Marion County’s Most Unwanted
Every once in a while I have one of those days that starts out as pretty routine buts ends up pretty odd. Monday was one of those days.
I was originally going to drive over to Cincinnati for an interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner, unfortunately the Secretary cancelled at the last minute and that left my afternoon wide open. Then I got word that City-County Council Minority Leader Joanne Sanders was holding a news conference at Marion County Democratic headquarters where she was going to make a “significant announcement” regarding her future on the Council.
I made some phone calls and my sources were telling me that they expected her to announce she was taking her name off the ballot and not running for re-election. The reasons ran from job commitments to a potential coup being launched against her by fellow Democrats Monroe Gray and Vern Brown to remove her from leadership and replace her with Maggie Lewis.
So with all that information at my disposal I went to County Headquarters where a young man was waiting at the door. I figured since MCDP was in a secure building he was there to greet the media and let us in. I was half right. He greeted me and told me I was allowed to come to the news conference because it was “invited media only”. My reaction was “really?!” So we talked for a few minutes and I decided this was just someone doing his job and acting on orders from higher ups. I wasn’t going to give him any grief.
You can hear the encounter here….
As I walked away I pondered whether Ed Treacy or Executive Director Adam Kirsch gave the order to bar me from the event. I figured it would have to Kirsch. While Treacy has never been a fan, he is a grown up. Kirsch on the other hand has a major axe to grind. He tried to ban me from covering the Democrats slating convention earlier this year, however Treacy yanked his leash. I’ve also been on Kirsch’s hit list since I blogged about the fact he tried to get on as Melina Kennedy’s campaign manager and she wanted no part of that. And probably the fact that I wrote about how his attitude and reputation has made his current local job so difficult that he’s looking out of state for new work.
Oh well. If this is the world we now live in, so be it. I’m not quite sure what party leadership was trying prove by keeping me out of their news conference, but I can promise you someone’s life is about to get a lot more interesting.
