Gary Mayor Predicts Possible Indiana Shocker

Washington Post ^ | 5-6-08 | Alec MacGillis

[rdl6989]

As the fate of a nailbiter Indiana primary -- and possibly the course of the Democratic race -- hung on his city, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said just now that it might take a while yet to finish counting the vote in Lake County, which includes Gary, and said that his city had turned out so overwhelmingly for Barack Obama that it might just be enough to close the gap with Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Let me tell you, when all the votes are counted, when Gary comes in, I think you're looking at something for the word to see," Clay, an Obama supporter, said in a telephone interview from Obama's Gary headquarters. "I don't know what the numbers are yet, but Gary has absolutely produced in large numbers for Obama here."

Clay said the results were late coming in from Lake County because of the large numbers of absentee ballots that had to be counted -- about 11,000. Under local practice, all of the cartridges from voting machines in Gary and nearby East Chicago are first collected at the local airport before being driven to the county headquarters to be tallied with the results from the rest of the county, he said. He said there were major technical problems holding up the count.

"It takes a little time. We want to be sure that every vote is counted fair and right," he said. "I just talked to the director out there and they are working like junkyard dogs to get that done as soon as possible. They are taking some time but I told them to do it right. That's what taking the time."

[politicalwit]

"I would guess Chicago politics has moved on to Indiana."

As the steel industry died in Gary and you saw essentiallly "white flight". The vaccuum created saw housing prices plummet and much of Chicago's South side move in. Crime and corruption prevail in Gary. It's their leading product.

What is really unfortunate is that the logistics of Gary could make it a winning location. You have quick access to Chicago via highway and the South Shore Line not to mention a very good airport.. Individuals and businesses could avoid the high Illinois state tax as well as the taxes of Cook County and the City of Chicago. And just a point of trivia...the second largest refinery in the US(BP's Whiting Refinery) is located in Lake County on the shores of Lake Michigan.