About: Jeff Pruitt
- pruitt@fortwaynepolitics.com
- Profile
- I am a lifelong Democrat that likes to call myself a populist Democrat. In this sense I think more power should be shifted to the people and away from politicians and the elitist interests that attempt to control them. Philosophically I suppose I would classify myself (if I must) as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. In general I believe in ALL of our inalienable rights and thus by definition realize they are not provided or doled out by the government. I'm originally from Kansas and a graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in Physics and I moved to Fort Wayne in the summer of 2000. I don't claim any special expertise in the government arena other than I follow it very closely and always have. In that sense I suppose I'm a pundit - I'll leave it up to others to decide if I'm any good at it...
Posts by Jeff Pruitt:
A Welcome Change in Transparency
7/26/10 @ 12:26 am
The new deputy mayor, Beth Malloy, seems to have smacked some sense into Mayor Henry when it comes to transparency. Councilman Mitch Harper has been working with Malloy and also crafted an ordinance to require all city spending to be posted online.
the council this month unanimously approved an ordinance requiring the city to post all of its expenses online. The new law only provided an exception for employee compensation and did not mention economic development efforts. Yet unlike the consulting report, the Henry administration supported this effort.
Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy told the council the work can be done at little or no additional cost.
[...]
Councilman Mitch Harper, R-4th, wrote the online expense bill for the city and said he was glad to see the support from the administration. He said it appears Malloy, who replaced Purcell last month, has been given the authority to take control of the city’s transparency efforts, which should make them professional.“She seems to represent something of a change,” he said.
Harper is being diplomatic here but I don’t think there’s any doubt that previous deputy mayor, Greg Purcell, was not a major advocate of open government provisions. He was an old-school bureaucrat who didn’t understand how technology has shortened the news cycle and that any effort at information control was futile and ultimately counterproductive.
While I don’t support the idea of a deputy mayor in general, it does appear that Malloy might be the person who can finally start giving mayor Henry some much-need good advice…
Filed Under City Council, Featured | 2 Comments
A Quick Thought on Derek Pillie’s Announcement
7/17/10 @ 11:22 am
I realize Mark Souder is not the most popular guy these days but it seems like bad form to me to add his successes to your official bio without ever mentioning the guy’s name. Afterall, Souder did give Pillie a nice job, and the only reason Pillie has the name recognition he does is through his link to former Congressman Souder. This willful omission makes the bio an awkward read…
Derek A. Pillie, 34 (born June 9, 1976), has worked on behalf of the citizens of northern Indiana for nearly a decade. Since 2000, Derek has served on the staff of Indiana’s Third Congressional District, most recently as District Director. In that role, he oversees Indiana operations of the office, including constituent outreach and helping taxpayers solve problems with federal agencies. He also worked on crucial economic development projects including the preservation of hundreds of jobs at magnet wire facilities in Fort Wayne, protecting veterans’ access to local inpatient care and ensuring the long-term survival of the Air National Guard presence at Fort Wayne International Airport.
[...]
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections | 3 Comments
A Local Newspaper’s Quote of the Day
7/15/10 @ 9:23 am
From their editorial supporting Mayor Henry’s proposal to create a task force which would look at changing what city contracts require city council approval:
After a bit of saber-rattling and defensiveness over City Council criticism of consultant contracts, Mayor Tom Henry proposed a common-sense, fair method of addressing the issue.
Henry created a panel that includes Council President Marty Bender and two other council members. In a move that was both practical and politically savvy, Henry asked Bender to appoint critics of the contracts from each party, Republican Liz Brown and Democrat Glynn Hines. The panel will also give Henry a voice by including new Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy and have a somewhat neutral member, City Clerk Sandy Kennedy, whose office serves as the council’s secretary and record-keeper.
Neutral? Are they kidding? There’s nothing wrong with Kennedy being a choice for the panel but let’s not pretend that she would be neutral. That is disingenuous. Of course the whole idea of a panel is ridiculous in the first place. We elect members of city council to legislate and we don’t need a special panel to help them do that.
Filed Under City Council | 1 Comment
Olinger for 84th District Caucus
7/14/10 @ 7:59 pm
Obviously I don’t have a vote in the upcoming GOP caucus to fill the seat being vacated by State Representative Randy Borror but that won’t prevent me from opining. It looks as if the list of candidates will continue to grow but I’m fairly confident that, regardless of how many people join, my support will go to Jon Olinger.
I worked with Jon during his FWCS campaign, and while we may not agree on everything, I can assure you that he is a solid conservative candidate. And most important to me, and the future of this state, is that he has consistently championed fiscal responsibility. He was the sole voice of sanity on an FWCS board run amok with financial foolishness that is now paying for their previous largess. Of course this was also a major reason he was targeted and defeated during the FWCS race.
I have nothing ill to say towards the other candidates but I do know that if Jon is selected he will be an excellent representative of the 84th district…
Note: I am not affiliated with any campaign Olinger may currently be running
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections, Local Politics | 16 Comments
Union Suicide
7/14/10 @ 6:46 pm
I’ve been away tending to matters related to the day job (blogging doesn’t pay too well) and there have been several stories that I’ve wanted to comment on but haven’t had the time. I’m hoping to address those in the next few days and I suppose I’ll start with the outsourcing of the FWCS janitorial positions.
During the FWCS budget debate I supported the outsourcing of these positions for the simple fact that if the choice comes down to janitors or teachers then I’ll choose the teachers and I assume most people feel the same way. But the philosophy behind the outsourcing is more general than just “this position vs that position.” In the private sector employers have something referred to as “core competencies” - these are positions that add to the business bottom line. For example, if you run an accounting firm then accounting would be one of the core competencies.
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 49 Comments
New 3rd District Poll Open
6/9/10 @ 12:24 am
The last poll had Stutzman winning easily. I’ve eliminated some people and am interested in seeing how this might change the vote. Other interesting issues:
- Will the recent Souder facebook message have a negative impact on “Souder insiders”?
- Is Elijah really coming on strong?
- Can Thomas use the latest anti-Souder sentiment as leverage for his outsider status?
- Can Brown rally enough Allen County support to pull it out
Lot of jockying left to go. Go ahead and vote in the new poll over in the far sidebar…
Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Helping Our Resident GOP Caucus Voter Make Up His Mind
6/5/10 @ 11:26 pm
FWP’s very own Mike Sylvester has a vote in the upcoming 3rd District caucus to select former congressman Mark Souder’s replacement. Here are a couple statements from Mike regarding his feelings towards the field of candidates (original posts here and here).
I still have not decided who I will support at the upcoming caucus; however, I am certainly considering Randy Borror and I have to admit that before tonight I was not considering Mr. Borror.
[...]
For the record I do not know who I am going to vote for at this point. There are a lot of good candidates. I am currently leaning towards Borror, Brown, Stutzman, or Troyer.
Well, hopefully this post will help Mike narrow down his choices by eliminating Randy Borror as an option. And the persuasive evidence I will present is Mike’s own words regarding the legislation that made the “temporary” food and beverage tax permanent:
The state Legislature, with broad support from local Democrats and Republicans in the Indiana Legislature passed a bill at the state level that will make our local tax permenant. They have 100% discounted the will of the people when the tax was passed and they have changed what the tax will be used for; all without consulting the taxpayers.
I will never vote for any of the politicians who voted in favor of this bill.
Randy Borror not only voted for this bill, but also sponsored it and was in charge of the conference committee that finalized all the details.
I realize that time heals all wounds and people change their minds for a variety of reasons. Mike is certainly not bound by something he wrote here over a year ago but I thought he might enjoy the friendly reminder!
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections | 13 Comments
Unless You Like Tax Increases, Randy Borror is Not a Good Choice
6/5/10 @ 11:07 pm
I told myself I wasn’t going to post for or against any of the candidates running in the 3rd District Caucus but I’ve changed my mind. The fact of the matter is that whoever happens to win this caucus has a better than average shot at becoming our next Congressman, and as we all know it’s mighty difficult to boot an incumbent once they get entrenched. It’s because of this that I feel it necessary to point out why I think Randy Borror would not be a good choice to represent this district.
AWB has a post up reminding everyone that Borror sponsored HR 1604 and I want to expand on that post by showing how involved Borror was and what the eventual outcome was (hint: several large tax increases).
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections, Featured | 15 Comments
Local Libertarian Opines on Rand Paul Civil Rights Controversy
5/27/10 @ 10:03 am
Rand Paul is a libertarian (and son of Ron Paul) who easily won the recent Republican Senate primary in Kentucky. Shortly after, he became a national point of discussion due to his comments about the 1964 Civil Rights Act and how the federal government imposes on private businesses.
I asked Robert Enders, local Libertarian and blogger, for his thoughts regarding this controversy and his response is shown below. I’ve also included a clip that contains Rand Paul’s comments…
(Robert Enders) I was asked about my perspective on Rand Paul’s comments on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Frankly, I’m surprised that this is an issue. There is no movement to repeal or modify any portion of the law in question. No business is clamoring for the right to turn down paying customers on the basis of their skin color. The question of whether or not any business has such a right is academic at best in this day and age. If a businessman insists that he has such a right, he’ll have to find someone other than me to defend it because I won’t do it.
A common theme that I see in criticisms of libertarianism is critics will oversimplify the philosophy, then insist that it can be used to justify allowing toddlers to carry handguns or throwing all poor people into the street. Such arguments are reductio ad absurdum and they are wrong. Like everyone else, we recognize that freedom has its limits. Every set of political beliefs allows for a few exceptions. Environmentalists don’t advocate protecting every tree, Democrats can’t protect every job, and Republicans don’t protect every marriage. I personally will not protect a restaurant’s right to exclude my family, friends, and neighbors.
Filed Under 2010 National Elections, National Politics | 8 Comments
3rd District Caucus Discussion Thread
5/25/10 @ 11:33 pm
It’s surprising to see some of these names enter the race - a few too many inflated egos if you ask me. I still think it’s quite unfortunate that an extreme minority of insiders will select whose name goes on the ballot but I guess we can all thank Souder for that one. He certainly should’ve chosen not to run for re-election and given the voters an opportunity to select their candidate.
But this crowded field presents an interesting opportunity for the official and potential candidates. It’s possible that a candidate from outside of Allen County could put together a coalition of committee members from the various surrounding counties and win. Unfortunately for that hypothetical candidate Marlin Stutzman is in a strong position to do just that AND he’s popular within Allen County.
Also, as I’ve alluded to before, it makes smaller factions like the Ron Paul supporters that much more powerful. Can they actually work with a few other groups to make their candidate of choice a contender? And who is their candidate - Troyer?
Bob Thomas also presents another interesting case. You would think that a candidate who could self-finance and had a strong showing in the primary would be a front-runner. But the primary battle with Souder was brutal and healing those wounds takes time. He’s also an outsider trying to convince a bunch of insiders that he should be the choice - that’s a tough sell.
Right now I’d say Stutzman and Randy Borror are the favorites. Borror has been an insider for a long time and having those relationships is clearly an advantage in a caucus.
Those are my thoughts, but I’d like to hear from others. Who do you think are the top contenders and who might the dark horse be? What other factors might come into play leading up to the caucus? Or feel free to share anything else you want regarding this race…
