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As the Candidates File: 6th Congressional District

Washington Street Politics — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:14:44 +0000

The filing continues and so does the fun.

In the 6th Congressional District, we have reports up from Don Bates, Travis Hankins and Luke Messer. Here are the breakdowns.

Bates: $55,245 Raised, $53,197 Cash on Hand
Hankins: $33,905 Raised, $61,277 Cash on Hand
Messer: $200,539 Raised, $185,148 Cash on Hand

Looks like Luke Messer has been busy raising a boat load of money though we can’t say we are surprised. Messer has some big backers and showed he can raise money in the 5th District race last year.

The fact that Bates only outraised Hankins by $20,000 cannot make him happy. Bates ran for U.S. Senate in 2010 while Hankins ran in the 9th District with a more grassroots focused campaign. That said, Hankins spent more than he raised this quarter with his cash on hand number dropping from $70,343 at the start of the period to around $61,000 this quarter.

If money talks, Messer is sending a message.

As the Candidates File: 5th District Edition

Washington Street Politics — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:16:59 +0000

As some of you probably know, the Federal Election Commission requires candidates for federal office to file campaign finance reports July 15th for the 2nd Quarter. We’ll be covering these reports as they are filed. First up: John McGoff.

John McGoff is running for the third time against 5th District Congressman Dan Burton. McGoff posted $146,046 raised and $10,064 spent. This leaves him with a little over $136,000 cash on hand.

So what is the story behind the numbers? First, this appears to be the most McGoff has raised in one quarter in his campaigns against Dan Burton. This is clearly good for McGoff but he was aided by the fact that he was the sole opposition to Burton. Now that David McIntosh and Susan Brooks appear to be entering the race, money could be a little harder for McGoff to raise.

Second, Burton has just over $200,000 cash on hand as of the April report though we are guessing he will have kicked fundraising into gear and we’ll see a bigger number by the end of the deadline. Regardless, this is a pretty low number for the incumbent Congressman.

We’ll give a 5th District update once the Burton report is up. McIntosh and Brooks have not yet filed so they won’t have reports. As usual, the 5th District looks to be interesting to watch. We’ll see if the candidates do a repeat of 2010 and let Burton sneak by with his seat again.

Sanders is Out, Pam Hickman is In and Something is Up

Washington Street Politics — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:20:18 +0000

Yesterday, At-Large City-County Councillor and Minority Leader Joanne Sanders bowed out of her re-election campaign citing an increased work load at her full-time job working as a union representative.

Today, Ed Treacy announced that Pam Hickman will take Sanders’ place on the ticket. Hickman ran for State Representative in District 87 and lost. Comments over on Indianapolis Times are claiming Hickman ran against the Democrat slate several years ago as well.

We don’t know what on earth is going on over at the Marion County Democrat Headquarters but something is up. Rumors are swirling that Monroe Gray and Vernon Brown were working to stage a coup and vote Sanders out of leadership after the election. This is a clear indication that the Democrat Council Caucus is spiraling out of control.

But is that why Sanders unexpectedly dropped out of her re-election bid? We aren’t sure but we are willing to bet there is a lot more to this story.

The Prodigal Bloggers Return

Washington Street Politics — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:51:33 +0000

Faithful readers, we’re back.

We took a bit of a Spring Break last week but we promise we’re back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Frankly, we aren’t even sure how much we missed on our little blogging break. You have to admit, Indiana’s political world is a little stagnant right now.

House Democrats still aren’t doing their jobs.

Senate Republicans are still spending more time on social issues than important fiscal concerns.

Governor Daniels still hasn’t said if he is running for President or not.

And the U.S. Senate race is turning into a negative campaign with both sides accusing the other of being negative while doing so themselves.

No wonder we did not feel the need to blog. It seems the only thing that will be changing on any of that this week is that we’ll be back to writing about it.

We Want to Be Your Friend: Facebook Us!

Washington Street Politics — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:54:52 +0000

Please allow us this post for some shameless self-promotion. Well, we are anonymous so it isn’t self-promotion but it is shameless blog-promotion.

We’ve created a Facebook page and we want to be your friend. Please click here!

We friended most of you who follow us on Twitter already so you may have received an invitation. If so, please accept us or it will give us a complex.

Thanks for reading WSP and, hopefully, for being our new friends on Facebook.

Back to regularly scheduled blogging.

Students for Mitch Daniels Go Up on the Air for My Man Mitch

Washington Street Politics — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:19:14 +0000

By now you may have heard that there is a Students for Mitch Daniels group that is trying to draft Governor Mitch Daniels into the 2012 Presidential Campaign. They no doubt have gotten the idea from the 2003 efforts to draft Daniels into the running for Indiana Governor. That group is otherwise known as Frugal Hoosiers and they were successful.

These kids are aggressive and actually put a television ad up in Iowa. The ad was aired on a Fox affiliate in the Des Moines media market during the Pro-Bowl game. Here is the ad:

The students have said they plan to air the ad in New Hampshire and Indiana. Here is a tip, guys: Don’t waste your money in Indiana. We’re pretty sure Republican primary voters here are all locked up. He was Our Man Mitch long before anyone else knew his name.

Our View: DADT Repeal is Long Overdue

Washington Street Politics — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:23:52 +0000

Today, President Obama signed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell into law. The signing does not actually change the law immediately but begins the process. The Pentagon has to certify that the change will not impact combat readiness and have met several other conditions before full-implementation.

Mark it down in the history books but, for once, we actually agree with Obama.

No longer will our country be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans who are forced to leave the military – regardless of their skills, no matter their bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance – because they happen to be gay. No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder in order to serve the country that they love.

What don’t we like about the change? Really only two things. The first is that this is being touted all over the news media as President Obama fulfilling a campaign promise. While we agree with the President on this issue, we still want a new President in 2012. Coverage of the bill signing said the event was like a campaign rally.

Second, only 8 Republicans in the Senate voted in favor of the repeal while all 31 no votes were cast by Republicans. Those of us who do not serve in the military are able to be free because those who do fight to protect our freedoms. It seems logical that the rest of us should fight for the soldiers who protect us day in and day out to be free to live their lives too. Apparently, the Senate Republicans didn’t see it that way.

Melina Kennedy: Happy Holidays

Washington Street Politics — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:09:03 +0000

Melina Kennedy’s campaign just sent out an oh so politically correct holiday greeting. At first, we thought the campaign messed up by sending the message 17 days before Christmas but then we remembered Hanukkah.

Sure enough, today is the 8th day of Hanukkah. We respect all faiths here at WSP so we’ll join in on the fun. Click here for our message while you have a Happy Hanukkah. Kennedy’s message is below and a little more politically correct than ours.

A Little Housekeeping…

Washington Street Politics — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:59:38 +0000

We just wanted to make a few comments before getting into some local news today.

First, we noticed that the comments section says that an email address is required to post a comment. It is not. We have no idea why it says that and we are going to get it fixed. We wanted everyone to know you can comment anonymously so feel free to jump in the conversation. We don’t care where you work since we post from the office too.

Second, we set up a twitter account so you can keep up with us throughout the day easily. You can follow us at WashStPolitics.

Third, thanks to any new readers today. We got a bit of a boost since Abdul Hakim-Shabazz mentioned us and we appreciate it. Everyone is welcome here even if we don’t always agree.

Stay tuned.

Welcome to Washington Street Politics

Washington Street Politics — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:16:44 +0000

Welcome to Washington Street Politics or WSP as we like to call it around here.

We know what you are thinking: Another political blog? Do we need another one? Really?

Yes. Yes we do. Really.

And here is why: There are lots of blogs particularly political ones. But many of them are focused exclusively on either city government, state government, political gossip or are even just a tool of a particular Party or candidate.

And that is why we’ve created Washington Street Politics. We’ll be covering policy and politics from end to end of Washington Street in Indianapolis. State government, city government, and Party politics from both sides of the aisle. (Full Disclosure: We do lean to the Right of that aisle but are dedicated to covering what we hear on both sides.)

So give in and click that “Add to Favorites” button for yet another political blog. We promise you won’t be disappointed.