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Started this discussion. Last reply by Chris Hedges May. 27, 2008.
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An early look at 2010 - Northwest Indiana elections
I'd like to open this thread and then hope that some of our readers from LaPorte and Lake Counties will weigh in to help us get the conversation rolling. Let's talk about elections in 2010, who's running, who's in trouble, who's a lock to be re-elected?2010 will feature county level elections for a portion of commissioners and council seats, some of the county elected "skill" positions (an NFL term) and township government. We will also have the chance to vote on all our Indiana House seats, and a portion of our Senate seats. Remember that due to the constitutional census in 2010, the House seats become a pretty big deal as they apply to apportionment and redistricting at every level of government.
In Porter County we will vote on:
- Auditor - current incumbent Jim Kopp (D) ... Vicki Urbanik (D) has announced for auditor ... I don't believe incumbent has announced yet
- Assessor - incumbent John Scott (D) not sure he's running again
- Sheriff - incumbent David Lain (D)
- Clerk - ? I'll admit it I don't know who is it Pam Fish?
- Center District Commissioner - incumbent Bob Harper (D)
- All four District Council seats - incumbents Mike Bucko (although this seat will move to another democrat in January when Mike becomes Treasurer), Rita Stevenson (D), Karen Conover (R), and Bob Poporad (D)
- All townships trustees - here's the incumbents I know Ed Moralis (Porter) Joyce Webster (Portage) Anthony Pampalone (Union) and Chuck Conover (Center) now that's only 4 out of 12, so I could use help listing the rest of the incumbents and then challengers.
- State Reps incumbents Ed Soliday (R) Chuck Mosely (D) Charlie Brown (D)
- State Senate incumbent Karen Tallian (D)
- Indiana Sec of State - incumbent cannot run again
- US Rep incumbent Pete Visclosky (D - 1st)
- US Rep incumbent Joe Donnelly (D - 2nd)
- US Senate incumbent Evan Bayh (D)
Lake, LaPorte, Jasper, Newton county readers: please leave lengthy comments updating us on your races and I'll keep them updated here as well. The elections of 2010 should be quite interesting indeed.
RTA referendum fails big
By a landslide margin of 12,255 to 3,122 voters in Porter County decided they would not participate in a Regional Transportation Authority. I said a whole lot of times here on this site, the budget bill with the RTA language was a total mess, poorly worded and impossible to actually form.The good news is that voters, at least 15 percent of them, cared enough to vote in an election that featured not a single candidate. Kudos to Democrat Commissioner Bob Harper and his coalition of the Republican Liberty Caucus and the Northwest Indiana Patriots who did a lot of his online and activist work for him.
Should Gary and Merrillville look to merge?
On this sunny autumn day in Northwest Indiana, residents of Porter and St Joseph counties are voting in the RTA referendum to form a regional transportation authority, which may then impose an income tax of .25% to begin merging and funding transportation solutions for the region. Lake and LaPorte counties are disregarding the law and have decided not to stage the vote, with lots of legal and court battles impending due to these decisions.Although opponents of the RTA were out early, and some 1,000 voters have early voted in Porter County prior to today, proponents are still predicting a narrow victory due to labor union support of the RTA for jobs creation. It will be an interesting election tally.
In seemingly unrelated news, although regionalism is at the core, an interesting opinion piece in the Times today titled "Merge Gary and Merrillville" from a Gary Indiana resident. I don't know the long term politics of Gary and Merrillville but can only assume that many Merrillville residents will be against the concept. In my opinion though, this is just another testimony supporting Governor Daniels' concept of limiting the size and scope of local government through the much maligned 1/2/3 tax caps.
When local government is restricted from imposing 5 or 6 or even 7 percent property tax rates on property owners, government is forced to get smaller or find new money in user fees. User fees will be either fairer, or in their transparency easier for voters to find objectionable. Property taxes are for the most part a giant melting pot of cash where voters have a hard time deciphering where the money goes. Kudos to the Governor once again for forcing even Lake County to look at efficiencies and possible consolidations.
Matters of Opinion RTA Special!
Yes, yet another SPECIAL Matters of Opinion production. While I have already declared myself neutral on the idea, I decided that I wanted to do an episode on the Regional Transit Authority Referendum Vote which is November 3rd here in Porter County. Whatever your opinions on the RTA, get out and vote (it’s the American way, after all). While the majority of the conversation is from a pro-RTA point of view, I play devils advocate with what limited knowledge that I have. However, I encourage everybody to listen to the show and post your comments and concerns. Robert Ordway, head of the Citizens for Northwest Indiana PAC joins me in this discussion, and has promised to keep an eye on the comment section to address concerns and debate. Unfortunately this is the best way that I could come up with to have a true debate on this subject. I attempted to get a couple of different opinions on the show to have a live “on-air” debate, however because this was put together fairly quickly (yesterday) understandably the anti-RTA side of the argument was busy. For the record, they did not decline the debate. I do hope that they feel free to participate in this debate through the comment section, and once again I hope everybody listens/reads both sides of the argument and judge for themselves. There was an issue with volume control, so the recording has a little more static than I’m happy with, but bear with me, please. Happy listening!
Cash For Clunkers Yet Again Under Scrutiny
“The Obama administration on Thursday lashed out at a prominent critic of its Cash for Clunkers program, arguing that the popular trade-in initiative helped give the auto industry and the economy a much needed boost in the past few months.
In a blog post on whitehouse.gov, the administration argued that a report on Clunkers by automotive Web site Edmunds.com “doesn’t withstand even basic scrutiny” and is based on “implausible assumptions.”
On Wednesday, Edmunds.com released a study that argued Cash for Clunkers did not have a great impact on the auto industry. The report said that 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the program last summer, but that only 125,000 of them would not have been sold without the Clunkers rebates.” David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Sorry to repost so much of the original article (I try not to do that) but I thought this summed up the point better than I could articulate it. What is even more interesting, however, is the point that is made later in the article, where the White House makes the claim that 1.7% of the 3.5% growth rate in the third quarter is because of the “Cash for Clunker” program. Really!? You mean…people didn’t really want to buy cars (or for that matter couldn’t afford to), however because the automobile industry was one of the “Chosen Ones”, they were artificially propped up? Using tax payers money, at that?! Well, I’m happy that the White House will admit to it.
The “Cash for Clunkers” program has, however, seeped through other industries. For example, the Post-Tribune reported yesterday that Arcelor-Mittal, one of the steel producing “giants”, reported a pretty decent profit for the last quarter. This may have worked to float these industries along for another 6 months or so, but I won’t count my chickens before the proverbial eggs hatch(or another year or so of positive numbers come my way).
Cross posted at www.ktracy.com and linked at www.mattersofopinion.net
End Of Life Counseling Worms It’s Way Into Bill
End of life counseling has managed to make it’s way into the health care bill, and we will more than likely hear about things like “death panels” in the near future. Now, don’t get me wrong, I disagree with the idea that the government pays for such things on an ideological level, however as I’ve said on my show, the whole “death panels” thing has been a little overblown. The idea behind end of life counseling is that it ”allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death.” (AP, Yahoo! News) Do I think that this is a decision that should strictly be between family members? Yes. Do I think that it is equatable to “death panels”? No.
I also don’t think that this is something that we, as tax payers, should be paying for. I couldn’t even guess what the costs would be, but at this time Medicare is damn near broke and the extra expenses that this will add to the program won’t do anything to help that. Now, as far as “death panels” go, this is where I will agree.
A public option is really just a first step to bringing about a single payer system. Liberal Democrats (most notably Harry Reid) have actually ADMITTED this fact. If a single payer system were to be implemented, that is when I’ll begin jumping on the “death panel” band wagon, because at that point our country (which is already heavily in debt) would be dead broke. The medical field would be forced to ration care and make decisions regarding who would receive the care and who wouldn’t. How long would it take before the “public option” became a “single payer system”? It’s anyone’s guess. I’d hope it wasn’t in my or my sons’ lifetime, but who knows.
However by jumping the gun and screaming “death panel” at the top of our parties collective lung hurts us in the short term. It presents us as kooks and nut jobs and doesn’t help our public image. At a time when the party needs to regroup and prove ourselves on an intellectual level, things like this dampen that image and places our brand into a negative light. There are a hundred different reasons to oppose this health care bill (and I certainly hope it doesn’t pass) however using the “death panel” analogy doesn’t help this cause.
Cross posted at www.ktracy.com and linked at www.mattersofopinion.net
Bullet Fired At Lou Dobbs’ Home: Keep the Political Battles Where They Belong, Please
Earlier this month a bullet was fired at Lou Dobbs’ home in New Jersey. Earlier this year, an abortion doctor (George Tiller) was killed while attending church. Rush Limbaugh was stopped from making a profitable investment in the St.Louis Rams because of false accusations regarding racist comments. And there have been a couple arrests regarding plots to assasinate President Obama.
Listen up, everybody, Left, Right, and moderate: KNOCK IT OFF!
If there is something that you disagree with, killing, attempting to kill, or hurting the individual financially is not the answer. To paraphrase the above mentioned Rush Limbaugh, Republicans and Democrats are not equatable to “bloods vs. crips”. This is not gang war fare. The colors red and blue, while on the streets of LA may be gang colors, DOESN’T MEAN that we should be taking pot shots at each other.
I mean, come on! Do I really have to be even typing this post? Has politics really stooped to such a low? On this subject, even Kevin and I are not immune to such child like attacks, although to date these attacks have only been verbal. Please, everyone, before you begin loading guns or making remarkable personal attacks, take a deep breath, think for a minute, and then pound your head into a wall. Will that help? Maybe not. But if you happen to take my advice be sure to put it up on YouTube.
Cross posted at www.ktracy.com and linked at www.mattersofopinion.net
So does that make Bernanke a “Pimp”?
“Rep. Alan Grayson hurled an insult at Linda Robertson last month on the “Alex Jones Show,” a syndicated talk radio program, while discussing the Fed’s resistance to stronger congressional oversight. Robertson is a former top Enron lobbyist and Clinton administration adviser who was hired by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke this summer to help with congressional relations,” from wusa.com.
This, my friends, is hilarious. First of all, where else would a comment like that come from other than that nut job Alex Jones’ show? While I certainly wouldn’t have made a (stupid) comment like this, I have to say that when talking about lobbyists in general using the term “whore” isn’t that off of a definition. The politician “lays down” their ideological beliefs and campaign promises in exchange for money or other “services” (services being special trips and vacations, get your mind out of the gutter!) So it’s not that the description is what bothers me, its the fact that a CONGRESSMAN is doing the describing.
If this comment were made by some talking head or blogger, that’s one thing. This is an elected official and behaviour of this sort is unacceptable. Now, Grayson is known for using theatrics and shooting his mouth off (for example, did you all know that Republicans want us all to “die quickly”?) however to use a derogatory term like “whore” when talking about a woman who is an advisor to Fed Chairman Bernanke is over the line.
In my opinion, Congress should follow the precedent that they have established when dealing with these sorts of inappropriate outburst’s: they should treat Grayson EXACTLY the way that they treated Joe Wilson. They should ask him to apologize to Ms. Robertson, and when he does…berate him and make him apologize again. Then, treat him like crap for expressing his opinion. Now, I know what you all are thinking: Wilson yelled out at the President during an address to Congress, not really the same sort of deal. And in a sense, I agree. However, yelling out “you lie” and calling a young lady a whore…even though the setting was different, the severity of the comment helps to put the two statements on an even keel.
My question is this: just how much about whores do you know, Rep. Grayson?
Cross posted at www.ktracy.com and linked at www.mattersofopinion.net
3rd busiest week on NWIP
For those that are regular readers, thanks again. We have just completed our 3rd busiest, most active, week since our inception as a political forum here in Northwest Indiana.The other two higher ranking weeks were: the week I suggested Sarah Palin would be Vice Presidential candidate about 6 months before John McCain agreed ... and the week we were linked to by Instapundit and got 22,000 hits in less than 5 days.
Thanks to all of you, and most especially our new readers who are engaging in the debates that will frame our future as a region. Now, there was some limited argument early last week about this site being gossipy or having few if any readers ... I'll readily admit that the Times and Post get more daily visitors ... but sure someday we'd love to have those thousands of visitors daily engaged in these vital political debates.
Time for regional tourism collaboration
I know that many of our readers are against any kind of regional effort. We have argued now for months about the RDA (Regional Development Authority) and the RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) and whether NIRPC (Planning Commission) and the RBA (Bus Authority) and NICD (basically the South Shore) are working efficiently and in our best interests.Now comes a proposal, floated last year by some Porter County tourism board members, that the boards of Lake and LaPorte and Porter counties meet to look at combining forces into one powerhouse tourism board for the region. There is no doubt that the staff of Porter County's board would fight this effort. And of course the current county council in Porter County is aligned against any regional effort, even if it saved money, they've even ordered the tourism board to give tourism dollars to some county facilities to help balance their tight budget.
So, I'll ask what the Times asks: should we look at possible collaboration, or throw this the way of all regional efforts and walk away?
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The Blog Indiana Conference has created the Blindy's Award for bloggers and blogs in Indiana.
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Sadly, although this site was nominated, none of our very active social media pros made the list. A mistake I think by the organ...
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The Blog Indiana Conference has created the Blindy's Award for bloggers and blogs in Indiana.
Vote here at this link
Sadly, although this site was nominated, none of our very active social media pros made the list. A mistake I think by the organizers.
Vote here at this link
Sadly, although this site was nominated, none of our very active social media pros made the list. A mistake I think by the organizers.
Posted on August 8, 2009 at 7:19am —
All my northwest indiana sites
I just posted the same list over at Real Estate World (on ning) and figured I'd do the same here.
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Northwest Indiana Real Estate
Home Building, New Construction, First Time Home Buyers, No Money Down and Credit Repair
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Commercial Real Estate, Office Space and Economic Development Consulting
Northwest Indiana Blogs
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Posted on March 23, 2008 at 2:45pm — 2 Comments
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Eric Kallin
Will be at office meeting Tuesday
Eric Kallin
I met you at Blog Indiana 2008. Enjoyed your interaction on the panel. I came across you on Active Rain and didn't put two and two together until I saw your picture here. Now I have joined. I am looking forward to being part of this community.