Give Noel credit where credit is due... his leadership and the slates he has put together are dominating Clark Co. politics right now. Two incumbent Rep. office holders but rumored to be in disfavor with higher ups in the party were unseated yesterday. Incumbent (and The BatBlog thought popular) County Commissioner Rick Stephenson was soundly beaten by former Jeff city councilperson Connie Sellers and incumbent Co. councilwoman Kelly Khuri finished last to 3 party favored opponents.
It is almost unheard of ,that two apparently popular incumbents to be seemingly abandoned by their own party in their reelection bids, but that seem to be the case as the Noel Express in a bold move gathers more momentum heading into November's main election.
With a lot of local Democrats jumping a sinking ship, it may be difficult in November for the party to hold on to the two at large council seats (Vissing and Hubbard) they now hold...and the two Commissioners seats look like lost causes for the fall after Sellers strong win yesterday and the fact so far no Democrat has signed on to challenge the other incumbent Commissioner Jack Coffman. Maybe Galligan and the Dem. caucus will trot out perennial candidate and loser "Toxic " John Perkins to face Coffman.Without some drastic changes soon in the local Dem. party from the top on down Clark Co. Dem. office holders might be as rare as the white rhino as the Noel Republican Machine keeps rolling smoothly to more victories...
Kelly loss means there was a smear campaign afoot. She won before and gets plenty of ink. She was sabatoged and lied about.
ReplyDeleteIt's on.
Same with Rick. He should not have lost. He's an incumbent. He's done a good job. Too few people pay attention and too many drive buzzed for the DUI to have hurt much.
Screwing over these two public servants will come back to bite the party.
It's hard to argue with success Anon., it does seem a bold move but the GOP (Noel Express) machine just keeps on rollin ...While the Dem. machine is stuck in reverse here locally...
ReplyDeleteThis isn't about the Dem machine in my opinion. It's about Noel not treating people in his own party who have done an excellent job with respect.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't about the Dem machine in my opinion. It's about Noel not treating people in his own party who have done an excellent job with respect. Corruption and greed now rule Clark County. Shameful.
ReplyDeleteSellers outworked Stephenson. Look at the numbers, and you'll see she won all but four precincts. Stephenson didn't canvass, he didn't advertise, he didn't raise enough money to do anything and he put his signs on public rights-of-way. Stop acting all surprised he lost. The DWI didn't help, either.
ReplyDeleteYes I heard that Sellers worked hard maybe Stephenson underestimated her threat and was over confident and didn't have to campaign hard.
DeleteAt this point the local Democratic party isn't a machine...it's an old, old, broken down rusted wreck sitting in a field.
ReplyDeleteWhile it does appear disrespectful to both Stephenson and Khuri there must be a disconnect there somewhere with voters that I didn't see. It's hard to believe that many voters could be influenced by party leadership like it seems to have happened...
You have to give credit where credit is due. Noel has done an excellent job of leading his party to dominating the last election cycles and placing his picks in key spots. Congratulations to him. I am sorry Ricky and Kelly did not prevail though. I think they both
ReplyDeletedid well and were honest people in tough jobs.
So people get voted out and its Noel's fault. The democrats lose and its Noel's fault. But we still ignore the fact that he is successful in everything he does. People just love to hate.... Next you will be blaming the local traffic problems on Noel.
ReplyDeleteDamn Anon. I thought I was giving him his due, the GOP has been very successful here and he is party chair some credit has to be given to him and I stated that...should we all kneel and kiss his badge to satisfy you...I think I'll pass
DeleteA different angle......Obamas first run for President swept in Dems all over the nation while the nation looked at hope and change.
ReplyDeleteHis second term, dems getting beaten, Republicans won half of the races.
Mid term races on Obama last 2 years, Republicans dominating.
Trump effect continues Republican dominance. Hillary not that popular due to her baggage.
So.......it's not the "Noel train" at all. Noel and Moore, right place, right time!
Maybe they're not voting for Republicans or voting against Democrats. Lets give the voters some credit, maybe they're voting for common sense.
DeleteMike Moore
I might mention, this Republican phenomenon is happening all the nation, not just Clark County. No different then when Nixon killed the Republicans for years!
ReplyDeleteIt's Indiana and Clark Co...That's pretty much all that needs to be said.
ReplyDeleteI try to convince myself we really aren't backward...We're a suburb to the 15th largest city in the US ( which is somewhat cosmopolitan)...3hrs from Chicago...But at the end of the day backward we are...Oh, if further proof is needed to the lack of knowledgeable voters in Clark Co. and the 9th district we have Hollingsworth. smh
It's my believe that Trump is already well on his way to killing the Republican party again, ( although it will probably continue to thrive here at least for awhile).
To a certain extent Obama can be blamed, but one must give Noel credit for his grass roots organizing skills. He has gotten a lot of friends, family and coworkers on the precinct committeemen/woman positions, which a lot of people don't realize is a powerful tool to control the party. That's one of the reasons I don't see him giving up the party chair unless it's to someone he can control...
ReplyDeleteThat and the fact that Dem.leadership is old and out of touch and Noel is young , energetic and can relate to the younger, attractive candidates he has put on the ballots...has led to the GOP domination lately...
Conway, Poppelwell and Reiter -- how are they connected to Noel??? I heard Conway works for him at his ambulance place -- Poppelwell is a police officer? -- not sure about Reiter. Clark County is going down the tubes fast ---- and with Noel, the nepotism and favoritism will only get worse. Hey, maybe he could get another trash reality show about the corruption and greed in politics and how to get "friends and family" elected to office. smh (along with Jules!)
ReplyDeleteMike, if you say the voters are voting common sense, why did you need to switch parties to become a democrat when only democrats won the commissioners race, then switched back during the mayors race. Wouldn't the voters have elected you as mayor as a Democrat? Or a commissioner as a Republican?
ReplyDeleteKevin, congratulations on your victory Tuesday. Are you suggesting the voters don't have any common sense?
DeleteMike Moore
Voters what vote for Democrats and canderdates Goliath likes have common sense. Voters who aint' got enough sense to vote that way aint' got no common sense.
DeleteI can answer the mayor part. Him and his buddy Waiz wanted two chances instead of one.
ReplyDeleteIf MM had not swithed back to Republican, does that mean Matt Owen would be our mayor?
ReplyDeleteNo. Galligan would have been our mayor. Again. Long live MM!
ReplyDeleteThese things run in cycles and momentum, Noel besides stacking the precinct committee persons also has been fortunate to have some young, attractive candidates breakthrough with success early...plus a whole lot of embarrassing Democrats and embarrassing situations (Rodden, Jacobi, Galligan, Perkins , Adams)
ReplyDeleteThere wasn't just a big influx of Rep. voters into this area, a lot of former Dem. are now Rep. and frankly the GOP has had better candidates on a whole in the last few election cycles.
All isn't lost for Dem.s though I think Vissing and Hubbard have a good chance to hold their seats on the County council this fall. I would like to see a younger, more energetic party chair who can relate to and go out and recruit some young talent for the future. It's easy to blame Obama but it's a lot more complicated than that...
I like Shelli Yoder for Congress over Tennessee Trey! Shelli is conservative, and is a professor at the Kelly Business school at IU. She also is serving on the Monroe County council.
ReplyDeleteLiking Shellie is cool, though I'd prefer you like her over Hollingsworth and Brooksbank.
ReplyDeleteHey, taxpayer. Got an email address ?
ReplyDeletehoosiertaxpayer@outlook.com
ReplyDelete