Side-splitting Jeff Gahan stand-up comedy: "What I do best is listen to a lot of people."

Listening.

That's why he's here, you know.

Just one question: When has Slick Jeffie ever heard what's being said?

Watch Jeff Gahan abuse (a) the League of Women Voters' Q&A format, (b) Mark Seabrook and (c) the intelligence of voters.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Slick Jeffie's snarling true colors in last evening's non-debate.

I didn't attend the League of Women Voters' fix-is-in-non-debate, and here's why.

Jeff "No Debates" Gahan ecstatic as League of Women Voters ditches the candidate debate format.

Watch Jeff Gahan abuse (a) the League of Women Voters' Q&A format, (b) Mark Seabrook and (c) the intelligence of voters.

Our political prima donna Slick Jeffie won't agree to debate his opponents if "debate" is taken to mean "debate," but his legendary bad temper comes to the forefront near the end of this short clip from last evening's made-for-Gahan soiree at the Silver Street Pleasure Dome.

Gahan also confused the issue, extrapolating overall budgeting from TIF district pillage.

You broke the rules, Mayor Chump. 

Naturally the League didn't do a thing about it. Like I said ...

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Slick Jeffie's snarling true colors in last evening's non-debate.

#FireGahan2019
#DrainTheGahanSwamp
#SocialistsForSeabrook

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Slick Jeffie's snarling true colors in last evening's non-debate.

Roger did not attend Bill Hanson's paint-by-numbers soiree at the Silver Street Pleasure Dome.

I didn't attend the League of Women Voters' fix-is-in-non-debate, and here's why.

Jeff "No Debates" Gahan ecstatic as League of Women Voters ditches the candidate debate format.

But the Green Mouse did.

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"The only moment of nastiness last night was when Mark Seabrook answered a question about city finances and then passed the mic to Jeff Gahan to answer the same question. Gahan asked the moderator to repeat the question and while she was looking for the card he lashed out at Seabrook. 

"Unsurprisingly, the moderators did not say anything about his outburst.

"Gahan raised his voice and made this petulant snarl about how his balance was perfectly budgeted and the city's finances were in great shape. He yelled at Seabrook and said 'you're one to talk' since he's never had a balanced budget, and some other inaudible crackling.

"Slick Jeffie did a great job of showing his true colors. Seabrook definitely got under his skin last night."

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Just imagine if Hanson and the League of Women Voters had the chutzpah to stage an actual debate.

Jeff "No Debates" Gahan ecstatic as League of Women Voters ditches the candidate debate format.

Since the year of Our Dear Leader 2015, I've been constantly reminded that critiquing the local chapter of the League of Women Voters isn't allowed.

Alas, I'm not a very good listener, and occasionally stubborn when I do, but at least I can "anchor" my point of view to personal experience four years ago, when I ran for mayor as an independent and learned very quickly that anyone differing with the two-party local patronage system cannot expect level treatment from those dedicated to the system's perpetuation.

In short, Jeff Gahan was doing his best in 2015 to avoid any semblance of debate, and the League was more than happy to enable him (a) by holding its sponsored debate on his own home court, the TIF-fueled Pleasure Dome (Silver Street Park), and (b) refusing to change the date of the debate when the GOP's Kevin Zurschmiede couldn't attend owing to his son's wedding, which had been planned months in advance.

Gahan is far more energetic in ducking debates than keeping campaign promises from 2011.

 ... In the assumption that Kevin Zurschmiede would be out of town for his son's wedding, Jeff Gahan carefully planned his mayoral debate schedule to avoid any unmanageable situation requiring the three of us to appear together, accepting invitations to events staged by the New Albany Housing Authority (Sept. 22) and the League of Women Voters (24th), and declining to participate in what obviously stood to be the most substantive and challenging, debate, as organized by Leadership Southern Indiana on the 29th.

Gahan already has refused to attend the Southern Indiana Realtors Association question and answer luncheon. Another such mayoral chat, put together by the Builders & Development Association, was cancelled. Had it been held, Gahan would not have been there.

(Zurschmiede was unable to alter his travel plans and couldn't) come to Silver Street Park (Gahan's de facto "home" field) for the League's debate, which will feature questions provided in advance from LWV organizers like Linda Moeller, who also is Gahan's appointee as controller and openly acknowledges her position as high-ranking Gahan campaign worker.

Thus far, the League has managed to misspell Zurschmiede's name twice (differently each time) on promotional materials, which incorporate an 8-year-old photo of me, when literally dozens of more recent photos can be found merely by Googling my name and clicking on Images.

In short, the only debate at which all three candidates will appear is a softball toss orchestrated by Democrats supporting Gahan, who conveniently wave the League's "impartial" banner. It's a farce, and needs to be recognized as such, but I wouldn't think of missing.

Somewhat hilariously, the League's guiding forces replied to my questions at the time by denying they were biased, and yet each of them in turn had a reason to seek the avoidance of Slick Jeffie's well-documented nocturnal wrath. One of them would be seeking funds for her organization from Gahan, and another was running Gahan's shill ads in his declining newspaper. A third actually owed her very government job to Gahan's political patronage machine.

Impartial? hardly. It was a shambles, as Jeff Gillenwater summarized.

Kevin (Zurschmiede) actually voted against the expenditure for the park and many others questioned it, including Roger. Gahan, in turn, has been continually using it as a prop for campaign purposes. The League declaring it something beautiful of which to be proud, a very pro-park and, in context, pro-Gahan stance, isn't exactly impartial so it's not difficult to see why many people are questioning venue choice. I think the brewery that Roger helped build is great and an asset to the community but I wouldn't suggest that holding a mayoral debate there would be impartial. The same could be said of Kevin's properties. The park is technically public but the association is plain. Given the low number of New Albany forums involving all the mayoral candidates, it doesn't seem unreasonable that a single alternative date and/or location could be explored without conflicting with another event. Besides the LSI debate, what other neutral events involving all the mayoral candidates are scheduled between now and the November election that would make it difficult to find another date or location? The library, the Carnegie Center, IUS, or any of the public schools would be neutral. Is there really not an alternative date available at any of them over the next couple of months? At best, this is an honest mistake but it's not too late to correct it.

Of course, none of it was corrected, and the League's homer-fest at the Gahan-built Silver Street Park was my only direct debate with the duck-and-cover mayor in 2015. The majority of assessments agreed with me that I smoked his ineffectual posterior, but that's neither here nor there.

In 2019, the League's sponsored candidate gatherings don't even appear to resemble "debates," having been dumbed down into pablum, which predictably is just fine by the Tom May Evangelism Guidepost (formerly known as the News and Tribune).

OUR OPINION: Candidate forums offer direct Q&A

 ... But how do we know what any of (the candidates) are thinking, what their ideas are, their priorities, and if they match ours?

We can’t rely on glossy fliers or scripted political ads to tell us what we need to know. We need face time.

Fortunately, the South Central Indiana League of Women Voters is making it easy for us to connect with candidates who want our votes.

Beginning Thursday, the League of Women Voters is hosting a series of candidate forums — in our own back yards. Charlestown, New Albany / Georgetown, Jeffersonville and Clarksville voters can hear directly from candidates in their communities.

The best part is that candidates get the chance to speak directly to us, and we can ask them questions about issues that are important to us. No filter. Just us, and them ...

— The News and Tribune Editorial Board members are Publisher Bill Hanson, Editor Susan Duncan, and Assistant Editors Chris Morris and Jason Thomas.

Did Hanson's apologists ever tell us how much money Gahan spends on advertising?

I didn't think so.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times gets it. You can talk to local representatives any time. I disagree often with New Albany's council reps, but as far as I can tell, they all answer phone calls -- and it's likely candidates will, too.

What we cannot experience is an actual debate between candidates of differing views, and now the League no longer is interested in this instructive concept.

Editorial: Why political debates still matter LA Times Editorial Board

... Nothing beats the potential of old-school debates to reveal and humanize the men and women behind the glossy ads and focus-group-approved slogans.

Admittedly, debates can often seem like well-rehearsed exercises in reciting talking points and staying on message. Still, it can be tremendously informative when two candidates vying for the same important job stand (or sit) next to each other in front of an audience to answer questions, describe their policy differences and, well, debate. Unscripted forums offer a rare glimpse into candidates’ foundational character traits and temperament. They can also indicate how well a person might handle the unexpected challenges that arise once he or she is in office.

It bears noting that in 2015 the League refused to consider requiring the candidates to debate "blind," insisting the participants receive the debate questions in advance. C-minus students like Gahan need help, I guess.

It's 2019, and the Tom May Bible Study Digest covered the first candidate gathering in Charlestown.

Political forums kick off in Charlestown ahead of election, by Tara Schmelz

CHARLESTOWN — About 75 Charlestown residents filled the downtown square Thursday night to hear from candidates seeking local office, as part of the first of a series of forums hosted by the South Central Indiana League of Women Voters.

However, something was missing.

The Republicans.

Wonderful. H.L. Mencken said it best -- figuratively, of course: "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."

That's my view of the best course in addressing the two-party system.

BREAKING: Mayor Jeff Gahan finally relents to a debate utilizing this perfectly understandable format.

See what happens when I let it build up for two months?

Just when I thought I was out ... well, I am out, but for the sake of satire and the sheer rarity of local truth-telling, it's okay to be pulled back in again, every now and then.

Like I said the other say: Socialists for Seabrook.

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 20: Buying and selling a city? Our master list of 59 Gahan wheel-greasers is a pornographic potpourri of pay-to-play.

Gahan's first quarter CFA-4 has been filed, and it's another massive, quivering edifice of pay-to-play cash.

Let it be noted: There'll be no mayoral candidate debates in 2019 because Jeff Gahan fears them.

Gahan ducked primary opponent David White --twice.

Someone asked a question of Mayor Jeff Gahan.

"Dear Mayor Gahan: As a councilman, you condemned no-bid contracts. Why, as an 8-year pay-to-play mayor, has your administration set the gold standard for no-bid contracts?"

A predictable silence ensued.

It sounds very much like a question Gahan would duck at a debate, except entities like the News and Tribune or the League of Women Voters wouldn't ask it.

The problem isn't that Gahan would duck the question during a debate. It's that he'll duck the debate itself, and we all know it. In 2015 Gahan refused to debate both his challengers.

He'll do it again in 2019. You can bet on it.

#FireGahan2019

Have you ever wondered why Jeff Gahan refuses to debate David White? There's a word for it.

Another primary election season soon will pass with the incumbent mayor refusing to emerge from seclusion to debate his opponent.

David White yet again extended an invitation, and true to form, Jeff Gahan emitted mere shadows of former gurgling sounds in response. Shouldn't we be expecting more from a man who thinks he should be mayor for life?

New Albany needs grassroots empowerment, not top-down cliques. David White gets it. Maybe that's why Jeff Gahan won't debate him.

I'd love to see David have the chance to debate Goliath Gahan. I actually believe at some level Gahan himself might want to do so, given his outrage at the temerity of anyone daring to challenge his reign.

Regrettably, the odds are that Gahan's handlers won't allow it. They know he can't do improv, and they fear the emergence of the nocturnal Mr. Hyde. But a boy can dream.

It should be remembered that in 2015, Gahan artfully evaded full debate with both his challengers. The debate he did agree to attend came with numerous caveats.

• The League of Women Voters held the debate on Gahan's home court, Silver Street Park (no heels on the artificial turf, ladies)
• The GOP's nominee Kevin Zurschmiede had a family wedding to attend, the League of Women Voters wouldn't change the date, so it was just Dear Leader and me
• The League of Women Voters agreed to Gahan's demand that the questions be given participants in advance, in spite of my request that we go without 

When I played basketball, we called these stipulations and the referees who issued them "homers." When it came time for the Leadership Southern Indiana debate, Gahan was the ignominious no-show.

Following are a few thoughts I had in 2016, when I was a member of the Leadership Southern Indiana Discover class of 2016-2017.

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ON THE AVENUES: Kind-a full-a you know what, but now we're going to find out whether Jeff Gahan has any cattle under his hat.

A little more than a year ago, Leadership Southern Indiana held a New Albany mayoral debate, and one candidate conspicuously declined to attend. More than a year later, on the day after the 2016 election, Mayor Jeff Gahan finally climbed aboard the Leadership Southern Indiana bus.

Literally.

The bus stopped in front of The Grand, and prior to my Discovery 2017 class disembarking, Gahan got on. Blocking the only potential escape route except his own, he stood at the front of the bus and offered a few words about New Gahania in an emerging Time of Trump.

As Gahan’s many handlers long have noted, and tended to plan the mayor's schedule accordingly, his agoraphobia manifests itself in the usual way.

Agoraphobia (ag-uh-ruh-FOE-be-uh) is a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and often avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.

It isn’t that Gahan fears human contact. He fears unscripted situations in public settings, and when compelled to interact with people in such places, he generally over-compensates, displaying a forced, cheerleader-level of excitement, which at best is chatty, though usually comes off as just plain strange.

However, give this man a proper script, show him the markings, block it out, and he invariably succeeds in appearing “mayoral,” whatever that really means. Team Gahan knows this, and extemporaneous environments are studiously avoided, because it’s anyone's guess what might come out of the mayor’s mouth amid the escalating inner panic.

On Wednesday, standing there on a bus chartered by an organization he shunned, nothing was written on paper, and the results were predictably weird.

However – amazingly – Gahan got something right when he conceded that downtown New Albany’s revitalization owes primarily to risks taken and investments made by independent business persons and entrepreneurs, not City Hall.

This was a startling admission, given that Gahan’s re-election campaign was predicated on taking personal credit for the city’s improved prospects. In addition, it doesn’t jibe with Team Gahan’s day-to-day municipal governance, which relies on Goebbelsian marketing and rule-of-plaques, both real and metaphorical, as erected by Gahan’s various funding mechanisms and the toadies manning them.

Still, it was a factual utterance, and worthy of note; they come once yearly from Gahan, so stopped clocks and all.

---

Then, in closing, Gahan actually said something interesting, though not before somehow confusing a busload of local residents for visitors from Omaha, by expressing the misplaced hope that they would enjoy their “stay” here.

I’ll paraphrase:

The most important thing for you to remember about New Albany, and what we always remind everyone, is that we’re a kind city.

That’s kind, as in affectionate, loving, helpful, benevolent, and displaying the qualities of kindness.

Whether this assertion is true isn’t the point.

Rather, in spite of Gahan’s odd suggestion that his statement functions as some sort of widely embraced local mantra, it’s the very first time I’ve heard him express this sentiment by using the precise word “kind.”

And, since it isn’t in the mayor’s nature to be improvisational, the word – the concept, this mantra – must have been planted by someone, at some point in advance. He’s simply not good enough with words to pull “kind” from the ether.

It’s just my opinion, but I think it’s no coincidence that Gahan introduced this fresh new concept of a “kind” city on the afternoon following a smoldering train wreck of an election on the part of his Floyd County Democratic Party, a topic covered elsewhere:

ON THE AVENUES: Don't be a Dickey, local Democrats. The verdict is in, and it's time for a change.

---

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Democratic mayoral candidate David White understands that change begins with a whole lotta scrubbing, and NA Confidential advocates just such a deep civic cleansing. 

After eight years on the job, Mayor Jeff Gahan's list of stunning "achievements" is long, indeed: tax increases, budgetary hide 'n' seek, self-deification, daily hypocrisy, public housing takeover, non-transparency, pay-to-play for no-bid contracts, bullying city residents and bullying city employees. Eight years is enough. It's time to drain Gahan's swamp, flush his ruling clique and take this city back from Gahan's Indy-based special interest donors. 

NA Confidential supports David White for Mayor in the Democratic Party primary, with voting now through May 7. 

New Albany needs grassroots empowerment, not top-down cliques. David White gets it. Maybe that's why Jeff Gahan won't debate him.

Small wonder Team Gahan is silent, given the mayor's fear of situations he cannot control. That's why he typically avoids unscripted settings. It's probably an undiagnosed anxiety disorder broadly similar to agoraphobia, but only his psychiatrist knows for sure.

In 2015 Gahan agreed to debate prior to the fall election only if the session was held on his own palatial home turf (Silver Street Park) with questions submitted in advance -- and accepting that the hosting League of Women Voters organizing committee was controlled by one of his subalterns.

Not exactly fair, and I suggested the debate take place at Vic's, but fine by me and I was absolutely delighted to accept the tilted terms. Unfortunately Kevin Zurschmiede was out of town for a wedding, and the League refused to change the date to accommodate the Republican candidate.

There was a second chance in 2015 in the form of Leadership SI's debate at New Albany High School -- and Gahan concocted a predictably flimsy excuse to miss it. Thus the city was deprived of the chance to have all three candidates in one place, at one time.

You cannot convince me that on Gahan's part, this omission was purely intentional.

I'd love to see David have the chance to debate Goliath Gahan. I actually believe at some level Gahan himself might want to do so, given his outrage at the temerity of anyone daring to challenge his reign.

Regrettably, the odds are that Gahan's handlers won't allow it. They know he can't do improv, and they fear the emergence of the nocturnal Mr. Hyde. But a boy can dream.

David White: "On May 7th, you will have the opportunity to get your city back, but I need your help."

The filing period has commenced; more on that tomorrow. Yesterday David White made it official, and he's in the mayoral race.

ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL EDITION: As David White's mayoral campaign begins, let's briefly survey the electoral landscape.

David White's video reassures city employees on the shop floor and condemns politically-motivated retribution from above.

ON THE AVENUES: In the 3rd district, that "stepping aside" time finally has arrived.

Will Deaf Gahan debate White this time around? Four years ago, Gahan refused, citing absolutely no reason whatever for ducking a fact-to-face meeting with his challenger.

I suppose we can't all be courageous. From April 19, 2015, here's the flashback.

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It's the hologram, Adam: Jeff Gahan's refusal to debate David White insults New Albany voters.

Late last week, the sycophants inhabiting Team Gahan circled their rickety wagons and condemned the Courier-Journal for not somehow compelling Jeff Gahan to return phone calls.

Jeff Gahan texts Greg Fischer: "OMG, the CJ called, LOL."

Shunning the C-J is inexplicable, but for Gahan to duck David White's frequent invitations to publicly debate the issues is all too understandable. The mayor is incapable of improvisation, and simply cannot hold serve in unscripted settings. Team Gahan knows this, and shelters him accordingly.

We might appeal to the Democratic Party chairman, but Adam Dickey is anything but neutral. He sits on the Redevelopment Commission, instigator of TIF-funded capital projects designed to serve as re-election photo ops. Gahan's corporate attorney, Shane Gibson, manages the party's money. The incumbent's campaign war chest is sufficient to spend in excess of $10 per voter, with cash left over to buy multiple rounds of Bud Light longnecks at the Roadhouse.

David White is on the outside looking in -- into an incestuous political fix, that is.

Rails, trails, holy grails: "That's why we're here," babbles Gahan about yet another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to economically develop others at his own city's expense.

This one is bizarre even by News and Tribune standards: New Albany mayor, redevelopment official debate benefits of Rails to Trails project (see excerpt below).

The header suggests an actual debate between public officials, but it isn't really a debate, which as we know Jeff Gahan avoids like the proverbial plague, and seeing as Gahan and Scott Stewart weren't actually in the same room.

Can you even begin imagining how intimidated the small town huckster Gahan is by Stewart's career and life experience? The mayor probably keeps a voodoo doll of Stewart in his municipal-issue SUV.

Stewart patiently makes actual arguments about costs, benefits, wants and needs, while Gahan repeats his painstakingly memorized "gotta act fast right now" mantra, over and over, which reminds me of a story about Joe Stalin's parrot.

Stalin was so paranoid he suspected his pet parrot of deviant tendencies when it imitated his crude spitting; he purged it with a death blow from his pipe.

Morris' piece comes off as a reluctant cut 'n' paste job, with the critical question yet again going unasked:

Why these pyrotechnics about a vague rails-to-trails pointed at Bedford when job one for New Albany should be connecting the Greenway to the North Side, which would be a project benefiting city residents and not outsiders?

Fortunately the article includes inadvertent hilarity.

Ever diligent when it comes to preserving his lifetime sinecure, John "Pinocchio" Rosenbarger falls over himself to effusively agree with the mayor, and yet it is Rosenbarger himself who has spent years making n excellent case for the potential usefulness of a link from downtown to IU Southeast using the CSX rail line -- which interests Dear Leader not one jot.

For Rosenbarger to be absolutely right about anything occurs once "every three or four lifetimes," and yet his long-term point about connecting downtown and the north side is spot on. Now he has abandoned it, tossed right down the toilet in his eagerness to bow in the general direction of whomever signs his paychecks.

We mustn't forget: Whenever the mayor opens his mouth, follow the money -- and, perhaps in this instance, his ambition. If we are to take the most optimistic scenario, Gahan's rails-to-trails fetish would leave the city of New Albany with 2-3 miles of a campaign talking point in the form of a pathway to elsewhere, with elsewhere and others paying most of the costs. 

Thus far, Gahan has expended more hyperbole on the rails-to-trail's benefit to the region than his own city, as if he is playing to a larger audience, seeking to be the Mayor of Southern Indiana.

Cash and ego? That's why he's here. We can do something about that.

#FireGahan2019

New Albany mayor, redevelopment official debate benefits of Rails to Trails project, by Chris Morris (Tom May Biblical Odyssey)

NEW ALBANY — Scott Stewart said the Rails to Trails proposal sounds intriguing, and admits the idea looks good on paper.

However, as a member of the New Albany Redevelopment Commission, Stewart voted no on hiring Indianapolis law firm Faegre Baker Daniels (FBD) to assist with advancing the Rails to Trails project. The measure passed 4-1 recently with FBD being paid $125,000 for its services.

The Rails to Trails initiative would replace abandoned CSX train tracks that run 63 miles — starting just north of the new Sazerac facility (at the former Pillsbury Plant) in New Albany and ending near Bedford.

Stewart said there are only so many redevelopment dollars available, and he would like to see the money used to benefit New Albany residents. He said connecting neighborhoods and making them more walkable is something he supports.

"When you look at New Albany, we have wonderful neighborhoods and downtown, there is the Greenway .... there is a lot to build on," he said. "I would like to see safe pathways for cyclists and walkers."

Stewart said developing Rails to Trails would cost millions and while FBD may help secure some state funding, those dollars will be capped leaving the city and other communities along the trail responsible to foot the bill.

"It faces immeasurable challenges. The financial commitment is significant," Stewart said of the idea. "It just didn't makes sense to me.

"Where does it go from here? There is a much bigger potential to distract scarce resources from our neighborhoods and business districts. I am interested in taking care of New Albany first. This is a discussion of a difference in priorities."

CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTARY: Yes, Mills and Loop should debate, but can we leave the Illuminati accusations out of it?

Ah, the memories.

I can't help recalling the time in 2015 when the incumbent mayor had the opportunity to participate in Leadership SI's mayoral debate at New Albany High School, thus ensuring there'd be at least one session with all three candidates (yours truly and Kevin Zurschmiede) present, facing each other before the public.

I can remember all the prominent Democrats encouraging the mayor to do so, because the community could only benefit from such a gathering, and ...

Wait -- no, actually I don't remember.

That's because none of them did any such thing. Democrats were stone dead silent, and in the end, the two of us, Independent and Republican, had a conversation about issues, allowing the mayor's empty chair to speak for itself.

The point of this recollection is while I agree that the former sheriff Darrell Mills and current sheriff Frank Loop should debate, I'm unmoved by staged crocodile tears from undemocratic Democrats, who were perfectly willing to manipulate the debate schedule in 2015 to ensure the mayor would not be burdened with having to think on his feet.

What's more, for Mills to simultaneously reference his Leadership SI program participation while at the same time criticizing the organization with an unsupported inference that a relative of Loop's somehow is influencing Leadership SI's debate stance strongly suggests Mills wasn't paying close attention to the lessons being taught during his class days.   

In short, this strange press release linked below indicates a willingness on the part of Team Mills to (a) offer conspiracy theories about dark forces arrayed against it, and (b) throw both Leadership SI and IU Southeast under the bus in the process.

I find this attitude worrisome, but of course it's just my 'pinion. If NA Confidential had the resources, I'd offer to sponsor the debate, although only as governed by my own impeccable set of rules.

I've got nothing whatever against either candidate, both of whom are experienced. For the community's enrichment, Loop and Mills do need to debate, but for Mills to attack organizations and institutions for not undertaking the responsibility seems a rather petulant way to approach the ultimate goal.

Perhaps he needs to rethink this tactic. Let's hope the candidates come together and have that chat.

Mills' opponent continues to dodge debate ...

The lengthy process of trying to secure a debate for the benefit of the voters in Floyd County now continues. Mills was originally disappointed when he learned that Leadership Southern Indiana (LSI) was not going to sponsor a Sheriff debate this election cycle, as has been the case in previous elections. This was especially disappointing since both candidates for Floyd County Sheriff are graduates of the LSI program.

The Mills campaign was also concerned when it learned that a relative of the current Sheriff is a member of the LSI Advisory Board where they also serve on the organization’s community relations committee. This committee has been previously charged with running the logistics of LSI debates. The LSI Board of Directors issued a statement in late August stating that the organization will not host debates this year. Conversations between LSI and the Mills campaign reveal that the organization will likely continue to host debates again in the future, but for “capacity reasons” they are just taking a break from debates during this election cycle.

Based on his comments to the News and Tribune on August 28th, Sheriff Loop seemed open to a debate, but only with the two community groups who had already stated they were not interested in hosting a Sheriff debate this year. Loop said he would "absolutely" debate Mills. "I would be glad to entertain the possibility," Loop said. "I think somebody like a 1si (One Southern Indiana) or LSI (Leadership Southern Indiana) ought to put it together to make sure it is fair, but I would be glad to participate."

The legacy of James Baldwin.

The article isn't about the video, but I'd advise watching the video.

The fire this time – the legacy of James Baldwin, by Lanre Bakare (The Guardian)

His work fell foul of civil-rights-era binary racial and sexual politics but, as a new film shows, now Baldwin’s ideas are used to explain everything from Trump to Black Lives Matter

 ... For Baldwin scholar, professor of English at Yale and author Caryl Phillips, the return of Baldwin to mainstream thinking isn’t surprising at all. For him the big issues concerning American life now – the rise of crude, racially charged politics, killings of unarmed black men by the police, an apathetic public – repeat a history from which Baldwin’s critiques still offer some solace. “People are looking for someone who can articulate these issues,” says Phillips. “I think the person who has probably articulated what it means to be an American and what it means to be black, with more eloquence than anybody else in the last century, is Baldwin.”

Cultural education: Buckley, Vidal, and the essential documentary film Best of Enemies.

It took far too long for me to get around to watching this essential film. I highly recommend it. After you've seen it, please join me in lamenting the fact that Buckley and Vidal aside, their cultural perspectives remain locked in mortal combat, almost 50 years later.

Bilge Ebiri, writing at Vulture:

You might see a film about William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal’s ten televised debates during the 1968 presidential conventions as an opportunity to bask in eloquent, pointed repartee. You might also enjoy the spectacle of two of the foremost intellectuals of their time coming very close to physically beating the crap out of each other. You might not expect, however, to find yourself weeping — for the state of the republic and the poisoned media landscape, for the decay of the American social contract. Yet here we are. Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s masterful Best of Enemies leaves you with an overwhelming sense of despair. It’s not just a great documentary, it’s a vital one ...

 ... Best of Enemies’ true aim is to lament a bygone political discourse. Vidal and Buckley may have started off as representatives of an old-fashioned school of debate, learned and articulate and polite, but by the end of the conventions they wound up unwittingly inventing a new media landscape: one of constant conflict, sustained anger, and barely contained violence. Gordon and Neville find in these two men’s infamous clash a turning point, the moment in time when the networks, the press, the pundits, and even average Americans first realized their taste for political bloodsport. A terrible beauty had been born, as they say. This might be the saddest film of the year.

At The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw:

It is fascinating, not for any supposed lost standard of excellence in argument – the drawling debates look like a squabble between two snippy and indistinguishable twins – but for showing us two examples of that exquisite, extinct breed: the literate “political classes” willing to exchange high-flown badinage on television. The contest was always about who would lose their cool first and it was Buckley, furious at being called a “crypto-Nazi” and threatening to sock the “queer” Vidal in the face, live on camera. Buckley had, therefore, humiliatingly lost, but Vidal endured the ignominy of irrelevance as Buckley became the height of political fashion in the Reaganite years. They both then entered the wilderness as incorrect patrician wordsmiths who no one cared about any more.

A.O. Scott's review in the New York Times:

In 1968, as the summer political-convention season approached, ABC News decided to take a gamble. The network seemed permanently stuck in third place, and its news division in particular suffered from the lack of a brand-name on-air authority figure to compete with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC or Walter Cronkite at CBS. Back in those days, the two leading networks covered the conventions live from beginning to end. (Can you imagine?) Instead of comprehensiveness, ABC went for provocation and at least the illusion of intellectual heft, hiring Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. to conduct a series of debates during the Republican circus in Miami and the subsequent Democratic debacle in Chicago. “Best of Enemies,” Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s lively new documentary, an accessible assemblage of archival footage and talking-head analysis, mines the Buckley-Vidal skirmishes for nuggets of historical insight.

And also — not quite the same thing — for zingers and gotchas and other flashes of that mysterious, you-know-it-when-you-see-it phenomenon called “great television.” The most memorable such moment occurred late in the battle, as the Chicago Police Department rampaged in Grant Park. What looked like law and order to Mayor Richard J. Daley and like “Gestapo tactics” to Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff of Connecticut set off a series of especially nasty personal volleys between ABC’s designated intellectuals. Vidal needled Buckley, calling him a “crypto-Nazi” until Buckley lost his patrician cool and snapped back: “Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.” Ratings gold.

"They are slinging so much mud, and I’m wearing a white suit.”

Our corporate class.

“My name is Lucy Brenton, but you probably don’t know who I am because I haven’t spent $30 million to win a job that pays under $200,000 a year.”

The Libertarian candidate's quip probably was the highlight of Tuesday's senatorial debate. Charlie Pierce noticed, so let's skip to the end -- but first, one of Pierce's classic lines:

"The essential patriotism of the American corporate class can be measured in a thimble, and you'd still have room left over."

No, Hillary Clinton Should Not Go Business Class When She Gets into Office, by Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)

... On Tuesday night, because I could not sleep and do not have a life, I checked in on a replay of a recent debate between the candidates for the U.S. Senate seat from Indiana. The Democratic candidate is Evan Bayh, a classic Simpson-Bowlesite who left the Senate once before because the political climate had gotten too hot and the Senate too wild for his delicate constitution. He then became a lobbyist. Now he wants to get back to the Senate because…oh, hell, who cares. I tuned in just in time to hear Bayh brag that he was opposed to the estate tax and that he would vote for its repeal.

Except he didn't call it that.

He called it "the death tax."

The death tax.

I'm amazed that he isn't telling people he's running for the Senate as the candidate of the Democrat party.

Evan Bayh is half an anachronism and I suspect he doesn't know it. The country has changed. So has the Democratic party. I remain cautiously optimistic that its presidential candidate realizes that as well.

But I'm not opposed to the GOP presidential field ripping itself apart.

Elsewhere this morning, guest columnist Nick Vaughn makes the conservative argument against Donald Trump's candidacy.

WITHIN CITY LIMITS: Episode IV, The Saga Continues: My Trump Soap Box.

With the recent news of Donald Trump missing the next debate (which will have happened by the time you read this) I felt that now was the time to dust off my anti­-Trump rhetoric and bless you all with an article filled with my anger, because this is a blog after all.

Meanwhile, a publication that has endorsed Bernie Sanders (a move not endorsed by everyone on its editorial board) undertakes to explain The Donald's thinking.

Trump Plays It Smart, While the Rest of the GOP Field Rips Itself Apart, by John Nichols (The Nation)

... Trump skipped Thursday night’s Fox News debate in Des Moines, a move that at the start of the 2016 Republican race would, indeed, have been considered unacceptable, unimaginable, and unexplainable.

But anyone who watched the debate without Trump quickly understood why he decided that he was better off across town.

Just imagine if we had a newspaper in New Albany (3): Debate fact checking in Jeffersonville -- not New Albany.

Of course, the first advantage enjoyed by voters in Jeffersonville is that neither of their mayoral candidates decided to game the debate process by opting out, as Jeff Gahan did in New Albany -- or participating in a debate organized by one of their own appointees, in one of their own showpiece buildings, with questions provided in advance.

As Edgar Winter once urged, "Come on and take a free ride."

The second plus is linked here. For New Albanians reading the newspaper, it's epochal, breathtaking and offensive, all at once: A reporter uses a phrase like "here are the facts," and it applies to something important, like an election,

Come to think of it, we did experience pre-election investigative reporting in October, 2014.

News and Tribune bombshell: "Fake Facebook accounts linked to State Rep's wife."

Since then ...

Fact or fiction? Weighing the truth in Jeffersonville's mayoral debates ... Weighing the truth in Jeffersonville's mayoral debates, by Elizabeth Beilman (News and Tribune)

JEFFERSONVILLE — Throughout all three debates this election season, Jeffersonville mayoral candidates Mike Moore and Dennis Julius challenged the accuracy of some of each others' statements, asking audience members to look it up for themselves.

Here are the facts.

As Chico Marx might have said, "Gahan -- he no show up."

The Chico Marx reference comes from Duck Soup, the classic comedy film by the Marx Brothers. It's an excellent representation of the two-party system. At least that's my interpretation.

Meanwhile, the Louisville newspaper sent someone to cover Tuesday's debate.

New Albany candidates hit issues, criticize Gahan, by Lexy Gross (C-J)

Independent candidate Roger Baylor and Republican Kevin Zurschmiede answered questions from a four-person panel at New Albany High School. Incumbent Mayor Jeff Gahan was invited to the debate hosted by Leadership Southern Indiana, but his campaign chose not to participate.

Gahan's campaign committed to two debates during election season, but all three mayoral candidates won't debate on the same stage before Nov. 3.

I hope to return to this passage when there is time.

In one of the final questions of the night, the candidates explained their vision for New Albany.

"As mayor, I want to create a city where people want to live," Zurschmiede said.

Echoing previous notes about attracting millennials to New Albany, Baylor said he considers himself a "bridge to the next generation."

Kevin's actual sentiments might be better summarized as a desire to make New Albany a great city again, this being a common expression of political intent not only here, but among presidential hopefuls like Donald Trump.

I submit to you that this is a far more complex topic than it might seem. How far back do we go in finding periods of comparative greatness?

New Albany's last assumed period of epochal prosperity probably predated the civil rights movement and (attempted) desegregation.

And I don't want to go back to that. Do you?

Here's the link to the Leadership Southern Indiana debate video.

Republican mayoral candidate Kevin Zurschmiede and I discuss the issues. It's an hour long, and worth your time.

Leadership Southern Indiana's New Albany Mayoral Debate

In the aftermath of the debate, much has been made about Mayor Jeff Gahan's absence -- and that's as it should be.

Baylor for Mayor: We're the "no excuses" team.

Leadership Southern Indiana debate recap: A calm and factual discussion about choices.

Courtesy of the Floyd County GOP page at Fb.

Shea Van Hoy live-tweeted Tuesday's Leadership Southern Indiana debate; check the feed here. If you're using your noggin before voting, please watch the video when it is released at the News and Tribune.

Thanks to LSI and everyone responsible for tonight's debate at NAHS. They worked hard and produced a class presentation from top to bottom. The debate featured great questions in a concise, fast paced format. The discussion was issue-driven and substantive.

Special thanks to Kevin Zurschmiede. He was informative and honest. I tried to be, too.

New Albany mayor's debate focuses on who wasn't there, by Jerod Clapp (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — Several issues were brought to the stage, but Tuesday’s New Albany mayoral debate was bookended by who was missing from the discussion.

Two of the three candidates running for the seat — Kevin Zurschmiede, a Republican, and Roger Baylor, an independent — participated in Leadership Southern Indiana’s debate at New Albany High School.

Baylor for Mayor's second campaign video: "Parks is Parks."

"Incumbent Democratic mayoral candidate Jeff Gahan talks a lot about parks ... now."

Previously: "A Question of Health and Safety."

Roger Baylor, Independent candidate for New Albany mayor, answers a question about public health and safety during a League of Women Voters debate. Incumbent Democratic candidate Jeff Gahan attempts to rebut.