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:
Bob Thomas Enters the Race
5/25/10 @ 9:04 pm
From the press release:
n a press conference this afternoon, Bob Thomas formally declared his intentions to seek the Republican nomIination for the special election and general election to replace Mark Souder.
“Nothing has changed since we entered the race three months ago. This country is facing bankruptcy and our Representatives in Congress are attempting to tackle problems that they don’t have the training or experience to handle.”
“I am running because of the people who stood with me today. I am running for the tens of thousands who voted for me three weeks ago. I am running because strength and integrity matter.”
“We must evaluate candidates based on their credentials, not on the list of political offices they’ve held.”
I think the last quote would be a winner if this were an election but in the caucus running as an outsider might be a disadvantage.
There’s so many people in the race now I’m losing track. I’ll have a caucus discussion post up later…
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections | Leave a Comment
JG Reporting in the Tank for FWCS?
5/25/10 @ 7:53 pm
I’ve known for quite some time that the JG editorial staff had their head up their ass in regards to FWCS’ failings but I’ve always found the reporting staff to be fair. However, after reading their story covering the FWCS board’s decision to change their public comment policy I’m not so sure. Here’s their lede:
After a series of tense exchanges with opponents of the closure of Elmhurst High School, the Fort Wayne Community Schools Board has altered its rules regarding public comment during meetings.
At a meeting Monday, the board voted to limit public comments to three minutes, as opposed to allowing a range of three to five minutes.
The board also agreed to direct all questions about operations to the superintendent and to forbid audience members from launching “personal attacks against any person by a speaker.”
Let’s compare that to the NS lede:
General comments from the public at Fort Wayne Community Schools board meetings will no longer be televised after the board voted Monday to make changes to two parts of board policy.
Major changes to the policy regarding public participation include limiting speakers to three minutes instead of five and moving the public comment portion to after the meeting has been adjourned. FWCS spokeswoman Krista Stockman said the board welcomes public input, but the time set aside for it is not meant to be an open forum.
Quite a difference. The NS highlights the ridiculous decision to prevent the public from watching the public comments while the JG fails to mention that decision anywhere in their story and only highlights the other, more mild, decisions. I realize that sometimes these stories are rushed to meet a deadline and in that process certain details can get omitted although in this case that’s quite a detail to miss. The other explanation would be that the editorial staff (or management) is directly or indirectly pressuring reporters to toe the party line when it comes to FWCS.
Filed Under Local Politics | 6 Comments
School Board Cowards
5/25/10 @ 7:33 pm
The Fort Wayne Community School Board has decided that they no longer want the public to be able to see citizen comments at the end of their board meeting. In this era of information technology and open government the board is turning back the clock and making their meetings less transparent.
General comments from the public at Fort Wayne Community Schools board meetings will no longer be televised after the board voted Monday to make changes to two parts of board policy.
Major changes to the policy regarding public participation include limiting speakers to three minutes instead of five and moving the public comment portion to after the meeting has been adjourned.
Gee, I wonder why they wouldn’t want people to see public comments? Perhaps because they are critical of the board and offer up the truth about the lackluster performance within FWCS? The funny part is that they are actually embracing their decision to cut off public comments from the public:
FWCS spokeswoman Krista Stockman said the board welcomes public input, but the time set aside for it is not meant to be an open forum.
“The public comment period is a time for the public to share information with the board, not a time to share information with the public.”
Got that? You can tell the board something but the information hogs at FWCS will be damned if they’re gonna let anyone else see what you might have to say. This is the most cowardly government decision I’ve seen in some time. Hiding the information won’t make it go away and won’t protect FWCS’ oh-so-precious public image. This is yet another example of how FWCS is all PR and no substance (more on this later).
Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that communication strategies that attempt message control by excluding other voices and sources of information always backfire. They might’ve worked in the 70’s and 80’s but it doesn’t fly today and the entire board should be ashamed for making such a short-sighted and cowardly decision.
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 15 Comments
FWP Poll - 3rd District Congressional Race
5/23/10 @ 9:38 pm
I’ve opened up a new poll over on the sidebar where you can vote for who you would choose to be Souder’s replacement nominee. Other sites are running these polls so I thought it might be interesting to see how FWP readers compare.
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections | 4 Comments
Stuff I’m Reading
5/23/10 @ 9:34 pm
I haven’t updated this in a while and since I always like to get ideas from other people’s reading list I thought I would share my own. So here’s what I’ve been reading:
- Born to Run - Read this a while back. Great story and everyone can enjoy this one - even if you don’t necessarily like to run. One of the better books I’ve read in the last 12 months
- Nine Stories - Hadn’t ever read this one and with Salinger’s death in the news I decided to give it a try. I had read that some thought this was better than Catcher in the Rye but I just don’t think so. I can’t say I enjoyed this one.
- Moneyball - Michael Lewis is a great author and this was a fantastic read. A mix of statistics and baseball to explain how the Oakland A’s compete in MLB despite their woeful payroll.
- The Big Short - I just finished this and it was yet another amazing book by Michael Lews. This is the best book on the financial crisis I’ve read yet. The entire thing is told from the perspective of those who saw the crisis coming and made a fortune in the process.
- Let the Great World Spin - this was one of 2009’s most popular books but I didn’t enjoy it that much. I did read the entire thing so it wasn’t terrible but I just don’t get the hype. The story covers several characters’ lives in 1974 NYC and are all tied together by Philippe Petit’s tighrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. There was also a documentary about this walk called Man on Wire that was critically acclaimed but I thought was so bad that I didn’t finish watching it.
- Dies the Fire & The Protector’s War - These were parts 1 & 2 in the S.M. Stirling’s post-apocalyptic trilogy. The books revolve around an event called The Change that causes all electronics and firearms to quit working and how a variety of groups survive the situation. I listened to these audio books and I thought they were interesting and worth recommending.
All the above titles were checked out from your local Allen County Public Library…
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
FWEA Lies (Surprise, Surprise!)
5/23/10 @ 8:11 pm
There’s nothing more frustrating than reading traditional media pieces in which they allow establishment characters to blatantly lie without at least requiring them to explain their position. There was a story on Indiana News Center a couple of weeks ago where this occured. This story was related to the 311 teacher layoffs happening at FWCS at what could’ve been done to prevent it. Here’s the official union position:
Union representatives said that no concessions could have been made to prevent the layoffs.
That, my friends, is as blatant of a lie as one will ever read and it’s ridiculous that it was aired completely unchallenged. We had several posts here at FWP ( here, here and here) outlining steps that could be taken to prevent teacher layoffs. These were common sense approaches that would have started to fix the structural deficit problems that will continue to plague FWCS.
Given these union obfuscations and their inability to protect teachers why in the world would any young teacher join the union? They voted to eliminate your job without any discussion on how it might be saved. And would it be too much to ask that FWEA fix their website? It has been down for weeks now. Every member pays $600/year and yet FWEA can’t afford a nickel’s worth of extra bandwidth?
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 3 Comments
Stutzman Claims No Knowledge of Souder/Jackson Affair
5/20/10 @ 1:02 pm
There have been a lot of people asking “What did Marlin Stutzman know and when did he know it?” regarding Mark Souder’s affair with staffer Tracy Jackson. Evidently Stutzman asked Souder about it in 2008 and Souder denied it. Stutzman says he learned the truth when everyone else did:
Stutzman says he and another staffer confronted Souder on the allegations and Souder denied there was an inappropriate behavior or a relationship with Jackson.
[...]
Stutzman also confirms that he is friends with both Tracy Jackson and her husband, Brad, but Stutzman says he did not know about the Souder/Jackson affair until Souder’s announcement on Tuesday.
Looks like the Stutzman camp is working to get out in front of this line of questioning - might as well get it over with…
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections, Featured | 14 Comments
Will the Local Ron Paul Supporters Throw a Monkey Wrench into the Upcoming Republican Caucus?
5/20/10 @ 12:54 pm
One interesting angle to watch in the upcoming 3rd District Republican caucus to fill Mark Souder’s seat is whether or not the maligned Ron Paul faction within Allen County will coalesce behind their own candidate. With this many people in the race, the vote could split and the Paul supporters could potentially have a disproportionate impact on the outcome…
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections | 5 Comments
Stutzman Officially in the Race
5/19/10 @ 9:57 pm
From the press release:
With the recent vacancy in the 3rd Congressional District, many of you have been asking about the next steps for Marlin. We have received over 100 emails offering encouraging words and support to jump into that race. Marlin will be holding multiple press conferences Thursday, May 20 to make a very important announcement. If you are ready to send a true conservative to Washington to represent our values, please take the time to come out and stand shoulder to shoulder with Marlin. Let’s unify behind a proven leader who can win this seat back for the people!
Below is the schedule. Please plan to be in Elkhart at 9:45 AM and Allen County by 4:15 PM to show your support for Marlin:
10:00am - Goshen (Elkhart Co GOP Headquarters)
11:30am - Swick Communications in Angola
1:30pm - KPC News in Kendallville
4:30pm - Allen County GOP Headquarters
6:30pm - 3rd District Republican Meeting- Grossman’s- LaGrange
We look forward to seeing and working with all of you again!
Filed Under 2010 Local Elections | 1 Comment
Souder Conspiracy Theory
5/18/10 @ 3:01 pm
I keep coming back to the question of why now. Why would he resign now? One theory would be that this day of reckoning has been in the works for some time. Any allegation or resignation before the election would’ve likely led to a Thomas victory. Did the party establishment dislike Bob Thomas so much that they wanted Souder to hold off on resigning until after the primary? By doing so they would now have some control over who wins the seat.
Just a (crazy?) thought…
