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While we’re still two years away from electing Fort Wayne’s next mayor, it appears there might be a crowded GOP field seeking the seat.
Allen County Recorder John McGauley said he is considering a run for the city’s executive post, although he admits his campaign has not progressed nearly as far as that of County Councilwoman Paula Hughes, R-2nd. Hughes announced she will not seek re-election to the council next year and has already begun an exploratory committee for the mayor’s seat.
McGauley said he definitely wants to run for the position someday, but he is unsure he wants to commit the necessary time to the campaign while also raising a 3-year-old.
“I’ve got a lot of thinking to do before I commit to it,” he said.
But McGauley has been encouraging friends through Facebook to support him in an online poll at a local conservative blog. Hughes has also asked her supporters to vote in the unscientific poll on the mayor’s race.
McGauley said he will make his decision by next summer, when he said any candidate would have to declare for a legitimate shot to unseat Mayor Tom Henry. Even if he runs, McGauley added it likely won’t be just him and Hughes.
“I think there will be multiple candidates,” he said. “It will be the most competitive primary Republicans have seen in 20 years.”
The 2010 “Campaigns and Cartoons” exhibit of original sketches and published political cartoons will open at 3 p.m. Nov. 22 in Indianapolis with a program on caricatures and a special unveiling.
The event will be free to the public at the Benjamin Harrison Home, 1230 N. Delaware St.
Indianapolis Star cartoonist Gary Varvel will reveal his 30-by 40-inch original caricature of Harrison, the 23rd president, and sign 50 prints of it, which will be available for sale at the Harrison Home.
Senior Judge Julian Ridlen will provide a historical perspective on the cartoons and caricatures in the exhibit, focusing on a 50-year span during which the political cartoon came of age. More than 100 original sketches and published political cartoons will be on display at the Harrison Home through Dec. 30.
The exhibit will present the evolution of the art form and the lives of popular artists who produced and popularized symbols such as Uncle Sam, Miss Columbia, and the Democrats’ donkey and the Republicans’ elephant. The exhibit includes work by artists Thomas Nast, Matthew Morgan, Joseph Keppler and Bernard Gillam.
Last year when the Fort Wayne City Council threatened to cut one of Mayor Tom Henry’s public information officers, the mayor threatened to use a line-item veto on the cut.
Yet when the council eliminated two neighborhood advocates this year, no such threat was made. But that doesn’t mean Henry thinks he no longer has that authority.
“We feel we do have the ability,” he said of the line-item veto.
In fact, Henry said his staff discussed using it on the cut but decided against it partly because its legality would likely be challenged. Last year, Councilman Mitch Harper, R-4th, said state law does not permit the mayor to veto individual council cuts.
The council voted 5-4 along party lines to cut the two advocates.
After talking to neighborhood officials and his staff, Henry said he decided to sign off on the budget. He said his office is still determining which of the four positions to cut and whether there are other city vacancies those people can fill. If not, the city would have to help them in their transition to the private sector, Henry said.
The Fort Wayne City Council last week issued some of its harshest words to Mayor Tom Henry’s quest to get a referendum on legalized gambling in the Summit City.
Council President Tom Smith, R-1st, said he has heard from numerous residents upset with the mayor’s attempt to bring a casino to the city. Henry has never publicly said he supports gambling, only a referendum on the issue.
With voters approving four casinos in Ohio, including one in Toledo, Smith said it would be foolish and wrong to try to rely on gambling revenues for city government.
“I hope he abandons his pursuit for a referendum on gambling,” Smith said.
Councilman Mitch Harper, R-4th, said there are only so many people who want to gamble, and as its legalization expands, there will be less money for all communities.
When asked whether the council would consider a resolution opposing a referendum, Harper said the council rarely passes resolutions opposing things. He said it would have been appropriate for the mayor to seek a resolution of support before he started lobbying the state, but that never happened.
With opposition within his own community, it will be even more difficult for Henry to persuade legislators to grant a referendum, especially when Steuben County officials are presenting such a unified front.
A former spokesman for Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has been promoted to White House communications director, putting him in President Obama’s innermost circle.
Dan Pfeiffer, Bayh’s communications director for two years, went to work for Obama’s presidential campaign when Bayh abandoned his bid to seek the Democratic nomination.
He has been the deputy communications director since Obama took office. Pfeiffer will replace Anita Dunn, who took the position temporarily this year.
The Allen County Republican Lunch Club has been re-formed as the Downtown GOP Club.
The group will still hold monthly lunch meetings to give candidates a platform to speak, party Chairman Steve Shine said, but it will also alter its focus slightly to encourage more young professionals to attend.
Although “downtown” is in its name, the group is open to all Republicans in Allen County. The renamed group’s first event will be at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 9 at Columbia Street West and will serve as the group’s Christmas party. To sign up or for more information, e-mail caseycox@fwdowntowngop.com.
Journal Gazette Washington Editor Sylvia A. Smith contributed to this column.
