Hamilton County Democratic Party Appoints Slate of Candidates

Contact: Keith Clock
Phone: 317-522-1669
Email: chair@hcdemocrats.org
 
For Immediate Release: July 1, 2016
 
Hamilton County Democratic Party Appoints Slate of Candidates

Noblesville – Today, Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Keith Clock announced that the party has filled eight ballot vacancies for the 2016 election.

“Our party’s number one priority is to give voters of Hamilton County a choice on Election Day,” said Clock.

“Republicans have some of the weakest and flawed candidates in a generation. Hamilton County voters will have a clear choice for change and leadership from the top to the bottom of the ballot.”

The following new candidates will appear on ballots this fall:

County Commissioner District 2 – Mimi DeMore
County Commissioner District 3 – Debra Jarvis

Auditor – Pat Otten
Treasurer – Mark Bailey
Surveyor – Joe Weingarten

County Council, At-Large – Rosemary Dunkle
County Council, At-Large – Bob Williams
County Council, At-Large – Edward Chu

A caucus of Fishers-area precinct chairs was held on Thursday. Mike Boland was elected by the caucus to be the party’s candidate for state representative in house district 37.

These newly elected candidates will join the following Democrats elected in the primary election:

Governor – John Gregg
U.S. Representative, District 5 – Angela Demaree
State Senate, District 20 – Paula Gilliam
State Senate, District 30 – Pamela Hickman
State Representative, District 32 – Ryan Davis
State Representative, District 39 – David Russ
State Representative, District 88 – Dana Black

 

Paid for and authorized by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, Keith Clock, Chairman.
This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Political Signs - time to remove

In past elections - the political signs by Democrats in many cases did not have to be removed after Election Day in Fishers. You see the city, town crews used to remove many of them even when they were legally placed even before the election leaving the Republican signs alone unless we would call and complain.

 But this year so many Republican signs dot the landscape and no matter where they are they have not been remove by the sign police. Right of ways, full of signs.  So now all you Republican candidates get moving and clear off the signs.  The only exception has been the removal of signs by one candidate of another candidates sign.  Now that the election is over will the sign war go away between the two who placed 1 and 2 in the County Council race or will the special prosecutor continue to investigate.

Maybe I should start a business – sign removal, and sell the metal holders for scrap.  I could make a lot of money based on the number of signs this year.

Another False Story to Inflame People

Today I got this e-mail send to a lot of people with more bashing and no real facts only half a story trying to get people upset.

 

"This is probably the BEST written essay regarding minimum wage that I have ever seen.

 Kudos to the originator of this excellent piece.

 Hamburgers... Low military pay was not mentioned in The State Of The Union speech.

 Just increasing the minimum wage was ..Hamburgers or Minimum Wage For those fast food employees striking for $15 an hour,

Let’s do some math.  At $15 an hour: Johnny Fry-Boy would make $31,200 annually. An E1 (Private) in the military makes $18,378.

An E5 (Sergeant) with 8 years of service only makes $35,067 annually.

 So you're telling me, LaTisha McBurgerflipper, that you deserve as much as those kids getting shot at, deploying for months in hostile environments, and putting their collective butts on the line every day protecting you?

 Here's the deal, Baconator, you are working in a job designed for a kid in high school who is learning how to work and earning enough for gas, and hanging out with their equally goofy high school pals. If you have chosen this as your life long profession, you have failed. If you don't want minimum wage, don't have minimum skills.

 If you can read this, thank a teacher.

 If it's in English, thank a Veteran."

 

Ok on the surface looks 100%. Now lets take a closer look. 

 

The sender should do some checking. GI - food allowance, housing allowance, medical care, clothing and on and on... and many of these are tax free so you need to add about 25% to the value.

Medical approx $4565
Food allowance $ 4400
Housing  $7200
Tax free benefit $4041.25

Total $38584.25
Also does not include clothing allowance, does not include promotions not many remain E-1 for long. And if they stay in after 20 years can get a good pension.


Flipper - no food allowance, no housing allowance, no medical insurance. After 20 years they may still be making minimum pay and no pension. 

So this if far from the best story, it is one of the worst to provide false and misleading information.

 

A few interesting facts- Young, Stutzman and of course Pence.

In 2012, Young, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, claimed a house in Bloomington was his primary residence and deducted more than $200,000 from his property taxes – saving himself almost $5,000. Turns out, Young was renting the property, not living in it, according to documents obtained by CNN.

Todd Young supported like Mike Pence’s RFRA law.

Todd Young voted for a government shutdown.

Young called Social Security a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ and both Congressmen voting against protecting the Social Security program during the 2013 government shutdown.

Young would repeal parts of the Affordable  Care Act - the part he would repeal is "Affordable."

Oh one more thing – did Todd forget he needed signatures to get on the ballot.The correct amount, but does it matter in this state?

Now lets look at Marlin Stutzman who also voted to shut down the government.

Stutzman supports Mike Pence’s RFRA law.

Stutzman claimed to protect Social Security benefits but then turn around and voted for massive cuts. 

Stutzman would repeal all of the Affordable  Care Act. So who is going to take care of the sick and those who need medical help? More homeless to come as they go run out of money paying medical bills. Who cares about people, not Marlin. 

Of course we could add Mike Pence to this list of outlandish things but we are trying to keep this short and it would take pages and pages to list all the dumb things from Indiana’s talking head.

Dirty Politics in Hamilton County

It once again points out the behavior of the the elected officials of this one sided county. When you have all the elected people in one party you get this kind of lack of representation of the people but the special interest groups. As Councilman McKinney writes in this letter he is calling for an investigation into "pay for play politics plaguing Hamilton County." I can only hope the County Sheriff does do an investigation into both the sign removal and pay to play. While I would rather see the State Troopers or the FBI do the investigation.  If it turns out that Jeff Hern did remove the sign, he should also resign from his position as Fall Creek Trustee.

  The following is from the Hamilton County Reporter issue Sunday April 17, 2016.

"Theft of campaign signs is unacceptable

Over the past several days, many of my campaign signs

worth nearly $1000 have gone missing.

After confirming with the city of Fishers that the signs

were properly placed, I called the Hamilton County

Sheriff’s office to report the thefts. Investigation led to the

discovery of a cell phone on the ground where one sign was

taken. This cell phone is allegedly owned by Jeff Hern of

Fishers, one of my opponents in the upcoming County

Council primary. The phone is now evidence in the

Sheriff’s criminal investigation.

In all my years in politics, I have never witnessed such

behavior. This type of dirty trick is unacceptable and a

criminal charge in the state of Indiana. I hope whoever is

found responsible for these thefts will apologize and make

restitution. Additionally, I hope all current and aspiring

elected officials will reject these tactics and the candidates

who use them. Our citizens deserve better representatives

who believe in fair play.

I have full confidence that law enforcement will inves-

tigate not only this incident, but also the broader corruption

and pay for play politics plaguing Hamilton County. A

message needs to be sent that this type of behavior will not

be tolerated. The citizens of Hamilton County can rest

assured that if they reelect me this May, I will continue to

be a voice for integrity, transparency and financial inde-

pendence. I will always represent their interests with sound

fiscal principles and high moral standards.

Rick McKinney

Hamilton County Councilman at large

www.rickmckinney.com"

Pay to Play by Mark Herbrandt - A new chapter

What would happen if anyone running for office or elected to office could not bid or hold any government contract or any company they work for?

In Hamilton County a number of elected officials running for office would no longer be running for office.  A case in point is the recent newspaper article* about Mark Heirbrandt who works for Ameresco and that company was bidding for a Joseph County contact. Of course the e-mail asking about the status of the contract and about political contributions to the person making the contract had nothing to do with one another.  The two nothing to do with one another were in the same paragraph. But remember they had nothing to do with one another. Want to buy a bridge in Brooklyn?

The article pointed out a favorite quote of the elected Republican officials of Ham Country – doesn’t Ham equal pork another political term. “Pay to Play.” In other words you have to bribe the elected for favors such as contracts. But since it is against the law to bride someone they contribute to your campaign funds.

What would happen if any political contribution made to a candidate and if elected they can no longer vote on any contact from that contributor for the term they are in that office? Watch the contributions drop like a lead balloon.  Now of course the concern would how to funnel the money through individuals to avoid this, but I would extend to employees about $250.00. For example once I noticed a $5000 contribution to the Political Action Committee working to get the elected office holders re-elected from Fishers. This contribution was from an individual not even living near Fishers, so a little digging and I found he was on the Board of Directors of a construction company that builds sewer plants and was bidding on a Fishers sewer contract.  Smells to me.  How about you?

One of the current County Commissioner who I picked at random and had a the following contribution listings first on his list a law firm, second an engineering company and last a paving contractor.

The contributions by the engineering companies would vanish, as would the law firms, all kinds of suppliers and construction companies.

How about the Firefighter Union that contributes to all sitting City Council members for re-election. Do the Firefighters expect a pay raise? Of course they don't.They just like these people.

My favorite “Pay to Play” and funnel was Pete Peterson’s Royal Tiger Pac**.  It was so apparent that it was short lived.

*ttp://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/2016/04/06/emails-raise-pay-play-concerns/82717666/

and

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/questions-raised-on-st-joseph-county-campaign-finances/38882028

**http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2014/04/is-3500-price-of-political-influence-in.html

$5,156,032.40 - Where's my Reward?

I just got a letter from the Attorney General of the State of Indiana:

 April 6, 2016
"RE: Complaint No. 11100909
Dear Joe Weingarten:
I am writing to report to you the results of our investigation of your Telephone Privacy complaint(s)
against Jerome Edmond dba USA Promotions (originally reported as “”).
After investigating your complaint(s), we filed suit against Jerome Edmond dba USA Promotions. Thecase resulted in a judgment, which provided the following:
1. Defendant is required to pay $5,156,032.40 to the State; and
2. Defendant is permanently enjoined from making calls in violation of Indiana’s Telephone
Privacy laws.
Amounts collected are used to support the Telephone Privacy program."

What I earned the state 5 million and no reward, no nothing but a e-mailed letter. Now this is my third judgement for these nasty phone calls the other two resulted in around $30,000 and one for $420,000. But this is the big fish. five million.

I should at least get a letter form the Governor - no wait not this Governor, if the next one is a new one, I hope he sends me one.