Here are a few political items from across the state that you might find somewhat interesting, do with them what you will.

Keep May 20th on your calendar.  Why?  It’s the filing deadline for Attorney General candidates who want to run for the GOP nomination at this summer’s state convention (if they actually have one).  We bring that up because we’re also keeping an eye on the Indiana Supreme Court to see if it will return a decision by then in the disciplinary matter regarding Curtis Hill.  When we reached out to the Court to see if we could expect a decision soon, we were told by a representative, “…the case is now ripe for the Court’s consideration.  The Court will issue its disposition after a review of the case and thoughtful deliberations.”

Governor Eric Holcomb Friday signed Executive Order 20-23 to allow health care providers and facilities to resume elective medical procedures provided they have sufficient quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and consult the best practices and recommendations developed by their medical associations or industries. 

Earlier this week, we asked Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston about some lawmakers’ call for a special session so they could have more input into how the state is addressing COVID-19.  You hear his response here.

Former Marion County Prosecutor and 5th District Congressional candidate Carl Brizzi has unveiled a new television ad.  You can view it here.

Beth Henderson is touting an endorsement from Forrest and Charlotte Lucas in her race in the 5th.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels has sent a letter out to the University community regarding next school year and COVID-19.

A recent Facebook post by conservative activist Monica Boyer over COVID-19 is raising the ire of a few folks across the state.  We reposted it here.  

A poll conducted last week of more than 1,000 likely Hoosier voters by Indy Politics and Change Research has a lot of good news for President Donald Trump and Governor Eric Holcomb and a little good news for their respective challengers,  Joe Biden and Dr. Woody Myers.

The Indy Politics/Change Research poll showed Trump with a 13-point lead over Biden and Holcomb, with a 20 point lead over Myers.

In addition, more voters thought Indiana was headed in the right direction than the nation.

You can view a summary of some of the results below.   The survey of 1,021 likely voters was conducted from April 10-13 and the poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percent by traditional standards.

President

• Donald Trump – 52
• Joe Biden – 39
• Third-party – 5
• Not Sure – 3

Governor 

• Eric Holcomb (R) – 45
• Woody Myers (D) – 25
• Donald Rainwater (L) – 8
• Undecided – 22

General Favorable/Unfavorable ratings

• Donald Trump – 50/46
• Mike Pence – 49/45
• Joe Biden – 32/59
• Eric Holcomb – 47/28
• Woody Myers – 9/6  (20 percent were neutral and 65 percent say they never heard of him)

Right Track/Wrong Track

• The country – 49/51
• Indiana – 54/46
• Your city/Neighborhood – 67/33

Reaction to dealing with COVID-19 (Favorable/Unfavorable)

• The federal government – 46/46
• Donald Trump – 49/45
• State government – 64/25
• Eric Holcomb – 63/23
• City/county government – 61/20
• School Districts – 79/9

Top issues (That polled 5 percent or higher)

• Health Care Access and Insurance – 12
• Education – 12
• Transportation/Infrastructure – 6
• Jobs and the Economy – 5
• Taxes – 5

You can more analysis here.

Marion County is about to make a huge and completely avoidable, mistake that is going to cost the taxpayers more than $1.4 million.

On Monday, a proposal is being introduced at the City-County Council that would appropriate $1.4 million to send every registered voter in Indianapolis an absentee ballot application to be used for the June 5 primary.

The “logic” (and I use that term very loosely) is to encourage citizens to vote absentee in the wake of COVID-19, aka the coronavirus. The state moved the primary from May 5 to June 2 and changed the rules to allow for “no excuse” absentee voting, so voters don’t need a reason to vote absentee. So in the wake of all that, someone at the City-County building thought sending more than 647,000 voters an absentee ballot application would be a good idea. [That amounts to $2.16 per voter.]

If they think this is a good idea, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Wyoming I’d like to sell them for approximately $1.4 million.

Why is this a bad idea? Where do I begin?

First, this is a primary, not a general election. This means it’s Republicans and Democrats who will pick the candidates they want to represent them in the November election. So if you’re an independent voter, Libertarian, or just don’t like to vote in primaries or there are no contested races on your ballot, your city government is about to waste $1.4 million of your money to send you an application to participate in something that you have absolutely no intention of participating.

Second, if you look at voter participation rates when it comes to the primaries, you will see this even a bigger waste of resources when you look who shows up. I did some digging, and here are the voter turnout rates for the last few primaries here in Marion County. I did not include the municipal primaries because that would have made this seem like even more of a bad idea than it already is.

• 2018 – 15.6 percent
• 2016 – 32 percent
• 2014 – 8 percent
• 2012 – 21 percent

As you can see, the average voter turnout for the last four primaries is 19 percent; and seven percent was the average for early/absentee ballots cast. And that’s including the 2016 primary, which was contested on both the Republican and the Democratic presidential races. Now with Bernie Sanders suspending his presidential campaign that means Joe Biden, much like Donald Trump, is basically running unopposed, there’s not a lot of incentive for folks to come out. And with there being no contested gubernatorial races, Indianapolis is about to spend $1.4 million in the hopes that 19 percent of the voters will show up. [That amounts to $11 per vote.]

And that ties perfectly into my third reason as to why this is a bad idea, most of the races in Marion County are uncontested. Except for the 20 million people running in the Republican primary and the handful of people running to likely lose against Democrat Andre Carson, the odds are if you get a ballot, there’s a pretty good chance that there won’t be any contested races on your ballot. By my last count, there are two contested State Senate seats (one Democrat and one Republican) seven Indiana house seats that have contested primaries (three on the Republican side and four on the Democrat side). And before I forget, there are some contested township board primary races, (seven on the Republican party and two on the Democratic side). Another way to look at this, Indianapolis is spending $1.4 million on what amounts to 20 contested races. [That amounts to either $70,000 per race or $23,000 per candidate in those contested races.]

There are numerous candidates running for delegates to the state conventions, but that makes matters even more offensive because a state convention is the epitome of a political event that the taxpayers should not have to foot any part of the bill, particularly paying for the process to pick the people who will participate.

So think about this, Indianapolis is going to spend more than $1.4 million on what fundamentally amounts to 60 people running in 20 contested primaries.  And if we’re lucky, 20 percent of the voters might participate.

I have never been a fan of taxpayer-funded primaries, and after reading this, neither should you.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced Monday new measures to protect Hoosiers and mitigate the spread of  COVID-19.

In a new Executive Order, the administration is mandating that retail businesses not listed as essential must operate the same way as restaurants and bars, and must not allow any foot traffic, except by appointment only, and only in rare cases.

In addition,  Dr. Kris Box, the state health commissioner, said that a coronavirus outbreak has occurred at Bethany Pointe Facility, a nursing home in Madison County. Box said 11 people who lived there have died.

Box also pleaded with people to donate PPE, if they have them. That includes masks, gloves, and gowns. She said it pains her as a health care professional to say it, but she could not guarantee that if you work in a hospital or health care facility, that you would be able to get replacement PPE.

You can view the Governor’s order here.

You can hear today’s briefing in the Leon-Tailored Audio above.  It runs for about 58 minutes.

We continue our look at the impact of COVID-19 on the State of Indiana from various perspectives.

We talk to WIBC Political reporter Eric Berman, Fifth District Congressional candidate Kent Abernathy and Pastor Matt Barnes, the volunteer Chaplin at the Indiana Statehouse.

In the Leon-Tailored Audio above Berman talks about the steps Indiana took this past week to address the pandemic, Abernathy, who previously worked in the Pentagon during the SARS outbreak provides some perspective and Pastor Matt Barnes shares with us how COVID-19 is impacting religious services across the state, including plans for upcoming Easter services next Sunday.

State officials are taking a measured response to a national report that shows positive news for Indiana’s efforts to combat COVID-19, the coronavirus.

Last week the University of Washington’s  Institute for Health and Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) stated Indiana’s COVID-19 cases would peak on April 14, the state was short an estimated 2,000 hospital beds and it would likely see 2,400 deaths by August 4.

On Monday, the IHME reported the state would peak on April 17, but it had a surplus of 5,000 hospital beds, 706 of those were for intensive care patients and would see 940 deaths by August 4.  In addition, the number of ventilators the state would need was 402. Last week it was 854.

In an afternoon virtual media briefing, Holcomb administration officials said while they believe their efforts are working, they don’t want to rely on one data point and they are preparing for both the best and worse case scenarios.

Right now officials are preparing for an expected mid-April surge of COVID-19 cases and taking several steps to address them such as making more hospital beds and staff available as well as asking the federal government for a disaster declaration.

To date, Indiana has tested more than 11,600 Hoosiers for COVID-19, nearly 1800 have tested positive and 35 have died.

You can hear Governor Holcomb, as well as other members of the administration in the Leon-Tailored audio above.  Each segment runs for about 25 minutes.

A study released Thursday by the University of Washington is projecting COVID-19 will hit its peak in Indiana on April 14.*

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation study presents the first set of estimates of predicted health service utilization and deaths due to COVID-19 by day for the next four months for each state in the U.S.  According to the study’s abstract,  the purpose of the research is to determine the extent and timing of deaths and excess demand for hospital services due to COVID-19 across the country.

The IHME is projecting Indiana will need 10,458 hospital beds, 1,582 of those need to be Intensive care unit beds, and 854 ventilators.

The IHME says currently, Indiana has nearly 8,500 beds and 706 of them are for ICU patients, creating a total bed shortage of 1,973 beds and 876 ICU beds.

State officials have not released exact numbers on hospital beds and ventilators, however, at a Friday media briefing, they said they did not expect coronavirus cases in Indiana to peak until mid-to-late April. 

In addition, the IHME is projecting Indiana will reach 110 deaths per day by April 14 and a total of more than 2,400 Hoosiers will have died due to COVID-19 by August.

To date Indiana has tested nearly 7,000 COVID-19 tests, 981 have tested positive and 24 people have died.   According to the Indiana Department of Public Health, more than half the cases were individuals over 50 and a third were over 60.

*The IHME’s projections assume the continuation of strong social distancing measures and other protective measures, such as “stay at home” orders and temporarily closing down “non-essential” services.  This study used data on confirmed COVID-19 deaths by day from World Health Organization websites and local and national governments; data on hospital capacity and utilization for US states; and observed COVID-19 utilization data from select locations to develop a statistical model forecasting deaths and hospital utilization against capacity by state for the US over the next 4 months.

I’ve always believed that if you want to know a person’s real character, give them a lot of money, power, or alcohol, and you really see what they are like.

I now need to add one other item to that list; COVID-19, otherwise known as the coronavirus.

And because of that virus, the true nature of people is showing.

Just a quick note before we get started, I don’t worry too much about contracting COVID-19. I practice good hygiene. Despite what I do for a living, I’ve made it a point to minimize my contact with others as much as possible. And to be frank, there’s probably so much alcohol, tobacco, and “other stuff” (which I will neither confirm nor deny) in my bloodstream that the coronavirus trying to infect me would be like trying to find a cheap place to stay in Speedway during the Indy 500.

But I digress.

Over the past week, I’ve had the opportunity to see people at the very best. I’ve seen examples that remind me that when it comes to humanity as a whole, my cynism is well-earned.

Let’s start with the good. You have folks checking up on their elderly neighbors, you’ve got employers deciding to pay their employees for their involuntary time away from work, you’ve got customers stepping up and patronizing their local eatery establishments, even if it is a drive-thru. And even one of my favorite cigar bars is doing curbside service. Noblesville teachers had a car parade so they could see their students. And Eli Lilly and Roche stepping up to help speed up testing for COVID-19, which gets us that much more closer to getting things under control.

But unfortunately, for every flower humanity, there are some weeds in the gardens as well.

Who are they? Where do I begin?

Well, for starters, they are the people who’ve been hoarding toilet paper. Most people use between one and two rolls of TP each week. The way these folks grabbing it off the shelves, you’d think they were going to be indoors until 2025. If they’re that worried, maybe they should use less fiber in their diets. But then again, these are the same people who, when they ran to the grocery stores, left anything on the shelves that were labeled “organic,” “gluten-free,” or “natural.”

The next group that could use a whack upside the head were the idiots in Florida who all ran to the beach for Spring Break. You may have seen the photos on social media. Don’t worry because if you missed it, I’m sure you’ll be reading about some of them soon, probably on the obituary pages. What is so hard about understanding that you can have the coronavirus for up to two weeks before showing symptoms, and you can pass that along to others? If it wasn’t for the fact that these idiots are a danger to the rest of society, I’d throw in a line about Darwin at work here.

But perhaps the biggest group of knuckleheads in all this have been the members of the political and chatter classes, particularly who called the coronavirus a hoax and an effort to bring down the president. It’s been a while since I’ve seen so many chronic cases of foot-in-mouth disease. Luckily, there is a cure for that going forward, I call it thinking before speaking. Maybe they should try to social distance themselves from the rest of us for a while.

As I said, the coronavirus is like alcohol, money, and power. It shows who among us are flowers and who could use some roundup.

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Abdul-Hakim is an attorney and the editor and publisher of Indiana Barrister His opinions are his own, but you are free to share them with friends, as long as you are at least six feet away from them.

*Apologies to The Knack.

On this edition of Indiana Issues, we explore two main topics; the impact of COVID-19, the coronavirus, on the state of Indiana and the 2020 legislative session.

Our panel includes Republican Pete Seat, Democrat Jamar Cobb-Denard, and Libertarian Brad Klopfenstein

Here’s the rundown…

0:00 – Introduction

1:00 – The Coronavirus Impact in Indiana

17:00 – Break

19:00 – 2020 Session Recap

27:00 – Predictions and Prognostications

Indiana Issues is recorded at the Edge Media Studios in downtown Indianapolis.

Joe Biden’s chances of winning the Indiana Democratic primary continues to rise according to the latest analysis by the 538 Blog.

The 538 is forecasting Biden to win 51 percent of the vote, up from 47 percent; while Bernie Sanders is predicted to win 24 percent, which is down from 29 percent.

Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was still averaging four percent.

With respect to delegates,   Biden was forecasted to receive 48 of Indiana’s 82 pledged delegates. Sanders receives 21 delegates and Gabbard gets two.

The Indiana primary is Tuesday, May 5.