Marion County Democratic Slating
Marion County Democrats met Saturday morning at the State Fairgrounds to nominate their candidates for the 2006 elections. They were mostly uncontested and will present some pretty interesting races in the Fall. Melina Kennedy, the very sharp candidate for County Prosecutor, told the audience the other party will say and do anything to get elected and in her words, “bring it on!” While I respect Melina quite a bit, I’m still somewhat confused at her campaign strategy. During her speech she held up a sheet of paper calling on Carl Brizzi to pledge he would not run for Mayor in 2007. I’ve always thought political pledge sheets were silly campaign tactics (mainly when it came to taxes) and in this case I do not think Brizzi could run for mayor in 2007 if he wanted to. Imagine, an elected official, just coming off a campaign only immediately start up a race for another office? They would be crucified in the media, and rightly so. I hear Mayor Bart Peterson has told the Governor that he doesn’t plan to run for the office in 2008, but I don’t think Bart has signed a pledge. Brizzi does have some vulnerabilities which I will expand on in a later posting. But after speaking to him this weekend, his answer is similar to that of the Peterson’s, he says he has no plans to run for Mayor but will not rule it out completely saying no one knows what could happen in the future.
In some of the other races, Beth White who is running for County Clerk is stressing voter rights and access while Greg Bose, who is running for County Assessor, will stress professionalism and consolidation in his campaign.
What is most interesting about the Democratic Convention, as well as the Republican convention is that both parties had record turnout at their slating conventions, both hovering near 1000 attendees. Both crowds were energized and both determined. This shows me that both parties realize just how high the stakes are in this race and that they are going to fight tooth and nail for every vote. This is going to be ugly. This is going to be intense. This is going to be a blast.
