Thursday, January 11, 2007

City Council Musings

AI hears Lance Langsford will be returning from his latest tour of duty in Afghanistan in 5-6 weeks. You may recall there was a bit of a brush up over Langsford's temporary replacement last year. Langsford asked that his wife Becky take his place while he was performing his military duty as she had done on a previous occasion. The Marion Co. GOP, however, balked at appointing Becky because they were sore about Langsford's support for police consolidation and the HRO. He and Scott Keller were the only two Republican members who joined council Democrats in passing those two measures. Jim Bradford, who has since left the council, demanded the two leave the party after their votes in support of police consolidation and the HRO. After a six-month standoff, the GOP relented and appointed Becky to Lance's seat.

Once Langsford returns, Becky can step aside and allow Lance to resume his seat on the council. The question is whether the GOP intends to slate Langsford for the seat his wife currently holds for him when the slating convention takes place next month before his return. AI is hearing rumblings the GOP intends to slate an FOP-backed candidate over Langsford. It would be a real shame if the GOP continued to dump on a guy who's been an excellent public servant and a dedicated soldier to his country to score political points with a policeman's union upset about consolidation.

On another point, an avid AI reader and Democratic volunteer wanted to make it clear that the controversial lunches being given out to voters at a particular precinct at November's election were courtesy of a church group and not the Democratic party according to this volunteer. You will recall that the Marion Co. GOP obtained a restraining order against the Marion Co. Dems after poll workers were caught on videotape handing lunches to voters after they voted. What wasn't reported at the time was that one of the attorneys filling out affidavits for Republicans in support of the restraining order was Ryan Vaughn, who was just appointed to the council to fill the vacancy created by Jim Bradford's resignation. And who was the attorney representing the Democrats at the hearing where the restraining order was considered? AI hears it was Greg Hahn, who is a partner at the law firm where Vaughn is employed as an associate. This world is just a little too small sometimes.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

AI - as always - good information! Politics sure can make your skin crawl!

Anonymous said...

The Council just gets wierder and wierder. The Republican caucus is throttled at the throat by the far-right wing nuts. So much so that a decent man like Dr. Borst decides not to run again. What a loss for the city.

And so much so that the Dem caucus is run amuck. Three presidents in three years, and the meetings are sometimes embarrassing for their parliamentary maneuverings.
Or improper display of such. ("Councillor Morertee Adams..." "We was going to do that..." etc.)

The council is 60% as big as the entire freaking State Senate.

There'd half the trouble. Too many council members, too much opportunity for mischief. And too few good Councillors or candidates for same.

Anonymous said...

The Republican caucus is throttled at the throat by the far-right wing nuts

And the Democrat caucus was invaded by the far-left wingnuts. What's your point?

The parliamentary outmaneuvering is a lack of leadership by the Council President. He's more interested in showing everyone his "juice" and trying to find out he can knock off the council and who he can install as his droids.

Anonymous said...

Republican Precinct Committee Persons on Saturday, February 10th, 9:00 AM at State Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall, Republican Slating Convention for Mayor, 4 City-County Council at Large, 25 district caucuses for City Councty Council; and the election of a new Marion County Republican Chairman.

January 24th to February 23rd, 12:00 Noon deadline for candidates to file for the May Primary Election.

Anonymous said...

The GOP is not dumping on Lance. He is an oout and out liar. Just days before the vote on police consolidation, Laance told several of his co-workers (both police and fire) he was going to vote against the merger. Low and behold, the mayor has an item added that will re-instate about 40 firefighters if the merger is passed. And I thought this was all about the police. Silly me. The positions were replaced in the budget but not in the firehouses (no new hires other than to replace retiring FF. Along comes the Wash Twsp. merger and no need to hire 40 more FF. Lance has not been here to represent his constituents. Not to diminish his service to his country, but if you are elected to represent, you can't do it from several thousand miles away. He has been away over half of his elected term. The GOP needs to slate a candidate who will be here for the citizens to actually see when they speak with them, not a proxy.

Anonymous said...

AI- I did some checking among people who passed through the Children's Museum on their ED rounds and they all confirmed what the volunteer reported to you. A church group was trying to get people to visit their church and they were handing out sandwhiches to people as they came out of the polls. For what it is worth, these are all sources that I believe and who would know.

BTW- I know this is the wrong thread, but, congrats on the recognition on Howey's Political List!

Anonymous said...

1time759

You forgot about the police officers that were going to loose their job, if consolidation did not take place. Not sure which co-workers you are refering to, because I told Vince Huber on my cell phone the Friday before the vote to start working on a contract for the metropolitan police department. This obviously meant that consolidation would pass. Vince said that if I did not vote for consolidation that he would ask for a tax increase to save the police jobs that the Mayor had threatened to lay off. It's interesting that certain individuals want to blame everyone else for their demise. I am still waiting for the FOP's plan for consoldiation that Vince Huber said existed, but could never produce. You have to have a plan if you expect to win the war. Please spell my name correctly next time, Lance.