Political Tidbits
With 48 hours to go before May primary, I’m hearing lots of interesting tidbits of gossip, rumor and blatant innuendo. And as always, take it for what it’s worth.
Apparently there is a big concern that Democratic voters in the 5th District will pull a reverse Operation Chaos and grab a Republican ballot making life interesting for the candidates. Hamilton County Democratic Chairman Keith Clock is cautioning members of his party not to do that because their candidate of choice, Dr. Nasser Hanna, has an opponent in his primary and Clock is worried the challenger may win if enough Ds switch over and grab an R ballot.
Absentee voting in Marion County is the best its been in 20 years for a midterm election. According to the Clerk’s Office, more than 5,000 absentee votes have been cast, a 50% increase over 2006. A general breakdown of those figures shows a 2-1 Republican/Democrat ratio. Republicans have conducted an aggressive a mail-in campaign on behalf of their slated Sheriff candidate Dennis Fishburn.
Speaking of absentee/early voting, Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita says early voting is up 20% since the 2006 mid-term elections. This contradicts an Associated Press story last week which said early voting in Indiana was less than or about equal to 2006’s.
Marion County Democratic Chairman Ed Treacy is telling prosecutor candidate Greg Bowes to go pound sand. Bowes’ campaign was denied poll watching credentials. Treacy does have the right to deny the credentials as candidates and their campaigns are not legally entitled to them. Wow, I just agreed with Ed Treacy on something, mark this day down.
And speaking of County Chairman, by now you know that GOP Chairman Tom John’s ex-wife has accused him of forgery and Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi is asking a special prosecutor to look into the matter. When I was asked what I thought of all this, I told someone , fundamentally, I agree with what both Gary Welsh and Paul Ogden have written on the subject. (What day was this again?) That when a bitter ex-wife makes this kind of allegation more than a year after her divorce to make life difficult for the person paying her spousal support, I have a hard time taking it seriously.
