Local Democrats are feeling this week like a man dumped by the girl of his dreams because U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett announced he’s not running for any political office – period.
Democrats had been salivating at the prospect that Hogsett would leave crime fighting to run for mayor next year against Republican Greg Ballard.
Hogsett’s announcement makes the mayor’s race on the Democratic side wide open. And places the largest bloc of Democratic voters – our African-American community – in a state of flux.
The leading names include state Rep. Ed DeLaney, Washington Township Trustee Frank Short, City-County Council President Maggie Lewis, and City-County Councilmen Vop Osili and Brian Mahern.
Of that group, DeLaney’s been the most vocal about wanting to run for mayor, if Hogsett didn’t. A bunch of folks in our Black community – including me – have strong reservations about DeLaney.
Many remember he was partial to efforts to eviscerate township government, which was a direct attack on Black duly elected officials.
DeLaney has been invisible to our Black community and like a silent sphinx on key issues our Black community cares about.
Though to be fair, in 1998, a year before the 1999 mayoral election, Bart Peterson was unknown to our Black community and the mass of the city. Peterson spent 1998 going all over the city-county talking with Democrats, independents and even Republicans on what Indianapolis needed to enter the 21st century.
That year spent learning and listening was critical to Peterson’s success. It helped Peterson forge his positive personality and hone in on issues and a vision of where he wanted to take Indianapolis.
DeLaney, Osili, Short, Mahern, Lewis and any of the others now seriously thinking of mayor, need to get out of their offices and traverse Indianapolis-Marion County and listen, learn, reflect, strategize and develop.
It’s critical that whoever is the Democratic candidate for mayor in 2015 have these qualities and attributes.
First and foremost, the Democratic candidate must have a pleasant people-friendly personality that engages and energizes people.
The candidates can have strong views, but they must be a good listener and be willing to tolerate, understand and empathize with Indianapolis residents, including those they may not necessarily agree with or even like.
The candidate must be able to easily articulate a vision for where Indianapolis needs to go; and communicate that vision in clear, engaging, easily understood language.
That vision must make sense.
It must be a vision that isn’t for the elites that live in Carmel, Zionsville, Fishers, Greenwood, Avon or Greenfield. It must be a vision that isn’t beholden to entities like Barnes & Thornburg and the city’s monied classes.
Also important, the Democratic candidate in 2015 must be able to bring the fight directly to Greg Ballard. They mustn’t be afraid to positively confront the mayor on his growing shortcomings. Flaws exposed in last Sunday’s Indianapolis Star by columnist Matt Tully who called out Ballard as “dismissive,” “(an) inability to tolerate different opinions,” showing “arrogance and distance,” “appears to have lost interest in the nuts and bolts of running a city.”
The 2015 Democratic mayoral candidate must be someone who isn’t afraid to take on Ballard and special interests and firmly stand up for ALL Indianapolis residents.
Indianapolis continues to have great success and promise. But Indianapolis has serious problems. Fiscally we’re a mess. Our weakening middle and working class are under financial stress.
The Ballard way of moving Indianapolis forward by importing upper income persons with high tech jobs is a prescription that’s never worked in any city other than New York. And even there, the severe income divide and the perception that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the captive of the elite, helped power Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s victory.
Greg Ballard doesn’t have Bloomberg or Mitt Romney’s bank account. But Ballard shares the Bloomberg/Romney attitude that favors policies for the elite and suburban residents over working and middle class Indy households; over the people who really live in the city-county.
The Democratic mayoral candidate in 2015 must craft a real strategy for bringing responsible development and jobs back into this city-county. A mayor can’t be anti-development. But our next mayor must be for development that makes sense. Something “Ballard’s Boyz” clearly don’t understand.
Finally, the Democratic candidate for mayor has to break their fear of Indianapolis media. They must pleasantly, yet firmly, insist that local media get back to doing their job of covering the critical issues in this city.
Unlike Ballard, whose fear of Black journalists and Black media people and Indianapolis’ Black media institutions has become an irrational obsession damaging to his leadership. Democrats must end their fear of facing the garrulous Greg Garrison or even the irrational Abdul-Hakim Shabazz. They must even bear down and communicate to the blogs; even the critical ones.
We’ll be watching how the potential mayoral candidates handle their preseason year, before the 2015 campaign begins on Nov. 5, 2014.
What I’m hearing
in the streets
When former Mayor Bart Peterson instituted the Mayor’s Celebration of Diversity Awards in 2002, he made it a big deal. Local media were informed in advance and releases were sent out extolling the winners and their diversity accomplishments.
I’d like to tell you who received 2014 Mayor’s Diversity Awards, but the mayor’s minions didn’t inform media of the event or send out press releases, so there was no coverage in the Star or the TV stations. The only mention was on the mayor’s Twitter account and an ad in the Indianapolis Business Journal and a photo in the Jan. 17 edition of the Recorder.
Meanwhile, Mayor Ballard appeared at the 45th annual ICLC Dr. King Day Celebration. But didn’t tell local media of that or any of his public appearances during the King Holiday weekend.
Congressman André Carson and Gov. Mike Pence issued statements on Dr. King’s Life on Dr. King’s Day; but not Ballard.
Can it be that when it comes to our African-American community, Mayor Ballard – to quote Matt Tully – “appears to have lost interest?”
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
