Mark Seabrook attended the mayoral forum at the Southern Indiana Realtors Association. Jeff Gahan skipped it. Remember that, voters.

Seabrook?

He shows up.

The ironic part?

Democrats seem to think that whispering malice about Seabrook's health will make people forget that Gahan's a serial shun-meister of public discourse, forever unwilling to answer for his actions as paymaster of the city's political patronage machine.

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

Next: Consider this photo.

Donnie Blevins knows better than most about the Bully Gahan. In case you missed it in April ...

ON THE AVENUES: Donnie Blevins tells his story.

 ... For Blevins the end came in February, 2018. He was working nights on snow removal, out on a run after 9:00 p.m., when Gahan made a visit to the street department office.

When Blevins returned, his supervisor called him inside to deliver the ultimatum he'd just been given. According to the supervisor, who said he had no idea why any of it was happening, Gahan had gone “berserk” about Blevins, referring to him as “that son-of-a-bitch” and promising to “fire his (Blevins’) ass the first chance I get.”

The noun "calumet" and the David White for Mayor Town Hall TONIGHT at the Calumet Club, 6:00 p.m.

I hate having to miss this forum. It's in my neighborhood, and as such, we're in desperate need of an antidote to ward off the pervasive Kool-Aid-drinking proclivities therein.

But alas, I have a previous engagement. Please consider coming out and talking to the candidate, all the while trying to imagine Deaf Gahan looking at you and saying: "Ask me anything."

You just can't imagine that, can you?

Meanwhile here's a smidgen of background on the actual word "calumet" (kal-yuh-met, kal-yuh-met), as posted here three years ago.

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Many readers already know about the Calumet Club in New Albany. There are also Calumet rivers, regions and towns. But what is a calumet as a noun? It's a Native American pipe.

Tobacco, indigenous to North America, followed Indian trade routes throughout the continent long before Columbus arrived, and pipe smoking took on a ritual and religious importance in many tribes. Naturally, the crafting of pipes became equally important.

The most famous Native American pipes are the long calumets or "peace pipes" of the Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, which were made by attaching a wooden stem to a bowl carved from catlinite or "pipestone." (Pipestone is native to Minnesota, but due to intertribal trade was available throughout Native North America.) Other native pipe-making traditions included the smaller one-piece stone and ceramic pipes of the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, wood and antler pipes of the Southwest Indians, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metal pipe bowl and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem.

Calumet Club Dates in History, courtesy of the Calumet Club, illustrate that it was a thriving social institution on post-WWI New Albany. Finally, from the library's Stuart Barth Wrege Indiana History Room comes this memento of times long gone.

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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. 

The 1117 E. Spring Street Neighborhood Association supports David White. You should, too.

Hugo and Nadia no doubt would approve.

I'm sure the block captains soon will erect a garish Rhode Island-sized billboard in their yard, but it's still nice to steal an occasional march on the ruling elite.

For the coming week in our bid for Jeffxit, be sure to read ON THE AVENUES this Tuesday for a profile in mayoral retribution. Also, don't forget Saturday's forum at the library.

“David White for Mayor” Town Hall Meeting is at the library on Saturday, April 6 at 10:30 a.m.

By this time most readers know I'm supporting David White in the primary, and I urge all voters within city limits to cast their votes for David. Let's end this intemperate reign in the spring, and at long last have a genuine conversation about policy for the fall.

I'm working on a detailed endorsement, so stay tuned for that, too.

On mayoral forums and debates, no-show incumbents and "a spectrum of opinion."

"But the bigger the office, the more need for a public exchange of ideas. The candidate who can’t agree with that much devalues our democracy."

Jeff Gahan missed the Southern Indiana Realtors Association candidate luncheon last Thursday. I asked one of the organizers about it, and he said, "He was really hard to reach, and when we finally did, he said he'd try to make it."

File under "THEMES, recurring."

Seeing as Kevin Zurschmiede is a realtor, perhaps Gahan thought he'd be at a disadvantage. I feel much the same way about the League of Women Voters' bizarre decision to award its debate venue to Gahan's own Silver Street Park building, but it won't stop me from attending the event.

Sept. 24 "fix" at the Taj Mahal: I'd prefer a genuine debate to a staged re-enthronement, but let's do it.

I've spoken with several persons who feel that Gahan won't come to any of the upcoming forums. I persist in thinking he will. Here are the occasions as revealed to me thus far.

Building & Development Association of Southern Indiana
Thursday, September 10, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
300 Spring St, Jeffersonville, IN 47130

New Albany Housing Authority Candidate and Voting Information Session
Tuesday, September 22, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
300 Erni Avenue Gymnasium, New Albany, IN 47150

League of Women Voters Candidate Forum 
Thursday, September 24, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Silver Street Park, 2043 Silver Street, New Albany, IN 47150

Leadership Southern Indiana New Albany Mayoral Debate
Tue, September 29, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
New Albany High School, 1020 Vincennes Street, New Albany, IN 47150

This editorial was written in New Jersey in 2014, not New Albany, but significant portions are quite relevant to us.

N.J. incumbents must stop dodging debates: Editorial (NJ.com)

... the big-ticket incumbents who won’t debate their opponents -- particularly those leading in the polls who are just trying to run out the clock until Nov. 4 -- are doing their constituents a disservice.

Politics is a debate of ideas, and elections are a referendum on who best expresses those ideas, but it’s hard to compare two candidates if one guy refuses to stand still for more than a few hours.

It’s disappointing that U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is one of them. His decision to engage in only one debate against Jeffrey Bell gives credence to the assumption that they serve but one purpose: to reinforce your prior decision to vote for the blue team or red team, which is precisely the problem with our pro-wrestling-level of political discourse nowadays.

Perhaps the best way to drag incumbents out of their comfort zone is a third-party candidate who could tell the others why they’re out of touch, which isn’t beyond reason in a country that lives in a perpetual state of war, can’t feed its hungry, can’t educate its kids, and can’t bring itself to punish the Wall Streeters who bankroll the major party candidates.

You know, a spectrum of opinion. Democracy.

But Booker needs to have more than one debate with his Republican challenger. Bell is often dismissed by Democrats as dotty and irrelevant, but he has the courage to be on a ballot and he deserves to be heard. Who said so? Bill Bradley said so. He and Bell had 21 debates when they ran for Senate in 1978, and though Bell lost the vote, he scored significant points: When Bradley authored the legislation that overhauled the federal tax code – the two-bracket system -- he incorporated some of Bell’s ideas.

Those days are gone. Frontrunners have been programmed to avoid the gotcha moment, as one slip in the morning gets you pilloried during the B-block that evening on Hannity or Maddow ...

"Because people are just laughing at us..."

This video, shot during the mayoral campaign in 2007, highlights a portion of Mayor England's proposed solution for rampant slumlordism in the city. Apologies for the audio being slightly out of sync with the images. It's a copy of a copy of a copy. It's also strangely apropos, owing to the fact that what was said still doesn't match what we see.

Pre-election, the mayor promoted the idea that while a full-time city attorney wasn't necessary, irresponsible landlords would never take the city seriously until they started getting hauled into court. This occurred in addition to multiple promises at other times to make public examples of the most egregious offenders with no concern for what the slumlord population might think.



Two and a half years into the mayor's return to office, we have a full-time city attorney and to my knowledge no one has faced a judge to be held accountable for the condition of their rental property(s). If I'm wrong about that, please correct me. It certainly hasn't made the news or been otherwise communicated. If I'm not, should we assume they're still laughing?

Open thread: Your thoughts on the mayoral forum?

I saw many readers in attendance tonight. It seemed to me to be roughly 1/3 city employees, 1/3 blog readers, tweeters and chronic council attendees, and another 1/3 random citizens.

If there was any central point to emerge from what I heard during my admittedly brief time eavesdropping, it was that so much time, effort and political capital are required to achieve daily city operations in the teeth of Indiana state government's draconian deprivations, and against fanatical resistance from the city council, that it's a wonder we get anything else accomplished at all.

Such is life in a state where the governor can use mandated malnourishment as a springboard to national prestige.

But enough of that. Tell us what you think.

Public forum with the mayor tonight, 6:30 p.m., in the library.

The Tribune's Daniel Suddeath sez: Time to meet New Albany's mayor; Doug England to meet with residents during public forum.

Previously, we signposted here: RemCha: "The Mayoral Forum will be June 16 at 6:30-8:00 in the Library."

I'll be there. To paraphrase a friend: Is anyone (else) sane going?

RemCha: "The Mayoral Forum will be June 16 at 6:30-8:00 in the Library."

I "ran into" Jameson Bledsoe (RememberCharlemagne, i.e., RemCha) yesterday -- he was in his pickup truck and I was on my bicycle, and we were approaching each other on Elm at Vincennes, from opposite directions, though not playing chicken (just yet), and he confirmed the mayoral forum date, as elaborated below in a comment that I place on the marquee for maximum exposure:

The Mayoral Forum will be June 16 at 6:30-8:00 in the Library. It is the Wednesday before the council meeting.

I think this is a great opportunity for citizens of New Albany to better understand what the Mayor's plans are outside of the city council's chambers.

When I have time I will write more details of what was said at the meeting.I will quickly add one point and that was a comment about citizen participation. For the forums to continue, people need to show up. I don't think this will be a problem because when Mr. Coffey held his town hall meeting there was a good turnout. I hope even more people will come to the Mayoral Forum.