crime and the allude to the failure of the current Brizzi administration in dealing with the problem when standing right behind her were the Sheriff and Mayor who are responsible for law enforcement and housing criminals.
Also by drawing attention to the rising crime problem in Marion County, the Kennedy camp may unwillingly be raising the issue of prosecutorial experience. If crime is on the rise, violent crime in particular the public may not be willing to turn over the helm of the largest prosecutor’s office in the state to someone who has never tried a criminal case. It seems to me to be an odd campaign strategy when the Brizzi folks will definitely hit Kennedy on her lack of criminal experience. As I stated earlier, Kennedy is a smart lawyer so this strategy puzzles me somewhat. But at the very least, it will be an interesting campaign.
