Tax, Borrow and Spend Indianapolis Republicans Plot to Take Fiscal Conservative Out in Primary, Possibly Hand District to Democrats

Over at Advance Indiana, Gary Welsh has penned a nice article entitled:  The Conscience of the Indianapolis City-County Council:  Christine Scales.

Councilor Christine Scales

I echo Gary's praise of Christine.  Just recently we saw virtually every Republican councilor, but not Christine, sign on to sponsor a property tax increase.  This same group of Republican councilors is also pushing for a local option income tax increase of nearly 10%.  It is astonishing how far these councilors, and Republican Mayor Greg Ballard, have strayed from the fiscally conservative principles that won the election in 2007.

One thing though in particular caught my eye in Gary's article about Councilor Scales:

Incidentally, the Republican council leader, Mike McQuillen, who can't get enough of shooting spitballs at Scales during council meetings, used introductions at the beginning of the council meeting last night to introduce a guy by the name of Tim Craft. Keep an eye on this guy. The Republicans met behind closed doors and drafted Craft, an associate of CB Richard Ellis, to run against Scales in next year's Republican primary as punishment because she votes like, well, like a real Republican would vote. Of course, Craft's Democratic business associate at CB Richard Ellis, Gordon Hendry, who served in the Peterson administration, and his wife, Jennifer Wagner, did all they could to stop Ballard's election in 2007. They couldn't say enough bad things about candidate Ballard in 2007.

Councilor Mike McQuillen

So McQuillen and other Republicans are plotting to unseat Councilor Scales in the GOP primary with an associate of one of the biggest government contractors in the city, a beneficiary of Indy's well-polished pay-to-play system and all those increased taxes and fees on working men and women that Councilor Scales has fought so valiantly against.  But it is worse than even what Gary has portrayed.  With the new maps, Scales' northeast side district is far from being safe.  Republican operative David Brooks, who drew the maps, pegs the Republican baseline in the district at 55.12%.  But Brooks used 2010 which was an exceptionally good Republican year.  Using the 2012 election, I calculate a Republican baseline of only 50.38%.  Most likely the 2015 baseline will be somewhere between the two figures which makes it a very competitive district.

Councilor Scales is well-known in that district and by far the best suited to hold onto it despite the challenging demographics of the area.  Knocking her off in a primary would put an unknown Republican on the ballot and tip the balance to the Democrats. 
That McQuillen and his ilk would even contemplate doing this shows what is wrong with the establishment RINOs who have latched on to Mayor Greg Ballard's pay-to-play administration that is fueled by tax and fee increases, as well as reckless borrowing. They would rather lose a district to the Democrats, than have in a Republican in office who is a fiscal conservative and who stands up for taxpayers.  And that is precisely why those McQuillen and the other RINOS are, deservedly, heading for a huge election loss in 2015.