What they're saying: Coffey, Bagshaw, McCourt, Knable and Staten.

As the weeks go past in route to May's primary election, I'm providing periodic candidate statements of substance, mostly unretouched, as lifted from social media and news reports. Familiar gems such as "yard signs win elections, not people" and "donate to my campaign first, and maybe I'll have something of merit to say much, much later" will be omitted. That's because it is my aim to determine whether our declared candidates have anything to say at all, and I'll quote all candidates, from any and all parties, whether or not they're in a contested race. Just promising change and new ideas without divulging them won't cut the mustard, aspirants.

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Let's lead off with Dan Coffey. The 1st district incumbent has retrofitted his previous Facebook county commissioner's campaign page into one touting his city council candidacy: Coffey for 1st District City Council.

At Dale Bagshaw for City Council New Albany district 3, the Republican candidate spots a flaw in the farmers market buildout.

I see that the farmers market project has started and again there are no public restrooms planned. We build public places like bicentennial park and now the farmers market without public restrooms. I suppose we will have porta-potties here also. We want a friendly walkable city but don't install restrooms or trash containers along the new Main St. Project.

On Thursday, 6th district city council Republican candidate Noah McCourt had this to say about his party's Lincoln Day Dinner.

Tonight is the Floyd County Lincoln day dinner. In concept I think the event is rooted in customs and is a great fundraising opportunity. However I disagree with it in principle. I think it serves to endorse the stereotype of the Republican Party is for the "rich people." New Albany has a very diverse population and I understand that many residents would most likely rather not spend hundreds of dollars on a single event. Abraham Lincoln came from a very rough poor background. He had no formal college education and yet his presidency is one of the most loved and best remembered. I run my campaign and I refer to myself blue collar. For me to attend while the city continues to spiral into debt and as I observes residents, including my own family financially struggling would be slightly hypocritical. Abraham Lincoln said "Important principles may and must be inflexible" and so tonight I stand on principles and will not be in attendance at the dinner tonight. Instead I will be spending my time continuing to speak with residents, attending an event at IUS and continuing to work towards a better future for the city of New Albany.

McCourt's 6th district Democratic counterpart, Dr. Cliff Staten, indicates his support for the New Albany-Floyd County School Corporation's referendum.

In addition to the primary elections for the city on May 5th, there is a referendum on the capital projects proposal by the School Board. As a lifelong educator, I urge all of you to support the project...as I have said before...elections are about the future and the best way to have a positive impact on the future is through your support of public education...and, if you are concerned about the "bottom line" I note that this will NOT cost you extra on your property taxes...to put it in simple terms, "This is a no-brainer..." For more information: Families for Floyd County

Al Knable, Republican for council at-large, agrees.

I'll be voting YES on the NAFC School Corporation's referendum on this May's ballot.

My wife Jessica and I have been strong supporters of public schools since graduating from NAHS back in the 80's. When it came time to decide a route for our children's education the quality and diversity offered by NAFC schools made our decision easy.

We respect the fact that for many conscientious families a public education is not the best choice. We also realize that although it was the best choice for our four kids, many parents don't have the luxury of options.

Whether or not you choose to send your children to public schools- indeed whether or not you have children- it is in the best interest of the community to have a strong public education system in place.
For the past five years I have served on the board of the NAFC Education Foundation, as President for the past two. During that time the Foundation has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help support our public schools. For me, this service has provided valuable insight into how fortunate we are to live in New Albany/Floyd County. I have witnessed the dedication of our administrators, Board, support staff and above all the teachers, in and out of the classroom, that makes our schools special.

Passage of this referendum will not only maintain but will spur further excellence.

Passage of the referendum will NOT result in a tax increase.

I pay a lot in taxes each year. If you don't believe me ask my accountant, Joe Brown. (He won't tell you how much but I give him permission to nod his head in affirmation.) Like you, I hate the irresponsible spending of tax dollars. I'm voting YES because I know where this money will go: new Greenvalley and Slate Run elementary schools, revamped Floyds Knobs and Greenville elementary schools and an essentially new Prosser Career Education (Vocational) Center. These build-outs will replace current inadequate, antiquated and in some cases dangerous facilities.

It is often said that "children are our future". True. But not some far off future. Our fellow citizens of 2016 and beyond are being educated NOW. I want them to be the best they can be.

If we won't commit to a quality public education for today's children, we will reap the decaying society we deserve in an all too near tomorrow.

As an aside: Will any candidates be voting no to the referendum?

What they're saying: Knable on the HIV outbreak, and a slew of GOP candidate links at Facebook.

As the weeks go past in route to May's primary election, I'm providing periodic candidate statements of substance, mostly unretouched, as lifted from social media and news reports. Familiar gems such as "yard signs win elections, not people" and "donate to my campaign first, and maybe I'll have something of merit to say much, much later" will be omitted. That's because it is my aim to determine whether our declared candidates have anything to say at all, and I'll quote all candidates, from any and all parties, whether or not they're in a contested race. Just promising change and new ideas without divulging them won't cut the mustard, aspirants.

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Several Republican candidates have hoisted Facebook campaign pages during the past few weeks.

Dale Bagshaw for City Council District 3 ... with a much appreciated photo of the candidate shoveling snow from his sidewalk.

Ross Heinz for City Council (4th district) ... "As a candidate, Ross stands for responsible spending, local business, and community initiative." He should have added: "And making my opponent familiar with the Interwebz."

Danita Burks. City Council New Albany District 5 ... it's polls, not poles, and I wouldn't point this out had Mrs. Burks not previously sought a school board seat (and lost).

Larry Belcher for 6th District City Council Seat ... with a slogan: "What matters to New Albany, matters to me and my neighbors."

Nick Vaughn (6th district Republican) provides his platform at his web site, with sub sections on renter/landlord registrations, a better business climate and communications: Nick Vaughn's Vision Outline for New Albany.

As citizens we should always be looking to the long term improvement of our city which is why renter/landlord registration is the first step toward transitioning more renters into homeowners; by putting down roots people have a stake in our shared success.

At-large council candidate and physician Al Knable (R) continues to openly make sense, and to articulate, in writing, for attribution. Taking into consideration the whole of New Albany's stunted political history, this continues to amaze ... and please.

On the regional HIV outbreak:

If you knew your neighbor was cooking meth and you saw his house on fire would you call for help or let it burn?

Most of us would call 911, even if not to save the neighbor then to protect our own property from being next.

As a physician running for public office, I feel compelled to speak out on the subject of the recent HIV outbreak occurring in Indiana.

I'm old enough to have practiced medicine during the initial HIV/AIDS epidemic.

During residency, we had weekly AIDS clinic at IU. Not HIV clinic, AIDS clinic-because we had no effective treatment. Perhaps as a society the anti-viral meds we have today make it easy to forget how horrible this disease was and can be. I can't forget because I witnessed too many suffer horrendously. I saw too many people die. Not just drug users, people from all walks of life, gay and straight alike.

Yes, people too often make choices that put them at risk. But as a physician it is not my job to judge but rather to diagnosis and treat when necessary, prevent when I can.

We have an HIV outbreak in our state. Too close for comfort. Let's contain it before it spreads!

I support targeted, short-term needle exchange programs as an effective way of curtailing such crises. Studies by the AMA and the WHO back this policy up.

We're not all going to agree on the moral reasoning but I think we can find common pragmatic ground. Clean needles are cheap, anti-viral medications to treat HIV are very expensive. The more positive cases of HIV there are in a community, the faster and wider it will spread. The healthier a user is, the more likely they are to seek long term drug cessation programs.

Let's put the fire out first! We can educate people about not playing with matches later.

NA council: No primary race in District 3; Phipps versus Bagshaw in the fall.

In the 3rd district council, the fall race already is set, so long as there is no independent or libertarian entry after the primary.

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CITY OF NEW ALBANY COUNCIL MEMBER DISTRICT 3
(Precincts New Albany 3, 5, 7, 10)

D Greg Phipps 1105 E Spring St

R Dale D.M. Bagshaw 85 Galt St

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The obvious problem with politics as a part-time pursuit in a place like Nawbony, where the Wizard of Westendia remains extant, is that it's fiendishly difficult to sustain unilateral disarmament with full-time ward heelers.

In short, playing fair and clean doesn't guarantee someone else won't play dirty.

My honest opinion of Greg Phipps's first term on the council is that he's been better than average, but oddly disappointing at crucial junctures. Greg too often allows himself to be led by the mayor's cadre of handlers, as with his insufficient due diligence on parks & aquatic mega-financing. But he was right to question the use of public monies for church repair, and to advocate emergency warning sirens in areas where they were needed.

Greg was stellar in leading the push for a Human Rights Committee, then acquiesced in the administration's determination to keep it in locked away in mothballs as a mere symbolic token. He sometimes has an imperfect (and regrettably impatient) understanding of what neighborhood advocacy actually entails, as with the lamentable 922 Culbertson demolition episode.

However, Greg is suitably out in front on the Speck street network proposals, and this is the juncture where metaphorical rubber meets road: Owing to the mayor's ongoing, bizarrely craven fear of owning the issue of necessary street grid reform, Greg is going to have to do more arm-twisting behind the scenes than he is accustomed. He's going to have to play hard, and even play dirty ... if necessary.

Greg has a campaign page at Facebook.

Over on the GOP side, Dale Bagshaw has filed. His web site from 2011, when he ran for mayor, can be viewed here.

See the complete primary election listings right here.

Bagshaw campaign mailer: VAI (guitar parts added).

But the acronym VAI reminds me of something else entirely ...

New Albany mayoral politics as Duck Duck Goose without the saving grace of limitless vodka.

Here's the way the C-J's Harold Adams phrases the scrum on Twitter:

Four vie for mayor in New Albany: Two city councilmen, a political newcomer and a three-time loser at the polls ... http://cjky.it/sR0rrj

That's an ouchie for libertarian Thomas Keister, but it is "political newcomer" DM Bagshaw who provides the most memorable quote, underlined:

While this is Bagshaw’s first run for elected office, he said that shouldn’t be a reason to discount him in a contest against Gahan and Messer. “What has their experience gained our community versus my life of inexperience?” he asked.

That's good enough to become the mission statement for New Albany's bicentennial celebration in 2013 ... if we make it that far.

Let's see if I have it straight.

DM Bagshaw would have been on the GOP council ticket for the primary, but was instead sent to the bullpen to await the outcome of party chairman Dave Matthews' backroom mayoral negotiations, first with the twice-elected Democratic at-large council person Jack Messer, who flamed out (see below) and then with lifetime Republican Irv Stumler, who abruptly flipped to the Democrats for a far better deal at sitting (Democratic) mayor Doug England's instigation, but was defeated by Jeff Gahan, meaning that freshly minted council candidate England's master plan to achieve Lebensraum was thwarted, and Messer had spin the bottle a (2nd? 3rd?) time by running for mayor as an independent, his own strategy of jumping to the GOP having been rendered moot by what he says was England's telepathic sabotage in the form of Messer's own widely reported racial malapropisms, and Gahan now finds himself feted night and day by the England cadre, whose jobs depend on his cooperation.

Shit, I should have taken the buck ninety eight and run for mayor on the One Southern Indiana ticket.

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.

On our mayoral candidates and 1Si's attempted usurpation of the local political process.

New Albany First, the city’s first-ever grassroots, local and independent business alliance, held an information session last evening at the Public House, and among the participants were mayoral candidates DM Bagshaw (Republican) and Jack Messer (Independent).

Jeff Gahan (Democrat) was not in attendance, but he has been a supporter of NA 1st from the very start. Also absent was Thomas Keister (Libertarian).

I was hoping Keister would attend, so I could jokingly ask him about his Free Rein Media, which someone masquerading as “Jimmy” recently took to task in One Southern Indiana Pop-Up Newspaper (OSIPUN, an acronym which looks almost “insipid”) for selling items designed to draw fire from Reclaim Our Redneck Backwoods Superstitious Culture Kentuckiana (RORBSCK, which lacks only a “u” to suck out loud, and surely already does).

But, as is my habit, I digress.

Significantly, all four candidates are small business owners, and even more interestingly, both Bagshaw and Messer were willing to report bits and pieces of the interview process wherein One Southern Indiana’s (1Si) political aggrandizement arm asked them questions to see who merits political endorsements, ones calculated to obtain oligarchic orgasms at the highly likely ultimate cost of sacrificing voluntary funding from every last locally elected governmental body able to grasp that taxpayers of virtually every political stripe earnestly wish for entities like 1Si to keep the politics out of whatever it is the organization does to justify its existence – itself a debatable topic.

According to both Bagshaw and Messer, one question asked of them was if elected, whether they would “use” 1Si’s services for outsourcing their economic development tasks. Both candidates indicated they responded with wariness, if not outright hostility. It is rumored that Gahan was more vociferous in objecting to 1Si’s arrogance. Having read Keister’s blogs over the years, I’d expect the same from him. None of the four seem to be buying into 1Si’s errant shtick, and for this, we should be grateful.

It makes me guardedly optimistic to know that first and foremost, our mayoral candidates understand small business issues by virtue of being small businessmen themselves.

Furthermore, not one of them is eager to be co-opted by One Southern Indiana’s creeping and unnecessary interference in the political process, and in this, each candidate lies firmly on the side not only of the general public, but an ever-increasing number of 1Si’s own operatives, who see quite clearly that the Stemlerization (that’s a synonym for politicization, folks) of 1Si impedes whatever legitimacy lies in their daily work. They can’t say it aloud, but readers would be amazed to hear the chilling off-record comments.

In fact, 1Si is so squarely on the defensive owing to its leadership’s perpetual, self-defeating political missteps that it cannot even run the risk of linking its new, vaunted Think Local Southern Indiana diversionary tactic to 1Si, which founded it. Nowhere is the 1Si brand to be seen, which of course does little except deepen the depth of deception.

All of which, to me, seems curiously toxic in nature.

We've got mayoral candidates.

First there's Jack Messer (as an independent): Messer confirms mayoral run. He'll have to get a few signatures before the end of the month.

Then D. M. Bagshaw (as a Republican): Bagshaw to run for mayor of New Albany. It would have been a lot more fun to have of the local Sarah Palins in the race, but Dave Matthews couldn't pull it off.

Now Jeff Gahan, the Democratic nominee for mayor, has two opponents this fall.

In the Tribune article about Messer's decision, the GOP chairman claims to have a candidate for every race except clerk.

Even the 1st district?

Is there still time for an independent to run against Dan Coffey?