Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Buncich OUT; Otherwise Vote Against Incumbernts

Tuesday is Election Day. Although it is not an election with the greatest pizazz, it is an election that will affect the quality of our day-to-day living for years to come. That is why the first admonition to all of you is to vote.

In the 2004 primary election, Lake County had a miserable 19 percent turnout and that was for a presidential election. That is an embarrassment to the citizens of Lake County and to the Democratic and Republican parties. What it might indicate is, the citizens think the politicians and the political parties are basically worthless and, therefore, the citizens are no longer interested. This year, let us all prove the pundits and the political parties wrong. Show that as citizens we care and, if we have to, we will make the parties responsive. The only way to do that is to show a strong turnout. So I urge all of us to make our goal beating the turnout of two years ago.

I am not going to predict who will win Tuesday. First, in the important races, I do not know. Second, I think it is much more important that I remind citizens about the issues for which they should look. As a general rule, you can never be wrong in Lake County by voting against an incumbent. But, there are some serious exceptions.

So remember the general rule, then apply the exceptions.

The first exception is the sheriff’s race. John Buncich is running on a platform of integrity, and everything he does is lacking in integrity. Electing Buncich to sheriff is the one thing that can return NWI into becoming the old politics of the Pastrick/Stiglich years.  It will be the one thing that will continue for years the negative impression of NWI politics.  It will not only be an impression, with Buncich as sheriff it will be a reality.  Buncich lacks even an ounce of ethics that would qualify him for the top law enforcement position in the County. 

First, there is a two-term limit on the position of Lake County sheriff. The reason for that is to limit the ability of any individual to amass too much power through favoritism to the police force as a whole. Buncich is skirting the intention of that law. His run for office may not be technically unlawful, but it is unethical for circumventing the intent of the law.

Second, Buncich is so sure of himself that he truly believes the law does not apply to him and neither does normal ethics.  He is a throw-back to the 1950s and 1960s tough cop.  The know it all "he-man" that lacks any ability to think through problems and recognize ethics and morality as part of his responsibility.  It is all back slapping and the old-boy network.  All African-Americans need to reject Buncich on the prominent principle that he is Lake County's Bull Conners of Birmingham, Alabama fame.  You all know that it is true and the last thing we need is a Bull Conners in charge of Lake County's Sheriff's Department.

Third, it was Buncich who actually paid off in a kick-back scheme $5,000 to former Gary Mayor Scott King last January, when King was still Mayor.  NO ONE HAS DENIED THIS KICK-BACK SCHEME.  I am not a lawyer so I am not going to deal with the fact that King and Buncich should go to jail, but, there is no question that it is the most unethical thing a public official can do.  Buncich has no ethics and since he signed the ethics pledge, his kick-back to King makes him into a BIG FAT LIAR.

The 12th House District has no incumbent. Alicia Lopez-Rodriguez is running against Mara Candelaria-Reardon. First, both are highly qualified and of all the State Representatives in NWI it is really a shame that both individuals live in the same district.  Both candidates, in their personal conversation with this author (and others) committed to, for once and for all, changing the governance of higher education in Northwest Indiana.  But Candeleria-Reardon only mentions higher education in general terms , very much like every other candidate, and her interview with both papers editorial boards shows that, although she is very bright, she has not had the time to develop an understanding of the issues facing NWI and the changes that are necessary that the State Representatives actually has control over.   For example she states that one of her concerns is that the millions of dollars of money coming into NWI for the Regional Development Authority (RDA) and from "Major Moves", i.e. the Toll Road Lease, be used effectively and not be wasted like the gambling funds over the past fifteen years.  The problem is correct; but it is a done deal.  The new State Legislature does not have any control over how the money is spent any more than is already written into the law.

On the other hand Lopez-Rodriguez has actually developed a plan designed to infuse more than $50 million of new tax money and economic development into NWI.   NWI can start receiving the money and develop a whole new renaissance by 2008.  This is a first for any candidate in NWI to actually develop and commit to policy plans and to run on them as part of their campaign. 

Candelaria-Reardon is the neophyte in this race, while Lopez-Rodriguez is the "veteran" candidate.  Two years ago, she came within a percent of beating the incumbent, and that experience must count because it shows the guts and fortitude that NWI needs in its representation.  That, coupled with the fact Lopez-Rodriguez is the only state representative candidate in any NWI political race with such command of the issues and a significant plan to develop NWI economically, necessitates support for her candidacy.

As far as the 1st House District, Linda Lawson versus Ron Tabaczynski is essentially a race between two incumbents. Tabaczynski served in the Legislature for several terms before running for County Council. He did not accomplish much then, and Lawson has not accomplished much since. The only advantage one can give Tabaczynski is that he did come up with a good 2 percent tax cap plan that held the cities’ and towns’ feet to the fire.  But that is it for him for almost 20 years of "public" service, which still beats Lawson.  The problem is if he gets elected he is going to another Chester Dobis, a NWI statue forever in the State Capital.

Everyone go out to vote and let’s improve the turnout record from two years ago and not embarrass ourselves.

Finally, in this election, voters stand up for once for NWI first and always vote against the incumbent, except for the couple of races mentioned above.

Tuesday's Elections: Who to Support? Answer Tomrrow

In this blog tomorrow I will present my recommendations of who to vote for on Tuesday's elections   If you are looking for the truth and a direction to turn NWI around this is the place to find the right choices. 

See you all in tomorrow's blog!!!!

Real Economic Development for NWI State Legislators

One of the central facts about Twenty-First Century economic development is that it cannot occur and will not occur and has not occurred anywhere where there is not a first-rate university structure.  A university whose goal is not only to educate the residents of the particular area but also to be of such superior quality in its research and graduate programs so as to attract the best and the brightest from other parts of the Country.

This university structure will also enable the students who graduate to want to stay in the area of the university.  Studies have shown that students tend to remain within 75 miles of where they graduated from, irrespective of where their "hometown" is.

These facts have not been lost on a number of Midwestern areas that have desired to develop economically.  The City of Chicago's Mayor Daley decided that he needed a first class State University in his City to continue economic development so he insisted the the University of Illinois develop a serious university from its local satellite campus.  From University of Illinois Circle Campus housed at Navy Pier, twenty-five years later we have UIC, University of Illinois Chicago, a leading national university.

Indianapolis was faced with the same problem, no national university.  Indiana and Purdue University stood in the way and would only support regional campuses.  The Indianapolis State Legislators decided if that is the way it is going to be then they will just have their own university with its own name, board of trustees, and its own source of funding.  Indiana and Purdue Universities relented and now Indianapolis has IUPUI with a national standing as its own university.  They achieved this by asking the Commission of Higher Education to create a new category of school (campus) called "metropolitan" university to fit IUPUI with a different, more comprehensive agenda, and greater funding than its old designation as a "regional" university (campus).  To this day, the Indianapolis legislators introduce a bill to create their own university to remind Lafayette and Bloomington of what can happen.

The lack of economic development also spurred Evansville, Indiana to transform its regional campus to a full university.  Evansville was stuck in third class status in higher education as a regional campus of Indiana State University.  Third class behind the West Lafayette/Bloomington's first class and Indianapolis as the second class.  To solve their status as the backwater of Indiana, the business, political, and higher education leaders got together and their legislators presented a bill to disassociate themselves from Indiana State University and create the University of Southern Indiana with its own board of trustees and its own funding decisions.

This is the way most states run their higher education system to the benefit of the economic development of the state as a whole.

In NWI we only have third class campuses, as defined and funded by the Indiana Commission of Higher Education and supported by the Boards of Trustees of Purdue and IU.  The result is that companies view NWI as not having legitimate higher education to support their, the companies, endeavors and goals.

In addition, NWI is loosing out on a tremendous amount of tax dollars that could be returned to NWI.  If the campuses in NWI were to receive per student what IUPUI receives for its undergraduate students, over $50 million additional funds would be returned to Lake and Porter Counties each year.

This will also end the structural discrimination that currently exists where Indiana funds white middle class students substantially more than African-American, Hispanic, and first generation white students.  Most of the latter go to school in NWI; most of the middle class whites attend Lafayette and Bloomington.  A middle class white student in Bloomington receives from Indiana $8,000 more each year for his/her education than an Hispanic student at Purdue Calumet.  Why?  This is public tax money.

NWI cannot develop economically without its own national university.  In addition its tax dollars are being used to develop other parts of the State and to support non-Hoosier students.  It is time to return economic development to NWI and the tax funds that go along with it.

To this end, the State legislators from NWI will introduce a bill in the next session of the legislature to change the status on NWI Universities to "metropolitan" designation.  This will automatically change their funding and contribution, i.e. goals, in the region.  If the Lafayette and Bloomington campuses will not support these changes than NWI has to do what Indianapolis and Southern Indiana have done and that is to authorize its own board of trustees.

Gary is a Lost Cause

When Scott King was just elected mayor of Gary, he was the keynote speaker for the political science honor society’s induction ceremony at Purdue University Calumet. I am sure that Mayor King’s presentation was a version of his suburban “stump speech” at the time.  He was quite articulate and at that time still had the moral authority and the ideas that gave him a level of credibility that no political leader in Gary has had for over 40 years.

Two ideas that he presented at that time struck me then as making sense.  The first one is that to solve the problems of Gary he needed to have jobs created in Gary and jobs available for the high unemployment there. Providing jobs for the unemployed in Gary would solve the crime and poverty problems of Gary. His second point was that we live in one county and we are in this “boat” together. What affect Gary affects South County and therefore it behooves everyone, the north part of the County as well as the south part, to work together for the benefit of all County citizens.

These seemed reasonable and acceptable to me because at the time I was new to Northwest Indiana politics and the reality of its economic development, or lack thereof. Although my parents moved to Hammond in 1969, I had been away in Washington, D.C., where politics was played with real consequences and in spite of the perception outside the Beltway people where the best and the brightest.

During my time in Washington I worked with the best and the brightest of this Nation even if most of them were cutthroat. Politics and life were truly lived with the idea of taking no prisoners.  But the end result was that one had to always perform. The only question was what have you done for me today or what can you do for me in the future.  At the end of the day only performance and results counted; not your ability to look like a strutting peacock.  Former Mayor King was wrong. I still believed that my experience in Washington was more universal. It was not.  King gave us the strutting peacocks in the form of Clay and the RDA.

NWI does not have the best and brightest and the main reason for it is as a good friend of mine points out the ultimate goal of the politicians and civic leaders in NWI is mediocrity. Very few people want to stand out for talent and most of those who do leave.  Let us be honest. The problem with Gary is not lack of jobs; the problem with Gary is that its citizens without jobs are generally unemployable. No matter what jobs come to NWI they will never be offered to the unemployed of NWI because no one could hire them, even if they wanted to. They lack the rudimentary skills necessary for a modern job.

This is the truth that no one will tell the people of Gary.  No amount of economic development will help you. Scott King was wrong from the beginning Gary was already lost to its citizens and ten years later it still is. Now Gary is going to be an anchor around the neck of the rest of Lake County through Rudy Clay. Clay is not only the Mayor of Gary he is also the head of the Democratic Party the defacto only party in Lake County. The man’s ability stops at selling trinkets from a store front. There is not an original idea in his head. When you add this to the one economic development body of NWI, the Regional Development Authority, where not a single member knows the first thing about economic development. This combination will drive Lake County into fiscal and developmental disaster.

Ironically the only solution that I can foresee for this problem is to make Tom Philpot chair of the Lake County Democratic Party. To this day he is the only person I have talked to in public life who actually understood politics and economic development sufficiently and had the native intelligence to perform beyond mediocrity which should be a revelatory goal for Mayor Clay and the members of the RDA.

John Buncich and Scott King are the Ethical Scum of NWI

Former Sheriff John Buncich and former mayor Scott King (I believe that both could be listed as former members of civilized society) have now officially established their credentials as the seriously ethically challenged public officials of Northwest Indiana.

For those of you who live in the rest of Indiana, or the USA, and are not aware of the story, here it is.  In January of this year, while Scott King served as the mayor of Gary, Indiana, sheriff candidate Buncich paid him $5,000 as a "consultant" to prepare a "report" on the perception of an urban mayor of street gangs.  This was also the time that Buncich was looking for support for his sheriff candidacy.  There is no proof that any report was produced.  In addition there is no logical reason as to why Buncich would need this report.  Unless there is some unique information about gangs at the Miller Cafe Bar, there is no inclination to assume that King has any insight into anything having to do with urban gangs.

There is not a single NWI adult (rational, not committed, and at least graduate of the fourth grade) who doubts that this is purely kick back scheme on the part of both men.  These are the shenanigans both men are renowned for and which gives NWI the deserved bad ethical name in the rest of the State of Indiana.

It should further be noted that King was being paid a salary for his full professional time as Mayor of Gary.  All together that position got into his and his family's pockets over $200,000 yearly.  The mayor of Gary is the highest paid mayor in Indiana.  When he resigned recently, one of King's complaints about the job is that it took so much time he did not have time for his family; now we know why he was too busy, it was because of his kickback schemes. 

If Buncich was worthy of being Sheriff and being elected he would make the consulting product of King public to let the people know if it really was legitimate or an illegal kickback, ghost pay-rolling scheme.  He has not. At this point it is too late.  Buncich has no ethics and deserves none absolutely none of the public trust.  What is unequivocally certain is that under any common sense meaning the whole interaction was extremely unethical.

The problem with NWI is that the only ethical questions public leaders are willing to be concerned about is whether some town secretary might get a $5 coffee mug as a gift.  No one involved with ethics really wants to do anything about serious ethical breaches that effect the day to day lives of the citizens of NWI.  One could be very suspicious that these ethical talkers are more interested in making money off of ethics than actually solving the problem.

Buncich signed the ethics pledge so it is now time to act. 

I call on the Local Government Academy, the League of Women Voters, and the Quality of Life Council, each and every leader, to denounce PUBLICLY the unethical behavior of both men and disgrace them out of any future public office.  These bodies further need to insist that an investigation be carried out to see if any State or Federal laws were broken.  If this is not done, then the correct conclusion must be drawn that ending serious ethics and illegalities is not their interest; rather it is keeping the money flowing to themselves. 

The Regional Development Authority, the RDA, needs to immediately, in accordance with its ethical rules, announce that no consulting contract, a payback scheme will be given to Scott King.  The same goes for Governor Daniels and his road project.

Keeping in the spirit of Dr. Dan Lowery's recent column every decent Lake County voter must reject Buncich at the polls for sheriff because of his crude unethical behavior that disqualified him from any public office of trust.  Otherwise, would be to admit that NWI is the ethical laughing stock of the State.

Former Mayor Dedelow Could be NWI Solution

The Indianapolis media has turned to calling Lake County the “wild county” of Indiana. That is not showing a lack of respect, but rather a reflection of the reality of politics and economic development in Northwest Indiana.

First, we have the mayor of the largest city, Gary, resign, claiming poverty. In reality, the whole plan was hatched in Indianapolis under the watchful eye of Dan Parker, the head of the Indiana Democratic Party, and attended by Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr.

The central concern of the Democratic Party is the threat to U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky’s seat — when he retires — and to the standing of Hammond’s Democratic mayor.

In addition, the party leadership is aware there are a number of additional federal indictments coming down that can only hurt the Lake County Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party’s own internal polling shows that when Visclosky retires, it will be much more difficult to keep the seat in the Democratic column. This is the result of changes in demographics in the 1st District.

When Visclosky was first elected, the district was exclusively Gary, Hammond and East Chicago. Now, the district extends south of Lake County and east into Porter County — areas that are less blue collar and more conservative than the previous district.

In addition, the district is more diverse politically, racially, ethnically and financially — not good signs for a Democrat. Visclosky has won because of his longevity and constituent service, not policies.

The Democrats need someone to run who can win Gary and Porter County; in their eyes, that can only be Scott King, who straddles both worlds. The only problem is, he is no longer a Democrat.

In exchange for a chance to be Gary mayor, Rudy Clay will anoint King a Democrat to run again. Frankly, seeing who is up for mayor now, many people in Gary already miss King, saying he was the best mayor they have had for 40 years.

King needs money to run again. To that end, the cooperation of the mayors of Gary and Hammond was needed. The first and primary benefit for King will come from the Regional Development Authority — the local public works project for NWI politicians and their friends.

The new Gary mayor will cooperate because, thanks to King and Parker, he is mayor. But how can the party get McDermott’s cooperation?

McDermott’s vulnerability is his re-election as mayor. For a variety of reasons, McDermott has made many Hammond residents — including many Democrats — very angry with him and they are willing to look at alternatives. In addition, like his father, he has made many starts on projects, but has completed none.

The Democratic Party’s polls show that McDermott is vulnerable and he is particularly vulnerable to a well-run campaign by former Republican Mayor Duane Dedelow Jr. The Democrats understand the former mayor has surrounded himself with a new, competent set of advisers and, therefore, could very well make a well-organized run against an unpopular Democrat.

McDermott and the mayor of Gary are going to inform their individual appointments on how to support King as a consultant to the RDA. That will benefit King, and McDermott will get the support of the state Democratic Party.

Isn’t it great when Gary and Hammond are looking back and thinking how good things were under the old administrations?

Congressman Visclosky Hides Behind his Father

In a letter to the editor, First District Congressman Peter Visclosky, rather than answering the ethical issues of an American loosing his job because his employer feared retribution from the Congressman, has decided to hide behind his father's admonition to be a good boy.  This is the hiding place of all scoundrels.  On the other hand, my father told me never to believe people with power who keep on denying they ever thought of using it maliciously.  Reminds me of the Congressman.

This hiding by the Congressman was in a letter in today's Post-Tribune.  As all Northwest Indiana politicians Visclosky has learned well never to take responsibility for anything.  This by the way applies equally well to State Senator Earline Rogers a fellow traveler in the unique unethical behavior of NWI of going after people's employment to intimidate them.

Now it may be true that Visclosky did not make the call himself, but he never denies that a member of his staff could have done it; or a supporter in his name.  Having "worked" with his legislative aid this scenario does not surprise me.

Basically I say to Visclosky and Rogers "BullSh**t".  If you are as honest as you claim, SBC never would have thought that they had to threaten and then fire anyone.  Most importantly what Visclosky and Rogers do not recognize and accept is that SBC thought that they needed to fire Darren Washington, their critic, to protect themselves.  That is what Visclosky and Rogers the gurus of unethical NWI political behavior should really be reflective of and apologetic about if they are really sincere, which I doubt.  They need to address this: What behavior did I do that makes employers fear the retribution of a public official so that they find it necessary to fire one of their employees for expressing their free speech rights.

The claim that calls came in from Rogers and Visclosky for Washington's head was a claim of the President of SBC.  I guess his father is not as moral as Visclosky's father.  The fact remains that from their historical behavior, probably getting other people fired, SBC believed they had to respond this way.  Now one has to understand that this type of behavior by politicians is quite common in NWI and public companies like SBC or public organizations go along with the elected officials.

One should be clear, and the editorial in today's paper ignores this fact, that if Darren Washington was only a private citizen expressing his views, i.e. practicing his free speech, he could be fired at the request of Visclosky and Rogers and none of us would ever know.  That is because Indiana is an employment at will state.  Lawyer Visclosky should know this, although Rich James as a journalist was not informed of this by Visclosky for his column defending Visclosky.  As a public elected official Darren Washington has been able to make the legal case that SBC is trying to control a public official.

In the past many private citizen's jobs have been threatened by NWI politics, including my own and the bosses listen.

Finally to talk about Earline Rogers being concerned about education just because she was a teacher once is an oxymoron.  There is absolutely no necessary connection between the two.  It is the same claim Charlie Brown makes -- I rest my case.  She represents the absolute worst educational district in the country and has been totally ineffective in her position as Senator for NWI.  The sooner she is gone the better for all concerned.  If education was of any value to her she would have left a long time ago out of shear embarrassment.

As Visclosky goes around talking about his purity then he needs to explain his $7 million federal expenditure on a joke called the technology center that no one at Purdue believes is real and everyone is quite knowledgeable of the fact that its sole value is to make money for the property owners.  If he had really wanted to improve NWI and have an incubator not a fake way to improve land it would have been built in Hammond.  The lie Visclosky tells is that there was not sufficient land in Hammond to build this.

First that is an empirical blatant lie and second Mayor Dedelow at the time told him he could have as much land as was needed.  The result was the loss of the Mayoralty by Dedelow and Hammond's loss of an economic development future.  Morals from politicians like Visclosky and Rogers -- give me a break.

The Hoosier University's Art and Science of Institutional Racism

If one looks at the distribution of funding and development of higher education in Indiana it becomes obvious that the northern part of the State has been intentionally ignored by the institutions responsible for higher education in Indiana.  Since South Bend in the northeast part of the State has Notre Dame, although that is not a State but a a private institution, then this myopia for the needs of the northern part of the State are particularly acute in the Northwest part of Indiana. 

One can also argue that the southern part of the State has been ignored.  This may have had some truth to it; but, the reality is that the southern part of the State rebelled and now has the University of Southern Indiana and when one compares population then Northwest Indiana surpasses everyone except for Marion County.  Just in terms of population concentration, it becomes unquestionable that there has been an ongoing historical institutional bias against providing higher education to the citizens of the cities of Northwest Indiana.

An institutional bias means that rather than a specific law or individual implementing an overt bias against NWI because of its diversity, instead the system is historically structured in such a way, for many decades, so as to leave NWI receiving the short end of the stick when it comes to economic and educational development.  The reasons are many: historical, benign neglect, morons for NWI politicians, support for many years from an over abundance of industry paying for everything, etc.  Although largess of industry is gone now, the moron politicians and the other factors result in a system that is still functioning as though there has been no change and this is still the 1950s or 1960s.  An example of this situation is NWIs continued status as a net taxation out area in Indiana.  NWI pays more in income, sales, and corporate taxes to Indianapolis than it gets back by far.  This results in extreme economic underdevelopment and results in economic support by NWI for other parts of the State even though NWI has the highest unemployment rate.

When it comes to higher education the institutional bias in the form of racism is represented by the Commission of Higher Education and it Chair Stan Jones and by the Boards of Trustees of Purdue University and Indiana University.  This is particularly true of the Board of Trustees of Purdue University who have refused to even hear alternative approaches to higher education in NWI.  The individuals responsible for this are McGinty who is Chair of the Board of Trustees and M. Powers, Jr. who is the Trustee from NWI.  Both are appointed by the Governor.  So the Board of Trustees in their fuduciary position need to be reprimanded and if not then it is the fault of Governor Mitch Daniels.  Daniels pays a lot of lip service to economic development in NWI; but in reality during his tenure nothing has really been done to change the factors that are causing the decline of the area. 

As indicated in earlier writings the Regional Development Authority (RDA) is a welfare program for politicians and their friends, the first in line is Scott King; nothing that the RDA is considering has received any serious academic validation that it will result in improved economic conditions for NWI.

Stan Jones who was named head of the Commission of Higher Education when Evan Bayh was Governor has long ago lost any serious effectiveness.   He also has shown ongoing bias against NWI and has no understanding of the relationship of higher education to economic development.  There is no reason he should have.  The man is another incompetent Indiana politico.  Since getting his bachelors degree from Purdue West Lafayette he has been a gofer living solely off of the public trough.  The man has never held a real job.  He is Indiana's equivalent to the former head of FEMA: no experience; but friends in high places.  His real experience and areas of study have been limited to sharpening pencils.  Giving him respect is an oxymoron statement.

The failure of all these people is as they say "in the pudding".  None of these people have been able to do anything about the immense brain drain that Indiana continues to experience.  The result of this brain drain is to make Indiana look like a wasteland -- especially after GM manufacturing continues to divest itself.  There is nothing -- except fancy and expensive show pieces that really have no consequence -- that the universities are doing or know what to do to change this departure of talented individuals to greener pastures.

NWI has the second largest population concentration in the State.  It must have, as soon as possible in the next budget cycle of the General Assembly, a university structure designated as a metropolitan university to match Indianapolis.  That is what happened to Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis twenty years ago and it has made all the difference.  IUPUI is now the third largest campus in the State and has had a miraculous effect on the economic growth of Indianapolis.  Let us not forget that the Indiana Commission of Higher Education under Stan Jones has also permitted within a 100 mile circle of downtown Indianapolis to include IUPUI, Butler University, University of Indianapolis, Marion College, Wabash College, Ball State University, Purdue West Lafayette, Indiana University Bloomington and others.  Can anyone really say that there is not an inherent bias in the Commission and its Chair against NWI?

Why be a racist against blacks, Hispanics, and first generation whites in NWI?  This is what the Board of Trustees of Purdue University refused to hear about this Friday at their meeting.  I specifically asked to be heard by the Board as a tax paying citizen of NWI, just a few minutes of their time, and was told unequivocally "NO".  They do not care and they never have except to continue taking the tax dollars of NWI and feed the Indianapolis higher education machine lead by Stan Jones and the universities Trustees.  They want our money, and they get it, but not our input.  Shame on them for not looking out for the interests of NWI.

I will be attending the meeting of the Purdue Board of Trustees this Friday and next month I will be attending the IU Board of Trustees meeting to make the case for NWI.  I hope my fellow NWI citizens and politicians join me in this most critical endeavor.

The Final Joke: Rudy Clay as Mayor of Gary

Rudy Clay has now been officially selected to be mayor of Gary, Indiana to finish the term of the unprincipled previous mayor, Scott King.  The one thing that will be true is that Gary will have the best dressed mayor in Indiana -- but that is all.

This individual does not have a clue of what is going on.  The main factor that he is missing is gray matter between the ears.  There is absolutely no evidence that Clay has any idea of what is going on.  This is not the result of his age, there are many intelligent and issue aware seventy year old; Rudy Clay is not one of them.

There has not been a single idea over the past ten years that Rudy Clay has presented that addresses any of the issues of consequence to NWI.  As a matter of fact on any complex issue facing the Lake County Commissioners he would look to see how Commissioner Fran DuPey would vote and vote the same way because he was clueless.

His big promise is to hire, and pay, for a new grand puba of cleanliness for Gary.  We are now going to scrub the streets and that will improve the City.  Clay has no idea of economic development or what it is.  He sufficiently clueless that he would not even know who to hire to make decisions.  The fact is he is going to select his cronies who are going to continue emptying what ever is left of value in Gary.

This is exactly why Gary is a joke and an embarrassment to the whole nation.  It selects as mayor someone who looks like a 70's GQ leftover, has the nickname of "the pimp", and is so completely clueless about getting Gary out of it quagmire.