Over at Hoosiers for Fair Taxation, tax activist extraordinaire Melyssa Donaghy reports that she received a call from a campaign staffer for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard who asked her to work on his re-election effort. He noted that he had targeted her as a potential volunteer since she had worked on Ballard's 2007 campaign. I feel sorry for the poor sap who unwittingly made that call. I can imagine the earful he received from Melyssa.
In fact, if you want to hear complaints about Mayor Greg Ballard, you'll get your worst response from his 2007 supporters who were completely led astray by his populist campaign, including his claimed opposition to tax increases and support for an ethics agenda, all of which Mayor Ballard immediately abandoned upon taking office. It is those folks, who supported him when nobody in the GOP establishment would, who rightfully feel betrayed and are extremely angry at the Mayor.
As a 23 year activist in the Marion County Republican Party, I hope I get a call about supporting the Mayor's re-election. The answer might even be more negative than Melyssa's. Mayor Greg Ballard has sold out everything I believe the Republican Party should stand for and has put MY party on the path to a disaster in 2011. No way, no how will I support him for re-election.
5 comments:
That's the funniest thing I've heard all day ! I wonder what parallel universe Ballard's advisors live in.
Pat,
I know you are of the opposite political party, but what ticks me off to no end about what happened to Greg Ballard, is that he was elected with so much opportunity to reshape the Marion County Republican Party into a more taxpayer friendly, less elitist party that had a chance of winning elections in Marion County. Instead people like Bob Grand, Joe Loftus, Tom John, etc. They have the political experience to know that Mayor Ballard had to be a different type of mayor to have a chance at re-election. Instead they led the mayor down a path where they and their friends would personally profit at the expense of Ballard's re-election and the future of the Marion County Republican Party. They sold out their party.
We're both citizens of Indianapolis, though.
I think you give Ballard too much of a pass. He's a big boy. Didn't he throw the property tax reform group(s) a thank you party after Peterson's defeat? (Sorry, Ballard wasn't elected, rather Peterson was defeated -- interestingly enough for increasing TAXES !)
So, given that he believed you all got him the Mayorship, he could consult with the group's leadership from time to time. No? Yet he apparently does not do that.
Grand and Loftus are just some of the regurgitated Goldsmith politicos that Ballard has embraced. Like I said, he's a big boy and they are his decisions at the end of the day. That's why he won't be reelected. Increasing any tax will seal that deal, but he isn't very suited to be Mayor and he might lose even if he avoided tax increases.
My hat is off to you if you can help move your party to a more populist course. But, Ballard certainly won't.
What is the old saying about power corrupts?
We need Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians who aren't in bed with the party elites to all come together around a single candidate for Mayor.
I believe that will happen.
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