Governor’s Race Sits at 50-50
Jim Schellinger has a modest 6600 vote lead but there are still a few Northwest counties that have yet to report (including Lake) and I would expect those counties to go for Jill Long Thompson. As expected this is going down to the wire…
Allen County GOP Denies Database to Primary Candidates!
Let me start by telling you that my blood is absolutely boiling right now.
As many of you know I recently switched from the Libertarian Party back to the Republican Party. This was a tough decision for me and some days it is a decision that I question a lot. Today is one of those days. As most of you know I am in favor of smaller Government and protecting our individual freedoms.
The Republican Party maintains a database of likely Republican voters that is known as “Voters Vault”. This database is a powerful tool that Republicans can use to market themselves to like-minded Republicans.
Scott Wise is running for Congress in the Republican Party against Mark Souder. Scott Wise spent a term on the Whitley County Council as a Republican and was active in the Republican Party for many years. Scott is a friend of mine and he “flirted” with the Libertarian Party in 2006 and wanted to be their candidate for Congress in 2006. I was going to be Scott’s Campaign manager until the Indiana Election Board stepped in and shamefully disqualified many Libertarian candidates from running in the election due to a “loophole” in the state law.
Scott Wise wanted access to the “Voter Vault” database and requested access to it. Below is the exact reponse that he received from the Indiana Republican Party and I quote:
Jill Long-Thompson On Suspension of Gas Sales Tax
Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Jill Long-Thompson wants to cap the amount of sales tax that’s charged on gasoline so that any portion of the price over $2.75/gallon would not get the sales tax applied to it. I don’t think this goes far enough - back in 2006 state Democrats campaigned on the promise of repealing the sales tax on gasoline altogether and that’s what should be done.
Since the governor and state legislature are hell-bent on holding down local government spending they can lead by example and figure out a way to pay for a complete suspension of the gas sales tax. This tax hurts everyone from working class Hoosiers to major corporations and we’re one of only 8 states that even has the tax.
Obama Discusses “Free Trade” With Journal Gazette
There’s nothing more frustrating than reading a story on NAFTA that doesn’t accurately describe what has happened since its enactment. So after reading Sylvia Smith’s story in this morning’s JG I was certainly frustrated. She briefly interviewed Barack Obama and he mentioned that we need to look at revisiting our trade policies to make sure they are fair to the United States. Smith then added a few statistics to her story that I don’t feel tell the full picture. I have some charts below that will make NAFTA’s effect on Indiana crystal clear.
I also want to point out that we do not have ANY “free trade” agreements. At the end of this post I have included testimony from the Senate floor where Senator Byron Dorgan illustrates why this is so. His examples will probably be eye-opening to those that haven’t seen them before and you’ll understand why our trade deficit has ballooned and why these agreements are unfair to the United States.
Property Tax “Compromise”
I think it’s a bit disingenuous to call this a compromise - it’s almost exactly what the governor wanted and nothing like the ridiculous plan put forward by state Democrats a week ago. Just so we all remember let’s recap the Democratic plan:
- No protection for any class of property taxpayer other than homeowners.
- No referendums on capital projects or other spending controls on local government.
- No reform of the assessment system.
- No elimination of property tax levies.
Absolutely NONE of that is in the “compromise” bill. The only compromise I see was exempting Lake and St Joseph counties which should’ve been done via referendum and not mandated by the state. So what exactly was the point of putting forward a politically inferior bill and then caving a week later? It makes absolutely no sense and only served to undermine the Democratic party’s progress in this state. Somebody might want to tell the speaker that if he is going to put forward his own plan it should be one that 70% of the people aren’t against and it should be done before the 11th hour…
Governor Daniels Exploits Ineptness of Democratic Challengers
Where have Jill Long-Thompson and Jim Schellinger been? In case they didn’t know running for governor requires a bit more than simply touring the state and asking for money. It’s inconceivable that the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates would not address the #1 voter issue right now - property taxes. They’ve sat back and let the governor front-run for so long it will be extremely difficult to stop his inertia. Not only is HB1001 being received favorably but it’s also become known as “The Governor’s Plan”. Politically, that is a winning combination no matter what one thinks of the bill itself.
