Although it’s the political equivalent of winning a pre-season fantasy football game, more than 350 Republican activists gathered in Indianapolis to give Congressman Luke Messer a victory in the party’s first straw poll.

Messer won with 147 votes or 45 percent of the vote.

Todd Rokita was second with 82 votes, and former State Representative and businessman Mike Braun got 36 votes.

Mark Hurt got 29 votes, Andrew Takomi got 20 votes, and Andrew Horning received 12.

The event was not without controversy. The Indianapolis Star reported complaints by the Todd Rokita U.S. Senate campaign that the poll was rigged because the Messer campaign paid for a group of college students to participate.

State Chairman Kyle Hupfer dismissed the criticism, saying it was more important to focus on defeating Democrat Joe Donnelly in the fall.

Here’s a quick rundown of some important events scheduled to take place over at the Indiana General Assembly this week.

January 8 – Senate Republicans Unveil Legislative Agenda.  (10:30 a.m.)

January 9 – Governor State of the State address.  (7 p.m.)

January 10 – Senate Public Policy Committee hears Sunday retail alcohol sales bill.  (Upon adjournment of the Senate)

January 11 – State of the Judiciary address ( 2 p.m.)

January 12 – Indiana Civil Rights Commission MLK Day Ceremony  (12:00)

January 13 –   Indiana GOP U.S. Candidate Straw Poll

Well, it’s that time of year again; it’s time for my top 10 state and local stories of 2017.   Yes, we know there were a lot of national events taking place, but we focus on local and politics here.

Number 10 –   A Road to Somewhere – Who would have thought that Indiana lawmakers would be thoughtful and responsible enough to not only come up with a multi-year, multi-billion road funding plan but also a way to pay for it using gas taxes and user fees?! The next thing you know they will figure out Sunday retail alcohol sales.

Number 9 –  The Rickers Revolution – You have to give credit to Indiana businessman Jay Ricker. He figured out a way to legally use the state’s byzantine alcohol laws and sell cold beer at a convenience store.  And by doing so, not only did he turn the liquor establishment on its ear, but it got everyone talking about how ridiculous the state’s alcohol laws were, and it looks like Sunday retail sales is a real possibility next session.8.

Number 8 – I Want my CBD – A legal opinion by the Indiana Attorney General regarding the legality of CBD oil has literally opened a hornet’s nest of CBD and medical marijuana advocacy. There are several bills being introduced that will not only legalized CBD oil but also expand who can use it.  The state prosecutors don’t want it, the veteran groups do.   And I won’t need marijuana to thoroughly enjoy the fight that’s coming.

Number 7 – Hoosiers Head to DC – With Mike Pence as Vice-President we saw a slew of Hoosiers head to D.C. to run the government. Seema Verma at the Center for Medicaid and Medicare, Marc Lotter a surrogate for the administration, Dan Coats at National Intelligence, just to name a few.

Number 6 – Murder by the Numbers –  The State of Indiana wasn’t the only entity taking things to the next level, the city of Indianapolis did too, at least when it came to its murder rate.  As I write this, Indy is at 152 murders, the most in its history.   And there are still a couple of days left to break that record.

Number 5 – Lawmakers Leaving – The only thing more strange about the number of state lawmakers either retiring or announcing they’re not running for re-election, is that it’s all been scandal free, at least for now.  State Senators Luke Kenley and Brandt Hershman, State Rep. Scott Pelath, Kathy Richardson and Linda Lawson are some of the more prominent names.  Also leaving were State Senators Doug Eckarty and Jim Smith, and State Representatives Charlie Brown, Jim Baird, Greg Beumer, Wes Culver, Steve Stimler and Thomas Wasburne.  Did I miss anybody?

Number 4 – Congressional Confusion – For a while, we had to ask if there was anyone not running for Congress in Indiana.  With Todd Rokita and Luke Messer both running for the Senate, the 4th and 6th CDs suddenly became open seats, and there are no shortages of candidates.  Also, keep in mind the Democrats running across the state, there’s a buzz out there that could turn into something similar to 2006, where the GOP lost three congressional seats.

Number 3 – Who Wants to be a U.S. Senator? – This will likely be our most significant story for 2018, but for now, it’s #3. It’s going to be interesting watching Luke Messer and Todd Rokita try to claim the outsider mantle since both went to an exclusive private school, are attorneys and spent much of their adult lives helping run the government either at the state or federal level.  And with so many GOP voters undecided, will that make an opening for Mike Braun, despite the fact he’s voted in a Democratic primary.

Number 2 – Holcomb’s First Year – Or I could call this one, the return of the Mitch.  Governor Eric Holcomb got through his first year in office in pretty good shape.  He got road funding under his watch, funding to fight the opioid addiction, the first steps were taken to modernize the state’s workforce efforts.  However, he did have a couple of curve balls thrown at him, i.e., the head of DCS leaving in a not so quiet manner, as well some confusion by the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission over CBD Oil and Rickers being allowed to sell cold beer at its convenience stores.

Number 1 – A Tale of Two Indianas’ – This wasn’t a story per se, but more of a narrative created by the news.  Indiana seemed to be a state where people were thriving (record job creation and investment, and growing populations) or it was dying on the vine (i.e., opioids, heroin, declining populations and school districts on the verge of bankruptcy).    Keep an eye on this one; we have a sneaky feeling this is also going to be a narrative for next year as well.

Allow me to be brutally honest here; I am elated Roy Moore lost the U.S. Senate race in Alabama.

While there are plenty of reasons that, just like a school playground, Roy Moore should have never been allowed near an elected office, my primary one is that I have this thing about accused child molesters, like most sane people, I am not a big fan.

Luckily the majority of Alabama voters agreed.   To retweet Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, “decency wins”.

Roy Moore represented everything that is wrong with politics.  As a Supreme Court Justice, Moore ignored the rule of law and was removed from the court twice.   He was kicked off the bench in 2003 because he ignored a federal court order to remove the ten commandments from the Alabama Judicial building and he was removed again in 2016 for directing state judges to disregard an unconstitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Most conservatives say they don’t like activist judges and Moore was the epitome of an activist who frequently mixed God with politics.

But we know what did Moore in, it was the allegations that he molested a 14-year old, among others.

I like a 14-year old too, but it’s in the form of a bottle of scotch.

So who gets the credit for the Moore defeat?   You have to give credit to the African-American community that came out in droves, and you have to give credit to those Republican voters who, while they could not bring themselves to vote for Democrat Doug Jones, but decided to write-in someone else.  Nearly 23,000 of them decided to go for decency than someone who had been kicked off the Supreme Court and banned from the food court.

See, Democrats and Republicans can work together for the greater good.

And at the end of the day, I think we can both take comfort in the fact that Roy Moore took it on the chin and the Alabama voters sent him a message, thanks, but no thanks..

I have two words for Roy Moore, but I can’t say them here, but I can tell you not only do they apply to Moore, but the horse he rode in on as well.

While nearly half the participants in our latest Indy Politics informal survey this week said Democrat Joe Donnelly should not be re-elected to the U.S. Senate, a plurality wanted someone other the current three frontrunners.

More than 650 of our  readers responded to the Indy Politics Political Pulse (made possible in part with underwriting from Winner’s Circle, the Institute for Quality Education and Indianapolis Public Schools)

About 48 percent of respondents did not think Joe Donnelly should be re-elected to the U.S. Senate, but nearly 40 percent third thought someone other than Congressmen Todd Rokita, Luke Messer or Mike Braun would be a stronger challenger.

Respondents were split on how well President Donald Trump was doing regarding his first year in office, but they gave high marks to Governor Eric Holcomb.

Here are some of the highlights…

• Forty-five percent of the respondents gave President Donald Trump’s performance a “D” or “F”. Eight percent gave him an “A”, 25 percent gave him a “B” and 17 percent gave him a “C”.
• Nearly 68 percent gave Governor Eric Holcomb’s performance a grade of “B” or better.
• More than 22 percent thought the state’s top priority in 2018 should be staying fiscally sound, and 65 percent thought the best way to improve Indiana’s workforce was through job training and education.
• Nearly 77 percent supported cold beer sales at convenience and grocery stores as well as Sunday retail alcohol sales.
• When asked which Republican would be best suited to take on Joe Donnelly in the fall, nearly 40 percent wanted someone other than the three leading candidates.   Nearly 25 percent said Luke Messer,  19 percent said Todd Rokita, and 16 percent said, Mike Braun.
• A total of 80 percent thought marijuana should be legalized for either recreational or medicinal purposes.
• Respondents were nearly split on whether Indiana needed a “hate crime” law, 43 percent said no, 39 percent said yes, 14 percent said they were not sure.

You can view the full details here, as well as comments made by the participants.  We will do another informal survey in the Spring.

We’re doing an informal political survey on my other website, Indy Politics.

If you get a few seconds, give it a try.  We’d love your opinions.

CLICK HERE.

Although Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are in the shopping phase of the holiday season, I couldn’t let too much time go by without jotting down a few thoughts on being thankful.

1. First and foremost, if you can read this, you should be thankful, that means you’re literate.
2. You are likely reading this on your phone, tablet or computer which says you can afford a phone, tablet or computer.
3. If you’re reading this at work, that means you have a job.  If you’re reading this at home that means you have a roof over your head.
4. If you’re reading this in the car (Hopefully you aren’t driving), that means you have transportation.
5. If you’re reading this after breakfast, lunch or dinner, that means you have food on the table.
6. If you’re reading this while standing in line at the store, that means you have an income that you should be thankful for.
7. Since this is online, that means you have internet access, which you should also be thankful.
8. Most of my work is read by educated people, so be thankful you got a good education.
9. A good chunk of the audience reading this tends to disagree with a lot of what I write, so they should be thankful that we live in a country where you can have a dissenting opinion.
10. If you’re on social media, you should be thankful that things are going so well in your life you can whine about things that don’t matter, the people responsible for them, and that you have no control over.

Like a lot of you, I find allegations of sexual misconduct against Republican Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore alarming.  I find it even more disturbing that there are people who think molesting a child is fine as long as that individual isn’t running for public office as a Democrat.  And we are not going to play the “what about” game where you insert the name of someone whose politics you don’t agree with as justification for someone else’s bad behavior.    What will I entertain however is the question as to why didn’t Moore’s alleged victims come forward sooner?    To someone unfamiliar with the impact that sexual abuse and assault have on the victim, I can see how that’s a fair question.  And it’s a question I’ve been asking a lot of victims lately.

I recently put out a request in my social media circles asking if anyone had been on the receiving end of sexually inappropriate conduct and how they dealt with it.   I can honestly say the answers ran the entire spectrum and gender was not an issue.  I heard from women accosted by men, men accosted by women and there were even instances where both the victim and perpetrator were of the same sex.

I spoke with people in the service industry who’d been touched by patrons.  Some people were accosted by superiors either at work or work-related functions.  A close friend was smacked on the rear end by her boss in front of two other male employees.   And even one person was put in a very uncomfortable situation by an elected official while on an out of state trip back in the 1970s, and both were the same gender.  There also some examples that I can’t print without getting really graphic.

When asked how they dealt with the situations, I noticed a distinct pattern.   If it was a customer service relationship, the response was usually pretty quick and swift and involved a witty retort.  Most customers took the hint and backed off; the more aggressive ones were immediately escorted out of the building.  If it was a boss-employee relationship, it got a little more complicated.  Many of the victims were young or just starting their careers and perpetrators were usually people who were higher up in the company structure.

For example, one close friend back in the early 90s was grouped in an elevator by a company Vice-President.  Another colleague was “encouraged” to be more “cooperative” if she wanted to get ahead in the company structure.  And one male victim was invited to a company function, but it turned out he was the only one who got the invitation from his female boss.   So why not report the bad behavior?  The reasons are numerous.

One common thread was that many of the victims didn’t think anyone would believe them.  Think about this; a 24-year old new female employee accuses the company V.P. of sexual harassment in the 1980s or early 90s?  Who is seriously going to believe her?

Also, many victims at times will blame themselves for the behavior, and thinking had they done something different, the incident would not have occurred.  As an attorney, I helped a young lady a few years ago deal with a similar situation after being attacked while at school.    The hardest part of helping her was convincing her she did nothing wrong and her attacker was the bad actor.

And when it comes to children and teenagers, take these issues a multiply it by a thousand times.

It’s abundantly clear that Roy Moore, Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken and Kevin Spacey have raised new awareness about sexual predators and misconduct.    The challenge now is where do we go from here?  A friend who had been on the receiving end of this behavior made a very salient point to me last week.  She says as more people come forward, it will raise more awareness about the issue and by doing so, more victims will come forward sooner and report inappropriate behavior and maybe, just maybe, it will encourage all of us to behave a little better because we know some things are just unacceptable.

That would be something both men and women want.

Indianapolis City-City County Stephen Clay wants to be Council President, and even though Maggie Lewis has that job, Clay is working to take it from her.

After numerous background discussions with both Republicans and Democrats over at the City-County building, we’ve been able to piece together what exactly is going on.

Clay has consistently coveted Lewis’ job, there have been several failed attempts in the past but he could not muster enough support among his fellow Democrats.  Now, sources tell us, he is trying to garner Republican support to do it.

There is a precedent for this.  Back in 2005, then Councilor Steve Talley got the Republican minority to vote for him and ousted then-President Rosell Boyd.

Indy Politics is told Clay has repeatedly attempted to undermine Lewis’ leadership, even going so far as to challenge her appointments to Boards and Commissions.

Clay’s supporters in the past have included Monroe Gray, Duke Oliver, Joe Simpson and LaKeisha Jackson.  He would only need the votes of eight Republicans to become President.

Republicans tell Indy Politics that he has not formally reached out to anyone in their caucus, yet.   If Clay became President he would make committee assignments and he reportedly wants to remove Leroy Robinson as the chairman of Public Safety and Vop Osili as the head of Metropolitan and Economic Development.

It is unlikely Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, a fellow Democrat, would get in the middle of this fight, as the Mayor has adopted a “hands-off” approach to internal caucus matters since taking office.

The Council will elect its leadership in January.

Since we are now six months away from the May primary and a year away from the general election, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at the U.S. Senate race.  I’ve spent the past few weeks talking to various sources around the state to get a feel for where things stand in the U.S. Senate race, and the one constant theme that keeps coming back is that Joe Donnelly might be a lot tougher to beat than initially thought.

First, there were the polls.   A poll published in recent editions of the Cheat Sheet showed Donnelly tied (40-40) with a generic Republican and 60 percent of Republicans polled were undecided, 22 percent supported Todd Rokita, 15 percent backed Luke Messer, and Mike Braun got three percent of the vote.

That 60 percent undecided number is consistent with what was released by both the Rokita and Messer camps earlier this year.  A Rokita poll released this summer gave him an eight-point lead over Messer (28-20) with Republican primary voters; however, 55 percent were undecided.  A survey put out by the Messer campaign showed the race virtually tied (23-23), but 45 percent were undecided.

And Morning Consult has been keeping track of Joe Donnelly’s approval ratings all year.  To date he’s been averaging just above 48 percent, 48.6 percent to be precise.  His disapproval rating has been at 25 percent.  And those who either don’t know or have no opinion come in at 26 percent.

Second, there’s the money.  You already know that Donnelly has about as much money in the bank as Luke Messer and Todd Rokita combined. He has $4.6 million in the bank, while Messer and Rokita have about $2.4 million each.    And don’t forget, State Rep. Mike Braun in one quarter raised $1 million ($800,000 of his own) and a new Super PAC (Our Indiana Voice) is also going to help him raise money.  So it doesn’t look like money isn’t going to be an issue for anybody in this race.

So what’s left to look at, I submit to you, the “Lugar Republicans”.

You remember them, the members of the GOP who went and voted for Donnelly in 2012 over Richard Mourdock, mainly due to his comments regarding rape and if a woman became pregnant, it was God’s intent for it to happen.  I think they will be crucial in not only the general election but also the primary.  And in a universe where 60 percent of Republicans are undecided, these guys are going to be a significant voting bloc.

We’ve been speaking to a number of them, and they are far from overwhelmed with the current crop of candidates.  At best, the “social club” wing of the group tends to favor Messer.  They are intrigued by Braun but have a lot of questions about him.  They are not Rokita fans.  And a good chunk of them don’t think Donnelly is beatable.   A current theme from speaking with all of them is that a lot of them don’t want to be bothered with any political talk until next year, which feeds into the poll that shows that 60 percent of Republicans are undecided.

And as far as candidates reaching out, from what we’ve been able to gather, it looks like the Rokita folks are going for the hardcore Trump supporters, although a spokesman tells me they will be able  “energize and unite all factions of the party to defeat Joe Donnelly.”   Meanwhile, sources close to team Messer tell me he is focusing on “growing his base” and bringing on board those moderate and establishment Republicans and build that “broader primary coalition.”

Both are going to have to do something.  This summer Donnelly marched in parades in the Republican strongholds of  Hamilton and Johnson counties.    And please note,  a check of 2016 election results shows Donald Trump underperforming than all the other candidates.   He got 87,300 votes while the average vote for the three County Commissioners was 97,000 votes.    And I was even informed that a wealthy group of Hancock County farmers held a fundraiser for Donnelly because he liked his position on agriculture.

Regardless, one longtime Lugar friend and supporter told us this, “Lugar Republicans (and the majority of Hoosiers) are ultimately for good governance.   By simply pledging to vote more frequently with the Trump Administration, it’s unclear how the current slate of Republican candidates for U.S. Senate will better address the problems of the nation than Senator Donnelly is already doing.”