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It's local election time for Southern Indiana. What a fun time this will be to see how all the local races shake out!
Let's start with the Mayor Races.
In Charlestown, Mayor Hall has been trying to clean up his city. While no one can argue his intentions, his methods have raised lots of eyebrows and attracted national attention, but not in a good way. i.e. Pleasant Ridge.
I've been hard pressed to find anyone outside of the residents of Pleasant Ridge who doesn't think the temporary housing units of WW2 have outlived their intended life. I was extremely surprised when Indiana Landmarks jumped in to help save them. If you've never been there, take a drive and form your own opinion. I do know that before Mayor Hall jumped in on this area, it accounted for proximately 80% of all crime activity in the City.
Moving forward, Mayor Hall has to face former Democrat turned Trump Republican David Abbott. Dave is the classic run for everything politician. I honestly don't think Dave has a shot. Once past Dave, Mayor Hall will face newcomer ultra-liberal Treva Hodges. She has no shot in my opinion as she is way to left leaning for such a rural community.
In New Albany, Mayor Gahan has a very real challenger in David White who came close to knocking him off in the last cycle. The question is, how much has Mayor Gahan done and will the baggage of some of his administration be used against him?
On the Republican side, longtime County Commissioner Mark Seabrook has finally stepped up to actually file to run for Mayor. The real and honest question I've been hearing from both sides of the isle is, does he still have the health to work a campaign and has he passed his prime?
While he has been in county politics for what seems like forever, no one really knows what his platform is. I heard one of his campaign representatives say recently he is "currently listening to what the people want." For someone who has been involved as much as he has not to have at least a handful foundational policy stances is a little bit concerning. So far, I'm not really impressed and think Councilman Al Knable would have made a better Mayoral candidate to over come the left leaning city of New Albany.
In Jeffersonville, there's going to be a replay of the past with the exception of role reversal: Former Mayor Galligan Vs. Mayor Moore. Mayor Moore is riding high on the growth of business and infrastructure improvements throughout the city. Former Mayor Galligan is running out of spite the best I can tell. Maybe he's mad about the canal, maybe it's because he's bored, who knows.
I don't think and haven't heard of anyone else jumping in on this race so we will have to wait to see things heat up as we approach November. One thing is for certain, the closer to November we get, the more fireworks we will see in this race. If you want my opinion, TG would've been better off not throwing the hat in on this. I personally think he's going to embarrass himself. Barring some major unearthed scandal out of the Mayor Moore camp, I cannot think of a single person who can realistically give Mayor Moore a real contest.
Council races across the region: There hasn't been many surprises so far but we are still a week out from the filing deadline. I'll withhold my complete thoughts until after. The two interesting in-district primary contests so far will be Bill Burns taking on Ed Z in Jeffersonville and Scott McVoy taking on Martina Webster in Sellersburg.
What are your thoughts?
Do you have the scoop?
Put them in the comments below!