Reflections

I have spent the last few weeks since the Fishers City Council election reflecting on the results of that election, and lessons to be learned from it.  In no particular order, here are some of them.

• I got votes from about 40% of those who voted, a very respectable showing for a Democrat. But despite my fiscal conservatism on local financial issues, some people only vote for Republicans, period, and paid too little attention to the very real financial issues related to our overuse of TIF financing and rapidly rising debt.  
• It is exhausting to be a candidate, physically and mentally.  That is doubly true when you are the only candidate of your party on the ballot. 
• Voter turnout in non-Presidential elections, especially for city offices, is nothing short of horrible, and it has been getting worse.  I have heard all sorts of ideas about why this is so, including blaming the one-party nature of local politics to voters simply not understanding why local government is important. I will do my small part about the problem, but even my Republican friends don't understand this. Is it apathy, futility, ignorance of local government, or something else? 
• Democratic Party involvement is probably part of the solution, but the problem there is two-fold, both at the bottom where too few people want to do the hard grassroots work to make it happen, and at the top, where there is a lack of resources, training, communication, and involvement. If Democrats could somehow get their act together, it would drive more citizen involvement in the process. 
• As an alternative to the comment above, I could support non-partisan local elections for mayors and city councils. If there is a Republican or a Democratic position on most local issues, I have yet to see it. It's hard to put a party label on a road construction project. And the stereotype about Democrats being big spenders is just false.  In Hamilton County, the big spenders are all Republicans. But not all of them support that. 
• Both Democrats and Republicans need to learn to talk to each other in a civil manner and be able to work together for common cause. CityYes was a great example of how citizens could put aside party label for a shared vision. 
• Fishers still needs to pass a human rights ordinance. I have no faith in the State doing this right any time soon.
• Fishers also needs to pass a version of an ethics ordinance and campaign finance reform to limit special interests who do business with the City from essentially buying access to city government via large campaign donations. 

I will continue to speak out and write about matters that concern me.  Although I do not expect to write any more posts for this blog, please follow my Hamilton County Politics blog, which also posts to Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to follow it, and me.  Thanks to everyone who supported and worked for me, words cannot express how much I appreciate it. 

Issues vs Party Label

I have had an ongoing debate with a few people about whether or not people in Fishers will vote for a Democrat with whom they agree on issues, or if they will vote solely on party label.

Despite past history of "knee jerk" party line voting - something both parties have been guilty of - I hope and believe that the voters of Fishers will look at who is right and wrong on the issues, and vote accordingly.  I already have some Republican supporters, who see me as an independent, honest watchdog, and more fiscally responsible than my opponent.  So let's look at a few of those issues.

• Last fall the Fishers Council proposed adopting a new food and beverage sales tax.  I spoke against it at two council meetings, along with other citizens of various political labels.  My opponent not only supported the tax, he was adamant about it.  But it failed for lack of a majority.  I was right, my opponent wrong.
• I was the first chair of CityYes, the bi-partisan group that was successful in pushing for adoption of City status for Fishers, and protecting the right of citizens to vote for a Mayor.  My opponent waffled at first, then campaigned against the City referendum, and supported the failed "merger" that was walloped in the vote.  I was right, my opponent wrong.
• I spoke at the Feb. 17, 2014 meeting of the Council in opposition to the "no bid" contract with  a group of campaign donors to tear down the train station and "redevelop" the site with public land and $15 million in borrowed taxpayer dollars.  This form of corporate welfare was wrong, and I opposed it.  My opponent not only supported it, he touts it as a major accomplishment.  I was right, and my opponent wrong.
• I have openly opposed the $35 million total being spent on the various downtown projects, all in borrowed money.  My opponent again embraces all of this spending.  I was right, and my opponent wrong.
• I opposed the over-use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) which uses borrowed money to give to developers, and results in tax dollars being diverted away from schools to repay this debt. I oppose TIFs, my opponent has voted to make nearly all land in Fishers capable of development into a TIF, which kills our tax base growth.  I was right, and my opponent wrong.
• My opponent was a main figure in the disgraced and now-disbanded Royal Tiger PAC, which got campaign contributions from insiders and city contractors by promising them insider information before it was news.  One of the candidates supported by this corrupt bargain has been arrested on drug charges.  ALL of my campaign donations are from individuals, or me personally, not city contractors.  I have proposed a city ethics ordinance to end this practice. Again, I was right, and my opponent wrong. 

I have to say, I like John as a person, and his happy, engaging family.  But you vote for and against candidates based on their record.  And sorry John, there are way too many mistakes here.  So yes, I am a Democrat, but that actually means little on local issues. I could not identify a "Republican" or "Democrat" position on the things that come before the Council if I tried. So the main thing voters should judge by are the record of the candidates, and their positions.  Will this be enough?  We will find out on November 4th.