Kip Too!
Another potential Democratic candidate for Mayor is out of the running. According to the Indianapolis Times blog, lobbyist Kip Tew has decided not to get into the race for Mayor in 2011.
Kip tells the Times that other commitments are keeping him out of the race. That would be consistent with a conversation he and I had earlier this year when he was trying to decide whether to get into the race for Mayor.
I think Kip would have been an interesting candidate and perhaps the toughest fighter out of the bunch. His departure leaves former Deputy Mayor Melina Kennedy, venture capitalist Brian Williams and City-County Councilor Jose Evans as contenders.
However, Kip’s departure does pose a question I have asked before; if incumbent Mayor Greg Ballard is so beatable, why do Democrats keep getting out of the race?You would think that in a county that leans Democratic and conventional Democratic wisdom is that the voters made a mistake in 2007 and the city is headed in the wrong direction, that Democrats would be crawling out of the woodwork to take on the incumbent? Maybe Kip, and Joe Hogsett both know something a lot of Marion County Democrats don’t know or aren’t willing to accept.
