Posted on 11/19/2007 5:27:02 AM PST by KeyLargo
Marine fights his way to mayor's office INDY | Rides tax revolt to 1st victory over incumbent in 40 years
November 19, 2007 BY KEN KUSMER
INDIANAPOLIS -- Greg Ballard just a few months ago was an obscure Republican mayoral nominee without a prayer, some scoffed, of unseating a well-funded, two-term incumbent.
Today, he's the mayor-elect of the nation's 13th-largest city, a tax opponent held up for admiration by President Bush, and a lesson to political incumbents everywhere of what can happen if they don't mind the mood of the voters.
Ballard beat Democrat Bart Peterson 51 percent to 47 percent to become the first challenger in 40 years to unseat an Indianapolis mayor.
The 52-year-old retired Marine Corps officer never doubted himself.
''I know half the city doesn't believe it when I said I always believed. I mean, I always thought we were going to do this thing,'' he said.
What happened in Indianapolis was a classic taxpayer revolt in which voters took out their frustrations on the man at the top.
Property taxes for homeowners statewide have shot up an average of 24 percent because of new assessment rules. Peterson over the summer imposed a hiring freeze and ordered most city departments to cut their budgets. However, he also pushed through a 65 percent local income tax hike.
''On top of the property tax crisis, and then to put in an income tax increase on top of it, the timing of it was just really bad,'' Ballard said. ''If it was really, really necessary, it could have been delayed. I'm not so sure it was all necessary." AP
Behind closed doors Democrats' losses don't keep them from seminar November 18, 2007
Outgoing Mayor Bart Peterson and nine Democratic City-County Council members spent much of the past week in New Orleans at a conference of the National League of Cities.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/LOCAL19/711180356/1006/LOCAL
Bart boy screwing with the police department and crime going up helped Greg Ballard too!
“Good news for Republicans. It’s all about taxes!”
I join in rejoicing over this victory, but the battle is not primarily about taxes - it’s about government spending. Taxes are important, but spending and control over the culture (economy, businesses, etc.) is the big danger.
There's a newspaper headline we'll never see!
Semper Fi in Naptown!!!
Bravo Zulu, Colonel.
Cheers!
We needed to start to get healthy in Indiana, one of OUR states, before we could start working on the rest of the country. This is Nice! and a Marine as well.
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