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Like most people right now, I can’t resist the temptation to analyze what happened in the recent election, both here and elsewhere.

Locally, results went pretty much as predicted, with some interesting sidelights. In fact, the folks at the Pal-Item have been chortling (usually quietly) about how 100% of their endorsements won every office. But let’s start nationally.

In the Nov. 10 issue of The Indianapolis Star, E.J. Dionne (one of the better columnists) has what I found as an insightful analysis. He starts by recognizing:

The Democratic surge that began in 2006 continued in elections around the country Tuesday. But how the Democrats won provides a cautionary tale for the national party.

Then he cites Demo successes around the country and concludes that “moderate Democrats in swing states kept their distance from party concerns for fear of alienating more conservative voters.” However, he continues: “But the sales pitch is unexpected: It casts Democrats as the party of nonpartisanship and relegates the Republicans to the status of partisan ideologues.” Then he goes on (and now we’re getting closer to home) by stating: “One of the few bright spots for the Republicans…was the startling upset of Indianapolis’ Democratic mayor, Bart Peterson, by Republican Greg Ballard.” And he adds: “Peterson was generally seen as a success in office, and Ballard was so much the underdog that he got little help from Indiana’s Republican governor, Mitch Daniels…and he rode voter unhappiness with tax increases and crime to victory.” All of which is true, of course, but the amazing thing is that any Washington Post columnist would find anything significant happening in Indiana. I’m not sure most of them know where Indiana is.

What I think is happening is that in the year 2007 we’re seeing the Politics of Protest, or maybe the Politics of Discontent. Indianapolis just happens to be a prime example, or victim. I think most reasonable observers would agree that Peterson was, as Dionne says, generally seen as a success in office. He was just caught in a whirlwind of discontent; the public wanted to blame someone for their unhappiness and he got it. He probably can’t be blamed for the Indy crime, he had nothing to do with the property tax fiasco, and as to the recent income tax hike over there, he probably thought he was popular enough to push it through and cure long-standing problems, such as long-standing sewer deficiencies and unfunded liabilities for police and firemen hung on all of us by the legislature. Personally, I think it’s too bad when politicians have the guts to take unpopular actions such as these and then are penalized for it, but they usually are. That’s democracy, the seamy side of democracy.

As to Greg Ballard’s victory, he didn’t beat Peterson; the voters punished Peterson and got Ballard. It may illustrate the old saying: “Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.” Ballard seems to be a nice guy with no bad actions yet, mainly because he has never done anything except serve in the Marines. He is a career military man who has never worked for any civilian company or organization, never belonged to or served on any public boards, never elected to office before. It will be interesting to see how he works out as a civilian mayor of a major city. Indy should hope he is better than their last military mayor. General Robert Tyndall was a World War II hero, sort of, commandant of Indy’s National Guard 38th Division (Tyndall armory is still there) who was elevated to office right after the war and is best known as one of the worst mayors in the city’s history.

Now, let’s return home for a few minutes and examine our own city election, so you’ll have some opinions to disagree with or scoff at. The Politics of Discontent did not hit our home town, for reasons both situational and personal. People here are grumbling about property taxes but the focus has not been on city government. Few people were mad at Sally Hutton. Sally has always been popular and that was the key (in my opinion) to the election. I’m not a professional analyzer, just an amateur observer, like the rest of us, and I haven’t studied the precinct results in detail. However, my initial impression this time around is that the basic difference was that more Republicans went to the polls than Democrats. When they got there, large numbers thought, well, Rick Thalls is a nice guy (which he is) but he isn’t ready to be mayor of the city. So they crossed over and voted for Sally, and that’s as far as they went. The only real contests were for Council-At-Large posts. Four years ago, the Republican slate was not as strong as it was this time around, so they, and Independents) switched over and voted for two Democrats, Al Glover and Gil Klose. This time, the Republican slate for At-Large Council was strong, so they saw no reason (or less) to split their ticket on those offices.

But what about Sally’s “Coat-Tail Effect” (the tendency of the top vote-getter on either party to pull candidates below in that direction) you might ask — if you are a political junkie? I could be way off on this, but I have to say it: Sally doesn’t have a “Coat-Tail Effect,” or at least, it didn’t show. She is popular in herself, and to be honest, many people think she has done a good job in her first term. Four years ago, Al Glover got more votes than she did, winning over the next At-Large candidate by about 400 votes. This time, Sally won by more than a thousand votes and Al lost by 43. It appears that all three Republican Council-At-Large candidates won on what appears to be Republican ballots.

One more comment, a personal note. In the interests of full disclosure, I should confess that I am a Glover partisan, having worked for him for three elections now. He lost the first one by 142 votes, won four years ago by 400 votes, as the top vote getter in his party, and lost this time by 43 votes out of more than 7,000 cast. I hope he can continue service to the community in some role. And I want to say two things: The three At-Large winners are all quality people and should be productive public servants, and secondly, I do not regret any time I spent trying to help Al. But what I really want to shine the spot light on are the more than 50 students in Mr. Gary Wier’s government classes who got some on-street experience in real-life politics by helping pass out flyers for Al. We enjoyed their presence and commend their volunteer contribution. They only received an “Al’s Army” T-shirt and a free lunch after their Saturday morning efforts. If I can figure out how to do it, I’ll put a picture of some of them on this computer article that was taken at the El Rodeo Restaurant.

Well, with a little help, here it is. This shows one group that worked a Saturday morning and then met for lunch.

Now that we have a Democratic mayor and a Council with a 7-2 Republican majority, it’s going to an interesting ride the next four years, hopefully not a wild and rancorous one, as it can very well be in this kind of situation. Each side can make it an even more productive one if they keep in mind the good of the whole community, rather than partisan advantage.

–Vic Jose

The final get-together: A pizza party for all members of the government classes.

Vic Jose :: Nov.14.2007 :: Uncategorized ::

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