1. Save Indiana Bars
Updated candidate recommendations:
Mayor: Chris Bowen(L)
Council At-Large: Jacqueline Cissel(R), Pattrick Culley(L), Bill Levin(L), Angel
Rivera(R), Michael Kalscheur(R), Reid Roberts Miller(L)
Dist 1: Michael Bishop(L)
Dist 2: Sam Goldstein(L)
Dist 3: No recommendation
Dist 4: Christine Scales(R)
Dist 5: Christopher Hodapp(L) & Virginia Cain(R)
Dist 6: Kevin Fleming(L) & Janice McHenry(R)
Dist 7: Matthew Stone(L) & Sahara Williams(R)
Dist 8: No recommendation
Dist 9: No recommendation
Dist 10: William Oliver(D) & Joell Palmer(L)
Dist 11: Tom Mulcahy(L)
Dist 12: Shawn Sullivan(L) & Mike McQuillen(R)
Dist 13: Robert Lutz(R) & Jason Sipe(L) & Jared Evans(D)
Dist 14: Marilyn Pfisterer(R)
Dist 15: Zach Capehart(L)
Dist 16: Bill Bruton(R)
Dist 17: Gary Whitmore(R)
Dist 18: Vernon Brown(D)
Dist 19: Dane Mahern(D)
Dist 20: Susie Day(R)
Dist 21: Josh Featherstone(L)
Dist 22: No recommendation
Dist 23: Jeff Cardwell(R)
Dist 24: Ed Coleman(L)
Dist 25: Kevin Vail(L)
We ask that you share this list with your customers and friends. This year's
Indianapolis municipal elections next Tuesday will be critical to whether or not adults in
Indianapolis will continue to have an option of both smoking and non-smoking bars to
patronize. Many who are running for mayor and the council seek to toss aside the city's
current compromise in favor of a complete smoking prohibition in all of Indianapolis'
privately owned businesses. If you think that the current compromise that allows both
smoking and non-smoking bars (smoking is prohibited in all other businesses in
Indianapolis) is working, then please consider supporting the following candidates.
This list is an update to recommendations that were published two weeks ago.
Since that time, we have included recommendations for At-Large Council candidate
Michael Kalscheur(R), and Dist 16 candidate Bill Bruton.

2. Previously, Save Indianapolis Bars had recommended Mayor candidate Greg
Ballard(R) and Dist 3 Council candidate Ryan Vaughn(R). While they are still a far
better alternative than their Democratic opponents who would actively push for a
comprehensive smoking ban, new information has come to light that they would support
banning smoking in adult-only bars, leaving smoking only permitted in private clubs
(curiously, children ARE allowed in private clubs).
An acceptable compromise in the eyes of Indianapolis bar owners would be freeze
the number of smoking establishments to those who currently have the exemption. The
exemption could not be transferred to a different location, so over time as these
businesses closed or chose to go non-smoking, the total number of smoking
establishments would continue to dwindle.
While one can argue that minors need to be shielded from secondhand smoke,
what remains a fact is that tobacco is still a legal adult product, and consenting adults
should be allowed to assemble and consume a legal adult product in the company of other
adults. The compromise settled on in 2005 where bars who only allow patrons over the
age of 18, and private clubs, seems to be a reasonable policy, and has been working well
in Indianapolis.
As it stands, of the over 30,000 businesses in Indianapolis, approximately 300 (or
less than 1%) allow smoking within the facility. That even makes 3/4ths of the 1200
businesses that sell alcohol by the drink non-smoking. Exposure to secondhand smoke in
a business is 100% avoidable by adults, and virtually completely prohibited by minors. It
is also important to keep in mind that Indiana is an at-will employment state, which
means that employees are free to choose to work or not work wherever they please, and
no one is obligated to work in an environment that they are not comfortable with.
Unfortunately, the efforts being put forth by some candidates to impose their will on
businesses and patrons who just want to be left alone seems to be quite heavy-handed.
Smokers should be able to retain the few places where they can go and enjoy their
perfectly legal habit and not feel like a pariah. If minimizing the effects of secondhand
smoke is truly their goal, you would think that banning smoking in cars with children
would be one of their first efforts.