If you can't wait for the May primary, Indiana Parley has some reporting from the Allen County Republican Convention (including some audio posts) and is running a straw poll on the sheriff and commissioner races.
If you can't wait for the May primary, Indiana Parley has some reporting from the Allen County Republican Convention (including some audio posts) and is running a straw poll on the sheriff and commissioner races.
Comments
A general question relating to local politics: do the political parties in Fort Wayne/Allen County have anything resembling "platforms"? What are the differences in the parties at the local level? (This is motivated partly by a phone call to the Election office regarding an "independent" voting in primaries.)
There is little difference between the Democrats and Republicans locally. Consider recent political issues:
Eminent Domain. Both parties have been voting in favor of using Eminent Domain. Both parties are even in favor of Fort Wayne taking Aqua Indiana North with Eminent Domain. It is unbelievable to me that Fort Wayne is trying to take a successful private utility with Eminent Domain...
I remember back twenty years when The Republican party actually supported Property Rights; those days are long past...
Annexation. Both parties support annexing new communities into the city. In fact, the City has a Democratic Mayor and a Republican City Council. They both keep approving every annexation that is proposed to them. Expect three more to be announced this year involving 15-20 THOUSAND more people. The Northeast Annexation they will propose is about 10 SQUARE MILES.
Raising user fees in Fort Wayne. Many of the fees residents pay increased last year, one by 65%! Both Party's were in favor of these increases and voted for them.
Both Party's believe in hiring outside consultants for EVERYTHING. They tend to not hire local consultants for projects. The fact that we recently hired an out of State firm to help "Brand" Fort Wayne is a great example of this. Libertarians think we should hire local firms for projects like this OR that we should involve the citizens in the process. Why hire an out of State firm to "Brand" our community? It is absurd and wasteful. This project was approved by our Democratic Mayor and our Republican City Council. They of course agreed that we need to hire an outside consultant to "Brand" our own City...
It looks like we are about to hire ANOTHER outside consultant to design a sewer project for 200 City residents... What a waste...
Libertarians are different, we believe in the following issues locally:
1. The government should stop using Eminent Domain to take private property. We feel that Fort Wayne is abusing its power (Belmont Beverages and Aqua Indiana North are particularly good examples). I personally feel that someone should lose their job over Fort Wayne's use of Eminent Domain to take Belmont Beverage from its rightful owner. How on Earth could a City go through the Emient Domain process, take land from a successful downtown business, spend 2.2 million dollars, and then two years later The City of Fort Wayne has changed its mind and does NOT EVEN KNOW what to do with that property?
2. Libertarians are the only Party that is fiscally conservative; period. We want to see all local units of government cut their budgets by 1% across the board next year. Government is far too large, the tax burden on the citizens is too large, and we need to shrink government. Across the board cuts are the only way to shrink government.
3. Libertarians also believe in at least some consolidation between some of the services provided by The City and County. By consolidating some services we can save the taxpayers money. Unfortunately, the City of Fort Wayne has been dragging its feet for years. Both Republicans and Democrats in Fort Wayne are dragging their feet. Interestingly enough, The Republicans in The County Government keep trying to consolidate some services; but, The City refuses...
Check us out, my blog is a good place to start. There are several local Libertarian blogs! We have monthly meetings and we would love to see you! You can also give me a call at 260-338-0833 and I can tell you more...
Mike Sylvester