This weekend I spoke with former Rhode Island Governor and U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee. He is seeking the Libertarian nomination for President of the United States. He spoke at the Libertarian Party of Indiana state convention. Click here for the interview.
The recent most analysis by the 538 blog shows former Vice-President Joe Biden’s chance of winning the Indiana primary have improved significantly since Super Tuesday.
According to the 538, Biden’s chances of winning Indiana went from averaging at about 36 percent shortly after Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the race to 47 percent.
Bernie Sanders’ chances of winning the May primary were averaging 29 percent, up slightly from 27 percent. Prior to Super Tuesday, Sanders was forecasted to average 34 percent of the vote and Biden was at 28 percent.
Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was averaging four percent.
With respect to delegates, Biden was forecasted to receive 44 of Indiana’s 82 pledged delegated. Sanders receives 26 delegates and Gabbard gets two.
Most days, I am a big fan of local control. Most days. Today is not necessarily one of those days.
Indiana lawmakers caught some grief recently for a couple of proposals which critics say are undermining the will of the citizens of Indianapolis and have the General Assembly is acting like an “Uber City-County Council.”
While that might seem wrong to the untrained eye, like most things when you look a little closer, you will see that not only is there a logical reason for lawmakers actions, anyone who cares about due process or protecting the taxpayers should really be cheering for the west end of Market Street.
The first criticism involves the city’s efforts to increase regulations when it comes to landlord/tenant relations; particularly evictions. Proponents say too many renters are forced to live in squalid conditions because they are afraid of landlords who might retaliate against them by evicting them. And they cite statistics showing Indiana has one of the highest eviction rates in the country. So the city decided to pass an ordinance giving tenants new rights when it comes to evictions. The problem with those “rights” is that they are granted at the expense of the folks who actually own the property. For example, a tenant who complains about the conditions of the property doesn’t have to put the complaint in writing. So there’s no record of the claim just the tenant’s word.
Secondly, and most importantly, if a landlord is accused of retaliatory eviction, the burden of proof is not on the individual making the allegation, but the landlord must prove they didn’t do. That’s right, under this ordinance, the person accused of the bad act has the burden of proof to show they didn’t do it. In criminal law, the government must prove the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In civil matters, the plaintiff must prove his case by a preponderance of the evidence. But in Indianapolis, if you’re a landlord, you have to prove you didn’t engage in a retaliatory eviction. Indiana lawmakers don’t seem like such bad actors anymore, do they?
So now, let’s switch to the other big issue, IndyGo. And before anyone accuses me of hating mass transit, please note I was a big supporter of the referendum, and I do believe that mass transit, done right, is a valuable tool for economic development and mobility. However, IndyGo has not had the best record as of late with its expansion, and I don’t have enough space in my cloud storage to go into all the things that have gone wrong with the Red Line. What I can say, though, is as part of enabling legislation for IndyGo to expand, it had to raise a ten-percent match in private funds, $5.4 million, which was due when the Red Line went into effect last summer. IndyGo hasn’t raised a dime, even though it was supposed to start doing this three years ago. So all the west side of Market Street did was make them do what the law required them to do, raise the private funds, or lose future funding for mass transit expansion.
The East Side of Market street went nuts accusing the West Side of subverting the will of the people who overwhelmingly voted for mass transit. No, all the West Side is doing is making IndyGo live up to its responsibilities. How is this a bad thing? And don’t even get me started on the panhandling issue, which Indianapolis has failed to address, and now the West Side is moving forward with legislation that would prohibit panhandling within 50 feet of any public monument or where a financial transaction takes place, including parking meters.
So before anyone gets their underwear in a bunch over Indiana lawmakers “overstepping their bounds” and interfering with Indianapolis’ ability to make decisions for itself, maybe you should take your concerns to the other end of Market street because it was their actions, or inactions, which made all this necessary in the first p
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Our panel of political pundits offers their thoughts on this past week’s teacher protests at the Statehouse, House Speaker Brian Bosma’s decision to step down, what the 2019 elections might mean for 2020 and the latest on the impeachment inquiry.
Our panel includes Cam Carter of Content by Cam, writer Michael Leppert and former Libertarian Party Executive Director Brad Klopfenstein.
On this edition of “Indiana Issues” Radio we talk with Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush about the very busy year in the Court has had.
On this edition of Indiana Issues, we take a look at last Democratic primary debate, the latest in the Governor’s race, Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, Mayoral races across the state, and our panel makes their predictions.
Here’s the rundown…
Our panel includes Libertarian Mark Rutherford, Democrat Adam Kirsch, Eric Berman of WIBC Radio and Conservative April Gregory. Indiana Issues is recorded at Edge Media Studios in downtown Indianapolis.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and I have known each other for a long time and I think I can say with some certainty that Saturday was not one of his better days. By a ten-vote margin, members of his own party rejected his candidate for Marion County Prosecutor, special Counsel Tim Moriarty and instead chose Ryan Mears, who had the support of Terry Curry who stepped down last month due to health reasons.
Moriarty wasn’t a bad candidate and he is a smart guy, although I did wonder how an attorney who has never filed an appearance in a criminal court in Marion County could effectively be its top prosecutor? His team did all the stuff you would expect, they made calls, had signs made up, they had the greeters outside the building where they caucused, etc. Mears ran a campaign that included an air war and ground game. He received a ton of earned media with his announcement to no longer prosecute simple marijuana possession under an ounce and he also personally engaged precinct committeemen (PCs). I had a number of them at the caucus tell me that Mears came to their homes and sat down one on one and made his case. One PC thought he was a door-to-door salesman at first. I’m not kidding.
Moriarty also had the backing of the Hogsett machine, which some folks argue did everything in its power to tip the scales in Moriarty’s favor. For example, of all the days the Marion County Democratic Party decided to “clean up” its PC list, it was the week of the caucus. It also called the caucus less than two weeks after Curry’s announcement. The party did not allow the candidates to give short speeches to spell out their qualifications. And there was even talk that to garner more African-American support, promises were made that if Moriarty were to get the job, he only stay to fill out the remainder of Curry’s term and he would appoint a black female as chief deputy prosecutor so she could take over once he left the office.
Obviously, none of that worked. In fact, it was the fact that Mears had been a prosecutor for more than a decade and Moriarty had never tried a criminal case had more to do with his victory. Also, several PCs I spoke with said they did not appreciate some of the strongarm tactics that were coming out of the Mayor’s office to “encourage” them to vote for Moriarty. Also, there is still bad blood among the party faithful over the appointment of union activist Stuart Mora as party vice-chair, which I am told nobody wanted in that job and the rank and file told me is pretty much M.I.A. most days.
And what also made this a stinging defeat was the Mayor was not alone in his support of Moriarty. Moriarty also had the backing of Indiana Congressman Andre Carson, City-County Council President Vop Osili and City-County Councilor Leroy Robinson who chairs the public safety committee. These guys are all heavy hitters and they couldn’t convince six people to change their votes to get their guy elected.
So what are the implications of all this and what impact will it have on the Mayor’s race? I think as far as the Mayor’s race goes, it gives Republican Jim Merritt’s campaign an issue to hit for a couple of days. Already on social media, some Merritt supporters have been trolling Hogsett. And it does raise the question about the internal organizational strength of the Mayor’s campaign. Now granted a couple million in the bank and 20+ point lead in the last public polling goes a long way to mitigate damages, but situations like this don’t help.
I think the bigger implication of all this is what happens to the Marion County Democratic Party? Chairwoman Kate Sweeny Bell had already been skating on thin ice with a lot of the PCs, and I would not be surprised if this most recent exercise doesn’t embolden the masses to rise up and demand her resignation or worse, challenge her the next time around. And if you’re Carson, Osili or Robinson, the perception now is your political strength has been grossly diminished and you should have just stayed out of the race because there was no good outcome for you. Either Moriarty would have won and you would have made half the party mad or we would have the situation we do today.
Luckily for all parties involved, a day in politics is like a lifetime and I’m sure after Saturday, there are a lot of people just waiting for the next lifetime to get here.
The topic of impeachment led the discussion this weekend on Indiana Issues.
Our panel included Libertarian Lindsey Marie, Democrat Laura Beck, conservative Rob Kendall and Eric Berman of WIBC.
Here’s the rundown
Indiana Issues is taped at the Edge Media Studios in downtown Indianapolis.
