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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!
Hodges kind of came out of nowhere, didn't she? Has anybody looked into her background past the meaningless fluff she posts about herself on her website? She seems like one of those "control the narrative" democrats where everything is great as long as she gets to tell you what to think of her.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how I feel about Abbott, but at least he's local.
You don't think Mayor Hall is too tarnished to keep his position?
Hodges did come out of left field. Besides this: https://charlestowncourier.com/2018/10/06/community-profile-treva-hodges/ I've not been able to find much about her which does give her the advantage of controlling the narrative. But in most cases, challengers almost always can because they do not have a public record that hangs over them.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Abbott goes, he's one of those who runs for anything. I've heard stories coming out of Jeffersonville that he was not the best city employee even being reprimanded a multiple times. Apparently, instead of working for the taxpayers of the city while on the clock, he liked to hide in his truck and work his personal business(s). That begs the question to be asked, who will he really be working for if elected? I see him as a payroll thief. Someone who clocks in but doesn't actually do the work. Someone should ask if he is planning to close is businesses down while he is Mayor as not to distract him from the task at hand. Everything I know about him and every bone in my body says he only wants to be Mayor for the title, not to actually do the job.
To my knowledge, Bob Hall is not too tarnished. In politics it doesn't come down to who likes you. It comes down to how many hate you. While it is true Hall is hated by some. The ones who do REALLY do but they are the minority or those who don't live in the city and not know the entire story of Pleasant Ridge. It seems a majority of those outside Pleasant Ridge support the idea of what's happening, just not HOW it's happening. I think he keeps the seat event after all the legal issues.
The Charlestown race just got interesting... It seems that Treva Hodges is claiming that they mayor is slandering her, so she has posted a video slandering her ex-husband instead! She said he's never been to Indiana, let alone Charlestown, so why is it okay for her to publicly attack a private individual in a different state that doesn't have the ability to defend himself? It's because she wants to claim to be a victim so nobody can question or criticize her!
ReplyDeleteBut criticism is warranted in this case...
In the video, she openly admits to adopting two children into a home that she believed was unstable. After she was raped, she left her kids in the care of the man that abused and raped her. She also claims that law enforcement refused to file a report when she supposedly reported the rape in the first place... So she has no documentation to back up her claims of rape. No rape kit, no police report, nothing. And if this guy is a violent rapist as she says, she placed her kids in harm's way just so she could get away herself?
Does she not understand how this sounds? She sounds like a monster! "Good luck, kids! Maybe dad won't hit you if I'm not around!"
I haven't heard what the mayor is supposedly saying about her... Anyone know what it is?