Decision 2011: Gahan tops this field.

The mayoral contest analysis now beckons. Candidate listings are cribbed from the clerk's office, followed by brief comments by the senior editor.

Democratic mayoral nominee Jeff Gahan’s spring primary victory was a tonic, and a much needed refutation of New Albany’s ingrained, perpetual and shambolic political shenanigans.

Gahan defeated Irv Stumler, who had expediently defected from lifelong Republicanism to become, overnight, the bizarrely anointed successor to the purportedly Democratic mayor, Doug England. It was the act we’ll always remember as The Deal, and it reeked of backroom cigarillos.

But the Deal was undone by voters, and ever since the morning after, the same platform-deprived party functionaries who noisily celebrated the attempted England/Stumler coup d’etat have been falling over themselves like Larry, Moe and Curly to curry favor with Gahan, who appears visibly uncomfortable every time he’s near them … and that’s as strong a recommendation for his fundamental character that can be made.

Taken alone, the entertainment value of this panicked, self-interested caterwauling on the part of sinecure seekers would be sufficient reason to cast a November ballot for Gahan. Fortunately, there remain numerous reasons to support him apart from it.

Gahan has eight years of city council experience, and a record upon which to be judged. It is true that he and NAC have not always agreed. However, if we are to focus on the future, and on numerous, positive and shared visions for the city’s operation, we can agree to disagree.

Gahan is no leftist, but he’s also not an unreconstructed Dixiecrat. In terms of temperament and core beliefs, he falls far closer to the vicinity of principled conviction wherein a true Democrat’s political instincts should lie.

Gahan has chosen not to announce his appointments prior to being elected. Although his restraint has not spared us the indignity of job seekers swapping their obsolete Stumler tees for Gahan wearables, it’s the sensible thing to do.

Gahan owns a small, local, independent business, and was instrumental in advising and assisting the start-up of New Albany 1st, New Albany’s first-ever grassroots organization dedicated to the interests of small, local, independent business. Yes, the political wing of One Southern Indiana endorsed him, but there is no indication that he kowtowed to the oligarchs, or has abandoned his anti-tolls stance.

In the end, it would be wrong for previous disagreements to serve as deal-breaking impediments to making a considered, rational choice for mayor. Gahan is that choice.

Libertarian Thomas Keister’s sense of humor is valued, but one simply cannot take a three-and-a-half-year sabbatical from current local events, then belatedly throw a hat in the ring in the expectation of being taken seriously. We believe Keister has something to contribute to the body politic even if he has not quite found it, so let’s hope he stays connected between now and his next run, whatever office it may be for.

After the spring primary was finished, D.M. Bagshaw finally was chosen to run for mayor by the detached suburbanite Republican Party chair Dave Matthews, but only after the city’s GOP precinct committee heads couldn’t or wouldn’t even try to pick a candidate. In all of this, there is little to inspire confidence, even if Bagshaw himself seems likeable, if overmatched by the requirements of the job.

Finally, there’s outgoing “Democratic” councilman Jack Messer, who is running for mayor as an “Independent” after dallying with local “Republicans,” leaving New Albany’s Greens, Constitutionalists, Objectivists, Labor and Raza Unida parties insanely jealous that they couldn’t buy at least a piddling dime dance with him.

We like Messer – always will – but we don’t back Jack for mayor, precisely because there was a general loss of focus when his mayoral ambitions began to take root, to the detriment of his being able to decide who he is and what, if anything, he belongs to. Still, Messer was a fine at-large council representative for a long, long time, and his contributions often constituted the sole council rebuttals to the digressions of the Burger King & Li’l Stevie.

NAC co-editor Jeff Gillenwater adds:

Without having much to add to what Roger has already explained (except a general disgust for what's happening in Indy along educational lines that I think Jeff Gahan and I share), I'm in agreement.

The most important thing this city can do to position itself well for healthy long-term decision making is to end the patrician strangleholds that have turned off and run off the talented and willing from the region for the past few decades if not longer. Opportunities come not from them but in spite of them.

Whether we've agreed or disagreed or will in the future, Jeff has at least shown a capacity for the adaptation and adoption of better ideas as they're presented. A much improved council would undoubtedly help that continue and I think will be necessary for real direction change, but I also think Gahan in the mayor's chair makes that more possible than the other candidates.