The Ritz Rollout
If her campaign rollout last week was any indication, Glenda Ritz has a lot of work to do if she wants to be Governor of Indiana.
Leading up to the announcement, Ritz and her team played coy about what they were doing, until they made the amateur mistake of releasing their letter of support for Indy Pride on “Glenda for Governor” letterhead the day before the announcement.
Then came the actual announcement itself. For all the talk about angry masses with torches and pitchforks who were ready to storm the Capitol and kick Mike Pence out of office, that’s all it was, talk. At her announcement in Indianapolis there were about 100 people. And that’s including the media and staff that worked at Ben Davis High School.
At her subsequent stops in Ft. Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, New Albany and Hammond she was lucky to get above 50 people. South Bend was the most interesting seeing how about 40 people showed up for her announcement but more than 200 showed up earlier this year at a rally against SB 1, which changed the organizational make up of the State Board of Education.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, I also made it point to speak to several Democrats outside of Central Indiana to get their feel for a Glenda candidacy. They all thought it would be the worst disaster since #JustIN. One even pointed out how two of the main images on her webpage (a young white male wearing a Ritz t-shirt and black woman holding a Ritz sign) were Photoshopped, and quite poorly. No offense, but if you’re a Democrat and can’t find a young white guy or black woman to pose for your campaign photos, you have problems.
Now of course, some campaigns get off to shaky starts and eventually find their footing. However, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and believe you me, Team Ritz sure did.
