Ed Clere's up for re-election. Here's a look at his first four District 72 races.

In 2016, Ed Clere is seeking a fifth term in the Indiana House of Representatives (District 72), and I thought it might be interesting to look back to his previous four races, courtesy of Ballotpedia.org.

First, here are the tallies of total votes cast, Clere's votes, and his percentage of the vote in these four contests.

2014: 16,040 ... 9,076 ... 57%
2012: 29,734 ... 16,177 ... 54%
2010: 22,215 ... 12,408 ... 56%
2008: 29,862 ... 14,985 ... 50.2%

2016 is a presidential election year, and a bizarre one. Total votes cast for District 72 can be expected to increase toward 2012 and 2008 levels, although it's certainly possible that many voters decide to stay home and the total falls below 29,000.

I doubt the presidential race will appreciably change voting behavior at the local level insofar as Clere and challenger Steve Bonifer are concerned, and with voter participation continuing to decline in the Democratic-heavy city precincts, it seems to me that Clere remains in the driver's seat.

Do you have an alternative scenario? Let me know.

2016

Elections for the Indiana House of Representatives will take place in 2016. The primary election took place on May 3, 2016, and the general election will be held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was February 5, 2016.
Steve Bonifer ran unopposed in the Indiana House of Representatives District 72 Democratic primary. Incumbent Ed Clere ran unopposed in the Indiana House of Representatives District 72 Republican primary.

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2014

Elections for the office of Indiana House of Representatives took place in 2014. A primary election took place on May 6, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was February 7, 2014. Kevin Sue Bailey was unopposed in the Democratic primary, while incumbent Edward D. "Ed" Clere was unopposed in the Republican primary. Clere defeated Bailey in the general election.

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2012

Clere won re-election in the 2012 election for Indiana House of Representatives District 72. Clere ran unopposed in the May 8 Republican primary and defeated Sharon Grabowski (D) in the general election, which took place on November 6, 2012.

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2010

Clere defeated Democratic candidate Shane Gibson by a margin of 12,408 to 9,087 to win re-election. The general election took place on November 2, 2010.
In the May 4th primary, Clere ran unopposed and received 3,613 votes.

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2008

On November 4, 2008, Republican Edward Clere won election to the Indiana House of Representatives District 72 receiving 14,985 votes, ahead of Democrat William Cochran who received 14,877 votes.

ON THE AVENUES: Why not a progressive movement in New Albany? It sure beats a two-party debacle.

ON THE AVENUES: Why not a progressive movement in New Albany? It sure beats a two-party debacle.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

This column originally was published as "Bully pulpit electoral vistas" on October 20, 2011 – a year after the 2010 Floyd County elections, and just prior to the most recent round of city elections that same year, during which Jeff Gahan was elected mayor, and city council returned to the third floor with a 7-1-1 Democratic majority.

Since then, city council has changed dramatically. Now, instead of the Gang of Four’s obstructionist council saying “no” and accomplishing nothing, Pat McLaughlin’s rubber stamp council says “yes” to the mayor – and accomplishes just as much.

Then there's the Floyd County Democratic Party, which hasn’t changed at all. In county elections on Tuesday, the FCDP was unceremoniously handed its ass on a stained microwave platter salvaged from the late, lamented Sammy O’s.

The FCDP managed a grand total of one win in contested races, and actually doubled down on its losing percentage in big ticket contests for the Indiana House and Senate. The FCDP’s only apparent strategy for county elections came down to getting out the vote, and what votes came out, and were not squelched by Floyd County’s legendary propensity to administratively out-banana Third World quasi-republics with flagrant voting irregularities more common to East Timor than West Endia, were cast against the Democrats.

If you’ve lived here any length of time, you already know the script for what comes next. The FCDP retreats to its municipal lair, licks its wounds, looks longingly for inspiration to the lunatic conservative political ravings of noted policy maker Walt Disney, seeks the re-enthronement of an increasingly isolated and paranoid sitting mayor and his bored, pliant council – and regresses even further into the gloaming of irrelevance and ultimate collapse.

But don’t you think it’s time to reintroduce progressive thought to New Albany, where it is best situated to be relevant, as principled counterpoint to both the spluttering cave men of the GOP and the FCDP's unreconstructed Dixiecrat cadre?

I do, so let’s talk. The column is reprinted as originally written, and so the progressive platform planks are due for revision and augmentation. Some of my endorsements in 2011, mercifully omitted here, are the source of enduring embarrassment. However, I strongly believe that my conclusion remains cogent. It's all about awareness, and introducing these ideas to the debate. It's a process for right now.

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October 20, 2011

The general election approaches. Just last spring, I harbored a middling desire to contest it. This notion was rendered moot in the primary, where I finished fifth in a field of six and failed to advance.

Que sera, sera.

Given the unconventional nature of my campaign (not one red, white or blue cent was expended), it was highly encouraging to receive more than 1,300 votes, even if they were not enough to finish in the top three. An adage holds that the first time out, building name recognition is the goal, and so I’d say my first-ever run was a very cost-effective introduction to the electorate.

As for what it means in the future tense, fifty-one years have given me no firm idea of what I intend to do when I grow up. The only truly reliable deity is serendipity, and life is what continues to happen while we’re busy making other plans. Some variety of community service, politically speaking, may yet occur before I’m finished.

Right now, I’d rather sell (and drink) lots of Progressive Pints.

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While not entirely unexpected, perhaps the most revealing aspect of the primary campaign for me was attending Democratic Party events, and realizing in sadness and disgust that with only occasional exceptions, the higher placed the local Democratic Party power broker, the lesser chance he or she holds any beliefs remotely approximating the Democratic Party’s platform as it is now, as opposed to as it was back in pre-LBJ times.

As a leftist doomed to inhabit this benighted shard of riverside floodplain, it felt like a bad time travel film – Planet of the Dixiecrats, perhaps – wherein an entire supposed ruling caste stands stock still, refusing to read the memo, as decades tick past and the remainder of the world proceeds inevitably into the future.

Uninformed stasis makes perfect sense as a Republican worldview, as Dave Matthews’ career as GOP party chairman so tellingly attests, but the fact that the same reasoning girds the crumbling remnants of the Democratic Party’s ward-heeling machine, now reduced to a late-model station wagon suspended atop concrete blocks, tells us exactly why eight years of an 8-1 council “majority” has yielded almost nothing except missed opportunities.

And so, I might have sought an at-large seat as an independent, and might yet, but the reason I didn’t was the immensely entertaining opportunity to glide into Democratic strongholds and make statements like this:

Let’s begin by speaking aloud the unthinkable: I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and I will again in 2012. Terms like left, liberal and progressive don’t offend me.

They describe me.

While campaigning for council, it’s my intention to fight for the relevant principles and values of the Democratic Party, and to apply them to our situation, right here in New Albany.

New Albany’s overarching need is to fight the good fight for greater local determination. The Indy-centric budgeting system we have now is inefficient and infected with malicious Republican ideology. Cutting essentials in education, public safety and social services is madness.

Accordingly, it’s my core belief that current Republican policies are the problem, not the solution, and I don’t much care if Ed Clere and Ron Grooms and Steve Stemler and Tony Bennett and Mitch Daniels don’t like it, because they’re Republicans – even Stemler – and we’re not.

It was worth it just to watch the unreconstructed party elders cringe like vampires at the garlic buffet.

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On October 22, it will be seven years to the day of the very first NAC blog posting. In the course of almost 5,000 more posts since then, we’ve never stopped learning, and from this amazing, ongoing, always edifying discussion, my 2011 campaign planks largely were drawn:

Human dignity has no price tag; we must re-animate the Human Rights Commission.

“No” votes aren’t leadership. Council members must be open to new ideas, willing to learn, and able to adapt to changing realities.

We must pursue optimum localization of the economy for a more sustainable economic foundation, with more money staying in New Albany, and greater economic self-sufficiency.

Economic development funds are for economic development. They are not sewer rate subsidies, bribes for wealthy multi-national corporations, or meant for the oligarch protection society, i.e., One Southern Indiana.

Economic localization is bottom-up, not top-down. Enhanced cooperation between existing entities like New Albany First, Develop New Albany and the Urban Enterprise Association is welcomed insofar as their activities reflect grassroots needs.

Environmental restoration and sustainability are fundamental to resolving longstanding problems with storm water and the sewer system.

Sustainable green initiatives harmonize with the goal of remaking the city and its streets into a place primarily intended for the use of people, not their cars. We must maximize the advantages of urban living according to what these are, not how suburbanites think they should be.

Progressive, family-friendly neighborhood policies also come from the bottom up. Many current problems result from generations of bad remedies and design flaws. We must rethink these, plan, explore cause and effect, recognize inter-relatedness and repair them.

We must enforce ordinances. All proceeds from enforcement should be kept here to help fund further improvements, which include mandatory rental property inspections.

No tolls! The Ohio River Bridges Project is a multi-billion dollar transportation boondoggle disproportionately burdening Hoosier small businesses, Hoosier workers and Hoosier families.

Slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, the terms of our civic dialogue continue to change, and although I lost in May, these platform planks live on. To as great an extent as possible, and admittedly with imperfection, my candidate endorsements in the forthcoming general election were made with these positions in mind. Granted, not all the winners will embrace them, but for once, they’ll at least be aware of them.

Floyd County hands its Democrats a purely epic, top-to-bottom beat down.

Maybe there'll be more to say about the election, and maybe not. The lopsided vote totals are here, and if you're in any sense anti-fascistic, they're not for the faint of heart.

In fact, county council incumbent Tom Pickett appears to be the only Democrat to win a race against an actual living, breathing Republican challenger -- and Pickett is so very core Democratic that he recently shared this announcement on his facebook page.

(the senior editor rolls his eyes so violently that somewhere, Lee Ann Wiseheart flinches)

Meanwhile, the balloting process itself lurched from insultingly catastrophic to merely ludicrous throughout the day. Whereas in 2011, when I knew I'd been defeated for at-large council by roughly 6:35 p.m., Floyd County's newly modernized voting center system failed almost as vividly as the Democratic Party. There were lines, improperly trained volunteers, more lines, and finally results were reported some time around 9:00 p.m.

But here's the takeway: Voters bitched fiercely about the shambolic new voting system, and then when presented their choices, happily opted for the very same county government officials handing them the damaged goods.

Wait, one more: Independent Clark County sheriff's candidate Mac Spainhour finished third with 28% of the vote. That's very interesting, indeed.

On the sockpuppet election.

As we've recently learned, there are Democrats, Republicans ... and sockpuppets.

One of the more common abuses of alternate accounts is the “sock puppet”. This is an account set up by a user to support their primary account, generally in debates. A sock puppet account for me in the user comments for this article might look like this

Sock Puppet #1: Gosh, what a brilliantly incisive article from Patrick.
Sock Puppet #2: I agree! And what a handsome byline picture! Vanilla should give him a company car!

Wikipedia provides an overview of sockpuppet, and also sockpuppetry as it pertains to Wikipedia itself. Why does any of this matter to us, locally, in the here and now?

In the present tense, it matters because of this ...

Those "phantoms of Facebook" have quite the pedigree -- right, Amy?

... and this.

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

Except that it doesn't.

Or it does.

Perhaps it depends on who's doing the asking ... and whether the questioner actually exists.

The topic, of course, is incumbent State Representative Ed Clere, and whether his wife's apparent proclivities for sockpuppetry have anything to do with his legislative record in the House, and his re-election bid. To put it mildly, these stories have compelled much internal soul-searching, and consequently, I've purposefully avoided commenting publicly. It may be a cop-out, but it's what happens when one's brain is rendered into a clamorous house divided.

I absolutely abhor internet anonymity and deceptive tomfoolery -- and I equally detest the overly glib attack mailers flooding my snail box from the Indiana Democratic State Central Committee.

The same local Democrats wailing about Ron Grooms's slimings of Chuck Freiberger have mimicked the demeanor of church mice as Clere has been ravaged by money from elsewhere. They're hypocrites. Conversely, I've read the comments of more than a few Republicans, in which the "so what, big deal -- all politicians practice similar deception" apologetics induce primal screams of desperation.

I disagree with Ed Clere on a good many matters, but for quite some time now I've focused instead on those places where agreement is possible. It's better this way. We had a famously rough patch following the deletion wars of 2010, and worked through it. Pragmatism is a responsible, adult thing, right? Besides that, I like the guy as a person, and we share interests. The sockpuppet saga doesn't change any of this. I'd already indicated my preference in the election. My guess is that Ed comes through with the same winning percentage as last time, circa 53%.

However, something does need to be said, and today's a good day to say it.

Rep. Clere, please stop with the "it's just the internet" and "I don't pay any attention to that internet nonsense" (paraphrased) lines of defense. You're way too smart and way too savvy for that. It's understandable that personal and professional become intermixed, but sockpuppetry on your behalf is about your career as a politician, not your world as a private citizen.

As such, it isn't good ... and it isn't even necessary.

Many of us inhabit on-line milieus. Maybe that's good, and maybe it's bad -- it just is. As such, please give it the seriousness and respect it deserves. There are numerous ways to wreak havoc, dodge civility, don masks, troll and in general, to be disruptive ... and that's out in the real world, not on social media, where it's far easier, particularly when identity is corrupted. Noble intentions are duly noted. Unfortunately, it's regrettable all the same.

Short and sweet: You didn't know it was happening? I believe you ... so please, start paying attention. You're quite capable of espousing your views and defending your record without sockpuppetry and fluffery. In spite of our divergent views in certain areas, you're probably the most intellectually capable politician in Southern Indiana. We all know it.

At some point, Connie Sipes will run out of former teachers to pit against you, so relax. Live long and prosper, and all.

We just need to know who is who, and who is real.

Because it matters. Thanks.

Joseph "PJ" Moore for Georgetown Township Advisory Board.

Joseph “PJ” Moore is running as an independent for a seat on the Georgetown Township Advisory Board, a three-member board that (among other tasks) reviews the trustee's budget.

It’s a race that lies outside my own voting area, but nonetheless, Moore has my endorsement.

Moore is heavily involved in community affairs, and is an original member of the Edwardsville Cleanup Committee, which organizes and oversees an annual spring Cleanup Day. He’s a friend of Edwardsville’s Cavan Park, and currently volunteers his time painting murals on the I-64 underpass along Yenowine Lane. He assists in the mowing and maintenance of three cemeteries in the township.

Furthermore, and what strikes me as critical, there is Moore’s watchdog role as it pertains to county government. As a private citizen, he has been a tireless advocate of accountability and attends countless meetings on his own time.

In 2012, Moore’s street knowledge helped prevent the accidental misallocation of over $600,000 in insurance premium refunds when former auditor Darin Coddington, perhaps the most blatantly inept public official in recent memory, advised the county commissioners to give the lump sum money to county employees, rather than the correct procedure of reimbursing employees their share of the refund and rolling the remainder into the following year’s premiums.

In the exchange of birthday cards sense, I don’t know PJ Moore particularly well. We meet once or twice a year to discuss these and other issues, and he helps keep me abreast of the county’s “undernourished shark”-infested waters. He’s vigilant, and hardly pliant.

I can’t think of better recommendations for office.

Meet Lee Ann Wiseheart and Danita Burks. They'd like you to vote them to the public school board. Their kids attend Christian Academy.

Roger: We have a new beer called Nan Brown. It's really good. Want to try it?

Customer: Sure (takes a drink) ... but this is Elector with a different name!

Roger: Precisely. Our next new release is called Amy Adams.

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Meanwhile, for those keeping score (as you should be, alibi-ridden partisan apologists), this makes two weeks, two columns, and two majestic upper deck home runs by Amanda Beam.

Last week, she popped the deceptive lid on local identity dysfunction, and NAC felt the chill of so many ghostly "conversations" past.

Those "phantoms of Facebook" have quite the pedigree -- right, Amy?

... All was fine and dandy with dear, sweet Nan (Brown) until she decided to reply to a post I had written a few days back about an upcoming school board race. The lovely lady disagreed with my opinion, which wasn’t a big deal. But when I asked her about being a teacher and if she had children, her answers didn’t match up with her profile identity. A quick search online revealed that, for all intents and purposes, Ms. Brown didn’t exist ...

... A couple of these accounts posted in other mediums too. Amy Adams enjoyed commenting on the News and Tribune’s website frequently these past few years on all sorts of political topics. Another young gal even said no good columnists wrote for the paper anymore. (Insert evil laugh here).

This week, Beam's bat meets ball -- again: "To me, if you choose not to send your child to a public school, then you shouldn’t be making fiscal and policy decisions for those of us who do."

BEAM: The power of choice

 Most of us can agree parents have a right to send their children to the schools of their choosing. Some select private institutions, whether for a parochial education or specialized ways of teaching, and pay out of pocket for the tuition. Others home-school.

Both are fine alternatives to public schools. Notice I didn’t say they were in any way better than the public offerings, just different.

That’s the parent’s choice.

But what if those parents decide to run for a position on a public school board?

Here’s where the situation becomes a bit hairy.

Let's face facts.

The current school board isn't exactly a shining symbol on the Grant Line Road knoll, but Lee Ann Wiseheart and Danita Burks plainly represent a theocratic view of the world, one that has no place in public school decision-making.

While we're at it, the superannuated Don Sakel also is undeserving of a seat, although for entirely different reasons.

Me?

Yes, I actually did vote, though not for very many, and firmly against a couple. The object was to view the process, because the 2015 insurgency will be here quite soon. In the balloting for school board, I voted for Jan Anderson, and that's it. She makes sense and is always responsive.

Thanks to Amanda Beam for her last two News and Tribune columns, and to Daniel Suddeath (and Jerod Clapp) for their reporting. They've restored a dollop of faith in the ability of the local newspaper to make a difference. More, please.

Which Indiana lawmakers spent the most on travel?

Editor's note: The following link was scheduled for publication prior to yesterday's News and Tribune investigative story about "apparent fake Facebook accounts" linked to Rep. Clere's wife Amy. 

See also the newspaper's coverage of last week's candidate forum with Clere and challenger Kevin Bailey. 

It has been only a few hours, but my guess is that last evening's Fakebook revelations will do nothing to affect the Nov. 4 balloting. It hasn't gone viral like Bank Street Brewhouse's heroic frozen weenies, most of us have long suspected local identity chicanery anyway, and those most enthusiastic in sharing the news so far have been the usual Democratic supporters and functionaries. 

Supporters of Clere likely will excuse his wife for over-zealousness, nothing more -- and really, was there any volatility within the partisan cadres in this race to begin with? There hardly exists a dynamic fit for alteration. Mid-term election realities, and Floyd County's blatant vote-suppressive polling place swaps should assist both Clere and Ron Grooms. 

But if the latter is feeling threatened by Chuck Freiberger, there remains time for an October surprise, by which I refer to information leaked to the Green Mouse to the effect that Grooms might seek to claim credit for state INDOT funds ostensibly slated for use in implementing the Jeff Speck street conversion plan in New Albany. It's always been a problematic rumor, albeit one emanating from an impeccable source. It depends on Grooms possessing any passable working knowledge of contemporary urban street grid strategies as well as viewing them as somehow helpful within his stodgy 70-year-old voting bloc (both unlikely assumptions). 

It also posits a partisan City Hall in New Albany willing to acquiesce in a tactic designed to cripple a fellow Democrat. The odds are better on this side (after all, Freiberger is a county, not city politician), but it still seems far-fetched, primarily because of the implicit suggestion that Mayor Gahan sees quick and decisive street grid reform as helpful to his re-election campaign -- and this decidedly has NOT the case to date amid the rote prevarications, obfuscations and foot-dragging.

I suspect that in the evening on November 4, as we consider the election results, the Lennon/McCartney conclusion from "Eleanor Rigby" will yet again be restated: "No one was saved." So it goes in Nawbony, and after all, that's why we have $2 pints on Elector Day.

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Are these two items in the Indy Star newsworthy? Yes. Were Rep. Clere's travel expenses egregious? In my view, no. They pertain to his co-chairmanship of an entity (the Council of State Governments) that clearly bears a strong connection to his position as an elected official. Other examples cited here just as clearly do not.

Indiana lawmakers travel on taxpayers' dime, by Tony Cook (Indy Star)

How would you like to check out some of the most technologically advanced vehicles in the world? Or visit the White House with a championship basketball team? Or take an all-expense-paid trip to Alaska?

Indiana lawmakers have traveled across the country to do all of those things — and Hoosier taxpayers have picked up the tab.

An Indianapolis Star review of lawmakers' out-of-state travel records found that taxpayers have spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars during the past two years to send state lawmakers everywhere from Alaska to Florida.

Here's the rest of the story.

Gallery: Which Indiana lawmakers spent the most on travel?

No. 7: Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, spent $5,341 on six trips. All of them were related to his involvement with the Council of State Governments. He is a co-chairman of that organization's training institute for new Midwestern lawmakers. Destinations included Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, Cleveland and St. Paul.

It must be an election, because there's that ridiculous backward S again.

In case you were wondering: "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Sheesh, that's a relief. I thought we had a secular school system. Well, at any rate, it ain't her first rodeo.

Politics: Wiseheart is Republican, will ditch school board, challenge Sipes, emulate Sarah Palin (2009)

Meanwhile, it's time again for the garlic cloves, because Don Sakel's back on the ballot. Actually, the C-J spelled it Sackel.

Top Ten Things I’d Rather Do than Vote for Don Sakel for School Board.

Groan.

Better photo if they're seated in those two chairs, but overall, that's about right.

On Mac Spainhour and the independents.

On the same day as a meaningless, hegemonic two-party partisan primary financed by the 87% skipping it, Mac Spainhour declared for Clark County sheriff as an independent.

Mac's a stand-up guy, and if I lived in Clark County, he'd get my support. His candidacy points yet again to the stifling inadequacies of America's two-party duopoly, and raises questions of independent campaign viability along the lines of those discussed in On the Avenues two weeks ago.

Hmm; 600-odd signatures. That's not hard at all. Here are two excerpts. First, the lead:

Spainhour enters Clark County sheriff’s race; Independent candidate gets community support, by Gary Popp (The Eclectic Observer)

JEFFERSONVILLE — Mac Spainhour is officially in the race for Clark County sheriff.

He filed a petition Tuesday with more than 650 signatures collected from area residents that allows him to enter the race as an independent candidate.

To become eligible to file as an independent, Spainhour said he was required to get 636 signatures, or 10 percent of the votes cast in the most recent Indiana Secretary of State election.

Spainhour, 53, Clarksville, retired from the Department of Natural Resources in 2011, after serving more than 27 years as a conservation officer in Clark County. He said he’s running as an independent because he believes that strict partisan ideologies can result in inefficient governing.

Now, try imagining a candidate in Floyd County conceding publicly that diversity is stimulating.

Spainhour said he has even been inspired by his own campaign committee, which is as diversified as it is dedicated.

“They are from different political parties, races and genders and it is really, really cool,” he said. “It makes you believe that the system can work. That people can get things accomplished. It is a great feeling to see Democrats and Republicans coming together.”

Good luck to Mac. I met him at IU Southeast, and he always had a clear idea of who he is and what he wants to be. He'd make a fine sheriff, assuming Clark Countians can get past that ridiculous "Democratic vs. Republican" impediment.

A Tale of Two Hancocks, and other thoughts on the primary by Matt Nash.

You've already read my side of the primary.

ON THE AVENUES: Apathy or allergy?

... However, the more I explored the inner depths of my threadbare conscience, it became increasingly evident that lofting a middle finger on Tuesday against politics as usual in this sullen, stunted, centipede of a city held a certain, almost indefinable charm.

Arguably, Matt Nash provides a broader perspective, and that's what we love about the newspaper. Broadness.

NASH: A 2014 primary recap, by Matt Nash (Anti-Houndmouth Gazette)

Another question about yard signs was the design of one of the candidates for judge. With Judge Glenn Hancock retiring from the bench there were two people from each party vying for his seat. Republican candidate Jim Hancock had signs that closely resembled some that Judge Hancock used in a previous election.

In an interview in another newspaper candidate Hancock denied that he was trying to copy the ones used by the judge in previous campaigns. When I first saw the signs driving home from work a couple of months ago I actually did a double-take before I realized what had occurred. Besides the color scheme, font and design they are totally different signs. If you were to take a look at the 4-by-8 foot signs with a magnifying glass you would see his first name clearly in the disclaimer.

For a candidate to want to represent us as judge he should be above gimmicks to get elected. If he really wanted to differentiate between himself and the popular sitting judge he may have went ahead and placed his first name prominently on the signs. His opponent in the primary who has much less political experience or name recognition went a step further and put his picture on many of his signs.

ON THE AVENUES: Apathy or allergy?

ON THE AVENUES: Apathy or allergy?

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

It’s a question asked oft times before, but what if we had an election -- and no one came?

Floyd Countians collectively endeavored to bring us closer to an ultimate answer on Tuesday, when only 13% of registered voters went to the trouble to learn where their usual voting place had been relocated, there being an acute shortage of Internet memes available to act as signposts in the absence of Walter Cronkite and various other, more comfortable educational materials.

For the first time in recent memory, I took my place among the 87%, an abstention sure to be maligned as hypocritical in some quarters, and yet one originally conceived only as an indignant protest against the shattering of a decade-old tradition of walking two blocks, coffee in hand, to do my democratic duty.

However, the more I explored the inner depths of my threadbare conscience, it became increasingly evident that lofting a middle finger on Tuesday against politics as usual in this sullen, stunted, centipede of a city held a certain, almost indefinable charm.

Perhaps I’m a punk rocker at heart, after all.

I can’t point to any single occurrence that soured me about this election, as opposed to all the other equally repugnant ones coming before it. Both muscle memory and mental training made it difficult to refrain from the selection habit of a lifetime.

It was hard, but I managed.

There is no animus toward those suggesting that my failure to cast a ballot should render me mute or impotent in any larger, civic sense. After all, I’ve said much the same before, about others, when positions were reversed. What’s more, I might as well be honest about my reasoning, not wishing to hand the hypocrisy fetishists their public orgasms on a silver (or any other) platter.

Part of my mood undoubtedly accrues from a cycle of personal and professional stress. While manageable and in the process of resolution, my world has been sufficiently intense that becoming overly agitated over a generally uncontested, forgettable primary simply isn’t part of my coping arsenal at present.

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Consequently, given a considerable esteem and honest affection for victorious judicial candidate Matt Lorch, it pains me to confess that a simple photograph of Matt with former mayor Doug England taken at a fundraiser did as much as anything to induce nausea at the mere thought of my sauntering into a polling place, whether around the corner or across town.

England is perhaps the greatest living symbol of the local Democratic Party’s perennial, lock-step, dunderheaded grip on the levers of municipal power. Standing next to him is Matt, and while the latter’s personal viewpoint of the disturbing symbolism on display obviously remains unknown to me, what undoubtedly would be clear to the most disinterested visiting space alien is that in a single-party-dominated system like ours, youth still must be immersed in a numbing, basic training-style crucible of “that’s the way we always do it, son.”

Make no mistake: I'm happy for Matt Lorch; really, I am. He has my support in November, and if he wins then, he’ll make a fine judge. But the fact that so few local Democrats truly are Democratic in any coherent real-world sense made it impossible for me to overcome my revulsion and vote. This may or may not change come fall.

Then there are the Republicans; now my appetite’s gone completely. The good news Tuesday is that Steve Bush did not win the party’s nomination for sheriff. The bad news is that he remains a county commissioner.

YEE-hah. Ain't we the lucky ones.

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Speaking of Republicans in (bleep’s) clothing, Ted Heavrin’s latest audition for the lead role in “The Comeback Kid” was rejected by 57% of the county’s District 2 voters, who opted for Barbara Sillings over the longtime county council kingpin.

Of all the outcomes in Tuesday’s primary, this is the hardest to grasp. How could Heavrin lose? By his own admission, he was tanned, rested and ready, having continued attending council meetings amid victory, defeat, re-appointment and renewed defeat – evidently it helps to know where the bodies are buried, and if not, to produce dulcet tones from a waterboard as he glowers from the peanut gallery – as well as having secured the endorsement of not one, but both political parties, who begged him to run as a sort of unity candidate capable of uniting fascists, and fascists.

Someone find Sgt. Harris from the old Barney Miller television show, because it looks as though we have another customer for the enchanted kingdom.

On the other hand, as the one person in Floyd County who legitimately believes service and servitude are synonyms, Heavrin might be forgiven for thinking that all the politicos adore him. After all, he consistently displayed unmistakably Republican governing proclivities, all the while remaining in the good graces of the reigning Dixiecrats. If those pesky voters displayed a stubborn willingness to hold Heavrin accountable, the local good-old-boy party system did not, exalting him as a selfless leader.

Spare me.

Like his longtime professional political partner, the late Larry McAllister, Heavrin never actually “led” anything, or anybody. Rather, not unlike a soldier on trial for war crimes, he merely copped the plea of doing his self-defined duty and following orders, which in this instance obliged him to eschew any semblance of revenue enhancement, and out-Grover Norquist by starving local government. These orders came to Heavrin, a supposed Democrat, straight from the decoder room at the Indiana GOP. He shrugged, and obeyed.

Considering Dave Matthews’s congenital inability to find candidates with a discernible pulse, why would the Republican chairman bother seriously challenging a pretend-Democrat who was eternally pliable and willing to parrot the official GOP line? The only surprising thing about any of this is that actual county residents have now voted against Heavrin three times in a row. Someone deserves a medal of valor, and it isn’t him.

In the hands of a gifted dramatist, this story might read as tragedy, or at least boast a tragi-comic twist or two. Unfortunately, people hereabouts seldom read, and Shakespeare did not live long enough to contemplate the script for Groundhog Day, the cinematic milestone that best describes the legacy of Heavrin-Think in Floyd County.

I didn’t vote on Tuesday, and I’m still bitching. Odds are in favor of my returning to the fold in the general election; with Mark Seabrook and Ron Grooms on the ballot, how can I resist voting “no” to both?

Voting centers, suburban power grabs and low voter turnout. Rinse, repeat.

First, the last word on yesterday's election, courtesy of Bluegill.

Voting centers represent yet another shift of political power to the suburbs.

The loss of walkable polling places negatively impacts thousands of New Albany voters, all in older city neighborhoods. Some will overcome it, some won't, but those numbers are easily enough to sway electoral outcomes. Those who choose to live in such neighborhoods spend every day, 365 days a year, making the city more efficient via requiring less per capita spending for basic services and creating less environmental damage. What's their reward in Floyd County? Declaring that two days of voting a year is just too expensive and having the whole representative system shifted in favor of increased car culture and suburban clout. If you're running for any office and not squawking about your plan to change that, now you know exactly why I'm not voting for you.

My thoughts, if any, will come in the form of tomorrow's ON THE AVENUES column. Until then, here are the numbers.

Voter turnout lower than past years; Clark, Floyd counties bring in about 13 percent of registered voters, by Elizabeth Beilman (CNHI Local Times)

SOUTHERN INDIANA — Polling centers saw a lot less people Tuesday in Clark and Floyd counties than they did four years ago.

Voter turnout for both counties was lower than 2010’s primary election for the same elected positions. Of the 87,014 registered voters in Clark County, there were 11,651 ballots cast, or 13.4 percent. That is a 7 percentage point decrease from four years ago when 16,388 of 82,525 Clark County voters cast ballots.

In Floyd County, 7,897 of the 57,047 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday for a 13.8 percent turnout — about 2,000 less votes than 2010’s primary election that had an 18 percent turnout.

Walkability in Indiana: Now your polling place is not in your own neighborhood. Happy driving!

My political science instructor at IU Southeast once remarked that she regretted the passing of traditions like that of the election night party, with people clustered near the television (before that, the radio) awaiting election results and debating politics.

This was 1979, mind you.

Now I'm finding myself in similar territory. For ten years, we've walked round the corner two short blocks and voted at S. Ellen Jones Elementary School, bright and early on Tuesday morning. Now the walk will be all the way to the library -- good for my daily exercise regimen, but bad for Mr. and Mrs. Confidential's record of voting as a team prior to her departure for work.

I suppose we might have walked to the clerk's office last week and voted as a unit, or gotten absentee ballots and filled them out over coffee at the dining room table. Such automated, new-age voting exercises will become the next tradition, at least for those relative few who bother voting in the first place. For now, you'll need to allow me a few election cycles to mourn the passing of old ways, which might be characterized as more communal -- like those folks gathered around the television.

In a few years, when I'm voting by means of the successor to my iPhone, or a microchip identity app implanted in the skull, at least have the grace not to remind me I wrote these words.

Vote center locations in New Albany:

New Albany-Floyd County Public Library
New Albany Housing Authority
Pineview Government Center
Grace Lutheran Church
4-H Fairgrounds
Christ’s Community Church

Vote center locations outside New Albany:

Tunnel Hill Christian Church, Georgetown
Georgetown Christian Church, Georgetown
John Jones Automotive, Greenville
Floyds Knobs Community Club, Lafayette

Area political IQ dips below the Mendoza Line as election draws near.

As arranged to provide for a candidate to purchase front page ad space, thus appearing almost as an editorial endorsement of Frank Loop for sheriff, thus dooming us to a Steve Bush victory, here is the News and Tribune's Voters' Guide, which includes multitudinous gems of self-serving wisdom, like this one from Ted Heavrin:

"I have been asked by both parties to run for the position."

Really, Dave Matthews? Not that it doesn't make some measure of sense, given that Heavrin is as much a "Democrat" as Vladimir Putin is a member of Pussy Riot; and stranger things have happened in this cavernous intellectual vacuum.

Another memorable snippet comes from Ron Grooms, who makes a forceful case for his political experience, whenever it comes to watching other folks do all the heavy lifting:

"Salaries need to be increased," purrs Grooms, who proceeds to spout vapid platitudes about education and training, sans the first original idea as to how someone in his position actually might affect such matters, short of being re-elected and repeating the platitudes next time around.

At least the voters' guide is not surrounded with Hanson Eye Activated Remuneration Tentacles (see, the newspaper really does have a HEART).

Meanwhile, guest columnist Matt Nash, who as yet has managed to avoid the wrath of 'Bama pensioner surrogates and retains his bully pulpit, sadly points to the obvious: You'll all be bitching, and about three of you will vote OR bother to be involved in any sensible way with local affairs.

Hell, you might as well be Ron Grooms. What's his salary, anyway?

NASH: It’s time to make some decisions

May has arrived and brought with it another primary election day. If I had to guess, I would say that newspaper opinion page readers are more prone to vote than members of the general public at large, but still the number of people that will be voting next week is going to be low.

Many people act like they are concerned at everything that is going on around them, but this primary election will likely still not generate much interest at all.

Are you concerned at the direction the state of Indiana is going? Do the bridge tolls or other highway problems concern you? Do you feel that Indiana is moving in the right direction as it pertains to the “gay marriage amendment?” Do you think that our schools are being funded properly, and do you agree with the direction of the state as it pertains to education?

Nearly everyone has an opinion on each of these matters, but very few will take the time to vote next week.

This judicial sinecure may, or it may not, be the place for servitude.

I thought Halloween was in October?

The newspaper may not cover the waterfront, but reporter Daniel Suddeath covers the race for judge, which evidently is so important that only the four candidates for sheriff seem to be spending more money for signs than this quartet currently is -- with the notable exception of James "Jim" Hancock. I've rewritten just one crucial sentence:

Hancock, 61, is frank about his reasoning for seeking the judge’s seat. "Buying those old Glenn Hancock signs at the yard sale was the best move I ever made," he said. "A bit of white-out, and I'm good to go.

Apart from that, a very gentle point about words:

ser·vi·tude
ˈsərviˌt(y)o͞od/
noun
the state of being a slave or completely subject to someone more powerful.
synonyms: slavery, enslavement, bondage, subjugation, subjection, domination; More
antonyms: liberty
LAWarchaic ... the subjection of property to an easement.

As opposed to ...

serv·ice
ˈsərvis/
noun
1.
the action of helping or doing work for someone.
"millions are involved in voluntary service"
synonyms: favor, kindness, good turn, helping hand

If the judge's position merits campaign expenditures like these, my guess is that "service" is more appropriate than "servitude," even if other words spring readily to mind.

The Danse Macabre, rim shots, hayseed Dixiecrats and Ted Heavrin's county council candidacy.

Ted Heavrin's county council celebrates after slashing remaining fat from the 2011 budget.

I see that Ted Heavrin is running for Floyd County Council.

Again.

It's only been two years since Floyd County was doomed to ruin when Heavrin, sole possessor of the ATM password, was deposed in the primary. His loss prompted the News and Tribune's Chris Morris to break out his shoeshine kit, but then Heavrin staged a dramatic comeback and returned to vetoing budgets as a member of the board of the Floyd County Parks Department, pausing only to secede from the county and establish his own island kingdom -- which failed when Ricardo Montalban finally died.

Heavrin's 2014 yard signs have been appropriately doctored to block weird traces of previous campaign use, such as the "re-" in "re-elect." Given his legislative background, we can posit that he didn't buy new signs because the county couldn't afford them.

But seriously, I wouldn't vote for Heavrin for dog catcher. I've no doubt he would catch the dogs, but he'd also starve them like he did the county all those years.

Starving poor animals plainly would be cruel ... almost as cruel as Heavrin being elected to council.

Again.

Looks like Barbara Sillings is the choice in District 2. I don't know here, but we all know him.

Ouch.

This sort of thing is death for a small business.

Does candidate Bush have a health department permit for this sign?

Chuck Freiberger for State Senate.

I've known of Chuck Freiberger since elementary school basketball. Once we were at Floyd Central, we were teammates in baseball and basketball all the way through, from grades 7 through 12. He then played baseball at IU Southeast, and while I did not follow suit, I tried to do my own small part by drinking oceans of beer with a handful of his teammates. He became a teacher, coach, parent and politician. Nothing wrong with any of that, is there?

We're friends, Chuck and me -- not particularly close, but friends. Obviously he's a local Democratic Party stalwart, and I have my disagreements with that particular entity. There's simply no way that Chuck could be as pinko-lefty as me and survive politically. However, his fundamental instincts are sound, as when he attended NABC's health department board meeting last year and expressed support for our appeal. There isn't much he can do about the two-versus-one Falangist imbalance among the county commissioners; no matter, because perhaps he'll be moving on to bigger things.

Earlier today, Silent Ron Grooms voted in support of HJR-3. Having done so, it now is guaranteed: Grooms cannot receive my vote in his re-election campaign this fall.

You may say: But Roger, you wouldn't have voted for him, anyway, irrespective of his view on HJR-3 (known as the Hoosier Stain). I can't deny that. The difference is that the sheer embarrassment of Grooms's stance, and the lengthy silence preceding it -- almost surely a reticence borne of utter terror -- compels me to be more pro-active than might otherwise have been the case.

I'll be donating to Chuck's campaign, and if he pleases, I'll try to devise a way to raise additional money for it. I'll enthusiastically vote for Chuck, and I'll urge my friends and neighbors to do so, too.

If you believe in human rights and freedoms, in the promise of equality in America, and in basic notions of fairness and compassion, Ron Grooms left you today. He may yet try to explain it, but he cannot. It's over, and Ron Grooms must go.

Please join me in supporting Chuck Freiberger for State Senate (46).

A primary-free District 72 House race, so it's Clere and Bailey on Elector Day this November.

A Tea Party movement in Floyd County is a logical impossibility. That's because all the potential members already are registered as Democrats.

Meanwhile, the local Democratic Party is so diverse and broad-based that seemingly only teachers and former teachers are available to run for statewide office, and education is the only conceivable platform.

Bailey to challenge Clere this year. Read the Democratic Party press release. I've already made my choice.

To reiterate, I've nothing whatever against Kevin Sue Bailey, but pointing to Ed Clere's victory against Bill Cochran as a source of inspiration solely owing from the perspective of his status as "newcomer" is to utterly miss the point: Clere was young and energetic; Cochran old and confused. If Clere hadn't won narrowly the first time, he'd have won by a lot the second. Youth and vigor were being served, and the changing county political landscape lent a hand in the process.

The Democrats seem unable to play a longer game with youth, perhaps because their farm system is barren. What "saves" them (and tortures the rest of us) is a tradition of being decidedly non-Democratic (see the first paragraph, above), and the absolutely breathtaking ineptitude of the GOP within New Albany's city limits.

Clere, Bailey to face off for District 72 seat ... Howey: Tea Party attacks didn’t result in primary opponent, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

State Rep. Ed Clere is seeking his third-term in the Statehouse. To retain that seat, he will have to defeat Democratic challenger Kevin Sue Bailey.

No one filed to run against either candidate in the May primary for the District 72 seat, which includes most of Floyd County.

“I look forward to continuing to work on issues of importance to our area and state,” Clere, a Republican, stated in a news release he issued after filing for re-election.

Bailey is an English professor at Indiana University Southeast who previously taught at Floyd Central High School. She is seeking her first elected office ...