Politics and other nightmares

Today is being celebrated as national Tax Freedom Day -- the day on which all national, state and local tax obligations would be paid off if all of every paycheck were dedicated to that. Actually, though, that's just the national average -- TFD varies from state to state based on specific tax burdenss. Since our taxes are a little lower than those in most states, Tax Freedom Day here was acually on April 23. Congratulations -- you've been working just for yourself for a whole week.

Here is the video of the Republican mayoral candidates, at least four of them -- Duke Brown, Matt Kelty, Teresa Licari and Nelson Peters. Ivan Hood didn't come down for an endorsement interview. A few notes:

1. To keep the clip to a manageable length, I dropped the last question on "What is the best thing about Fort Wayne?" I trust you will still be able judge the candidates without seeing their answers to that.

My video of Republican at-large candidates threatened to be too big, so I split it up -- Part 1 has the six candidates -- John Crawford, Marty Bender, Bob Morris, Liz Brown, Adam Mildred and Kurt Gutman -- answering the first two questions, and Part 2 covers the other three questions.

Maybe there should be a clinic or a rehab program for the easily shocked:

INDIANAPOLIS — Property tax bills for homeowners could jump by an average of nearly 24 percent statewide this year, according to a new estimate showing far bigger increases than had been previously predicted.

“This is shocking stuff,” Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, said Tuesday. “This is the worst property tax news I've seen in 30-some years here.”

This is the race for  which we had most of our no-shows -- only three of the seven candidates came for endorsement interviews. Don't Democrats like us? I think the three who came are probably the cream of the crop. Incumbent John Shoaff bucked his party and the administration on Harrison Square. Denise Porter-Ross is a neighborhood advocate and involved in Fort Wayne's All-America City bid. Tom Essex is a lawyer who took over the Wayne Township Trustee's office in troubled times.

Tom Henry doesn't have any "serious" competition -- neither Frederick Steinke nor Tom Cook Jr. are really campaigning and should have no expectation of getting more than a handful of votes. But at least Steinke showed up for an endorsement interview, so you get to see him answering the same questions as Henry (see video here). Consider it a preview of the fall, when you will see a lot more of Henry as he takes on either Matt Kelty or Nelson Peters.

The Republican mayoral primary may be the most important contest, but the 4th District Democratic one is arguably the most interesting. The seat is now occupied by a Democrat, Dr. Tom Hayhurst, who isn't seeking another term. Whichever Democrat wins will face Mitch Harper, well-known Republican lawyer and former member of the Indiana House.

The first two videos are for the City Council district races in which an incumbent faces a challenge from a newcomer, not that common in primaries.

If blogging is a little light this week, it's because I'm editing video I took of the primary candidates when they came in for their endorsement interviews. There will be a short video for each of the contested races, and as they get done and put on our Web site, I'll link to them here, too. I asked all the candidates the same five questions:

1. What do you think of the Harrison Square project?

2. Would you keep the smoking ban scheduled for June as is or modify it in some way?

Poor Todd Rokita. The Indiana secretary of state is engaged in a probably futile attempt to extricate himself from his Imus moment: