Weekend Update
With a couple weeks of no session, there was still quite a bit of good gossip, rumor and plain old fashion political innuendo running around town this past week. So without further adieu…
- House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Crawford and Speaker Pat Bauer apparently aren’t on the best of speaking terms these days. Crawford reportedly told Bauer the day of the budget vote that his caucus wasn’t going to vote for the budget unless the CIB and Gary were taken care. The Speaker reportedly told Bauer to go ahead and blow up the budget, which later happened. In addition the two are also split over Marion County’s three newest House members, Ed DeLaney, Mary Ann Sullivan and John Barnes. Crawford wants them to get in line and quit pushing consolidation. Bauer is looking more global because those three allow him to keep the majority in the House. No word yet on whether the two have kissed and made up yet or ever will.
- The first bit of fallout from the ISTA controversy regarding its health insurance plan is surfacing. The Washington Township School Board will vote Wednesday night to replace ISTA as its benefit provider with National Services of Wisconsin.
- Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels will unveil his plan for the Capital Improvement Board when he unveils the budget. My sources say from what they can tell so far, the Governor’s plan is pretty flexible and give the City and CIB as many options as possible to close the $47 million operational shortfall.
- Speaking of CIB, Mayor Greg Ballard met with CCC Democrats to explain to them the issues regarding the CIB. Only five Council members showed up, both Maherns, Joanne Sanders, Bill Oliver and Jose Evans. The meeting was described as “informative” as the Mayor walked them through a 20+ page power point presentation.
- I’m hearing the big reason for the Mayor’s ex-offender job seminar falling flat this past week is because no one changed the date to avoid a conflict with the Indiana Fever job fair. Greg Ballard reportedly was furious.
- Speaking of Ballard, he netted a few grand at a low key downtown fundraiser.
- Although Sherron Franklin stepped down from her post of overseeing the city’s abandoned homes project, officials are going to discover pretty quickly that the biggest problem with abandoned homes is finding out who holds the title and then locating them, particularly as they change from mortgage company to mortgage company.
- Mike Speedy seemed a bit surprised when 18 of his fellow City-County Councilors took issue with his dangerous dog ordinance. Sources say he never sought out support from the rest of the Council. Speedy reportedly wants to run for Mike Murphy’s Statehouse seat next year.
- In case you ever wanted what the anti-smoking playbook says about getting smoking ban ordinances pushed through city and state legislative bodies, here you go Smoke Free Fundamentals.
- With a new baby on the way, Libertarian Party of Indiana Chairman Todd Singer is stepping down. Replacing him is the more fiery Sam Goldstein.
- The race in the 5th Congressional District Republican primary could get real ugly. According to sources, incumbent Dan Burton is looking forward to the upcoming primary fight and doesn’t think his opponents have to stomach for what lies ahead.
- Speaking of primaries, Evansville Mayor, and potential 20120 gubernatorial candidate, Jonathan Weinzapfel made a stop in Indianapolis Thursday. He attended an NAACP/Labor lunch ceremony, two key constituent groups in any Democratic primary.
- The race to be the Democratic nominee for County Prosecutor continues to grow. Attorney Terry Curry who ran in 2002 and lost in the primary to Tim Osbourn is apparently getting to run. He practices criminal defense work.
- Republican State Representative Jackie Walorski is out of the running for Secretary of State, that leaves Charlie White as the sole GOP candidate.
- Republican State Senator Luke Kenley took a break from statehouse budget items and headed to Washington DC to meet with Indiana’s Congressional delegation. Kenley was lobbying for changes in the way Indiana collects sales tax revenue over the Internet and making it more uniform with other states.
- Warren Township Trustee Jeff Bennett’s office is rewriting the rules on poor relief rules for more efficiency and uniformity. It turns out when the township would add new rules for poor relief, it never took out the old rules or checked state law so there were numerous conflicts amongst the guidelines.
- And if you wondered what the tea party crowd was up to since the April 15 rally, they sat down this past week and chatted in downtown Indianapolis. In the meeting were the Libertarian Party of Indiana, Republican Liberty Caucus, Indy Defenders of Liberty, Indiana Independence Caucus, Campaign For Liberty, Young Americans For Freedom, Indiana Republican Constitutional Caucus, 9-12 Movement, Committees of Safety.
That’s all folks.
