Here's A Complimentary Cheat Sheet

The Cheat Sheet, Vol. 8, Issue 27 – Nov 2019
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PARKING• Call (317) 632-5541.
Post Election/Post Mortem
A lot of folks are still trying to figure out
Tuesday’s election results and what that all
means in the grand scheme of things,
particularly for 2020. Republicans picked
up a lot of mayoral seats and Democrats
made headway in Hamilton County and
expanded their power in Marion County.
But despite the wins, there’s more to the
stories and the victories likely had more to
do with people and personalities rather
than politics and party labels.
Marion County
To put it mildly, when it came to
Republicans and Tuesday’s elections, TCS
hasn’t seen a beating like this since
Rodney King. Not only did Joe Hogsett
score a major win, but there Democrats
picked up six Council seats for a
supermajority. And not only do they have
a supermajority, but also a veto-proof
majority and some council members want
them to use that power. Already there
has been talk by some Councilors that
with their numbers they can dictate the
agenda of the city and not the 25th
floor. And the mayor’s office can’t run
over them.

PARKING• Call (317) 632-5541.
Of course, that’s assuming they can get on
the same page. Don’t be shocked to see
some head butting between the African-
American councilors and the new white,
liberal progressives. There are already
signs of that crack in the plaster starting to
show.
Hogsett Chief of Staff Thomas Cook had
an interesting observation on his Twitter
feed, “Indy Democrats, a
reminder: Democrats winning does not
mean that the city is "more Democratic."
That's a bad, self-destructive take. Tuesday
wins were the result of many things, but
chief among them was broad, bipartisan
support for candidates with broad,
bipartisan messages.”
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, they
are still trying to figure out how they
lost. Some blame it on Jim Merritt’s
campaign, others say there was no unified
message. One long-time observer made
an interesting point to TCS yesterday, he
said Tuesday was the end result of a party
infrastructure that had been collapsing on
itself for years and it finally fell
apart. Word is the remaining GOP
survivors are meeting over the next few
days to do a post mortem and plan the
long road back. Their first order of
business will be to pick a minority leader,
which will likely be Brian Mowrey.
It’s also worth noting that Hogsett’s win
(71%) is the same as the approval ratings
we had in our Indy Politics poll.
Hamilton County
Democrats won three seats in local races
in Hamilton County. Miles Nelson beat
former FSSA Director Debra Minott on
the Carmel City Council. And two
Democrats got elected to the Fishers town

PARKING• Call (317) 632-5541.
council, one at large and one in the NC
district. And to make life more
challenging for Republicans in Fishers,
where there was a contested race, two of
the three races were within three points of
each other. While Democrats are
celebrating these wins, once again, the
story is a little more complicated.
First, the word on the street for a while has
been that the Hamilton County
Republican Party has been in disarray
and “damn near broke”. We’ve heard
stories of infighting, donors cutting off
resources and the latest is that there was
complaining that the County Chair Laura
Campbell, who also serves on the Carmel
City Council, had most of the resources
dedicated towards her race which is why
Minott lost to Nelson. Also, there is talk
that some county folks are trying to lay the
blame at the Governor and State Party
saying they did not do enough to
help. We are not making this up.
This also feeds into the narrative that some
HC Republicans have been saying the
Holcomb campaign can’t rely on the
county party so it will have to set up its
own operations.
Boone County
So how did Democrat Emily Styron beat
Republican incumbent Tim
Haak? Well, this is one where the party
label really had nothing to do with it. We
can say this because although Styron won,
albeit by less than 100 votes, but despite a
3:1 Republican straight-ticket voting
advantage, all the other Democrats who
ran for the town council lost.

PARKING• Call (317) 632-5541.
We’ve been talking to our sources up
north and here’s what they came back
with…
 Styron had the momentum going
in. While Haak won the election
day vote, Styron killed it when it
came to early voting.
 There was the Sycamore Flats
apartment complex controversy
which hurt Haak.
 There were two school
referendums on the ballot which
brought out the “Volvo Driving
Soccer mom” which helped Stryon.
 Some of the national issues (i.e.,
Trump) didn’t hurt either.
We think it’s interesting that Styron won in
part because of the referendum because
there was a referendum in Zionsville back
when Susan Brooks won her party’s
nomination back in 2012 and the
conventional wisdom is that gave her the
1000-vote edge over second-place
finisher David McIntosh.
Speaking of Congress, there is some
debate over whether the fifth
congressional district is a lot more
competitive today than in the last
election. The answer is yes and no.
While Democrats did make inroads and
swept the northern part of Marion County,
Republicans still dominated or grew their
political footprints. The big question will
be who are the nominees? The private
chatter we’re hearing is that If the GOP
picks someone too far to the right, that
seat could end up in Democratic hands.
A Few Other Items of Note
TCS hears Vice-President Mike Pence is
Indy this weekend.
We have to give a big shout out to Tyler
Moore and his victory in the Kokomo
Mayor’s race. Kokomo, a democratic
stronghold, not only elected Moore with
nearly 70 percent of the vote but
Republicans had all but one seat on the
city council and that one was still up in the
air by 10 votes the last time we checked.
FYI, two were African-
Americans. Internal September polls had
Moore up 30 points. We also heard that
negative mailers sent out by the State
Democrat party had the opposite effect.
Another race we kept an eye on was the
Mayor of Greensburg. 26-year old Josh
Marsh, beat the Democrat incumbent, 65-
35. Marsh not only won a contested
primary and bear the incumbent, but he
did it while finishing law
school. Apparently, there is a “youth
movement” taking place in Decatur
County which is worth exploring in our
LNG capacity.
We’re told the Democratic victories on the
Columbus City-Council were due to
changing demographics primarily due to
Cummings’ influence in the area.

PARKING• Call (317) 632-5541.
Word on the street the Indiana Democratic
Party Chairman John Zody is strongly
looking at running for the seat being
vacated by State Senator Mark Stoops of
Bloomington.
The Usual Disclaimer Stuff:
The Cheat Sheet is a publication of
IndyPolitics.Org. This is a compilation
of pure gossip, rumor and blatant
innuendo.
We assume no liability if it is wrong, we
only take credit for it when it’s right!
If you’ve got something you want to
share, (good, bad or ugly) send it to
Abdul@indypolitics.org. We promise to
take all the credit and all of the blame.
In Loving Memory...
"All I am, I owe to my mother."
~Abraham Lincoln

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