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Showing posts with label Marion County GOP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marion County GOP. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Marion County Republican Chairman Jim Merritt Blows Smoke at Matt Tully

Vacation was outstanding. But know time to get down to business. In a previous blog post we brought you the story about RINO State Senator Jim Merritt was seeking to run ruin the Marion County Republican Party by seeking election as it's chairman. Since that time as we expected Merritt has been successful at becoming Marion County GOP Chairman. He recently sat down with our most hated establishment flunky Matt Tully to spout nonsense about how he will revive the Republican Party in Marion County. Tully writes:


Marion County Republican Chairman Jim Merritt


Jim Merritt understands the task he’s taken on. It’s a tough one. Politically speaking, it doesn’t get much more daunting than this.
Merritt, the longtime state senator from Indy's northeast side, recently won his bid to become the new chairman of the Marion County Republican Party.


 Republicans have been swamped in every countywide election in recent years. They control none of the major offices in a city that has tilted more and more heavily to the Democratic side in recent years. Hillary Clinton won the county by 82,000 votes last year. Mayor Joe Hogsett won 62 percent of the vote in 2015, joining a long list of Democrats who have won big here in recent years. The GOP has lagged badly on fundraising.


"Ass Kisser" Tully quotes Merritt as saying:


“The Republican Party is in limbo in Marion County,” Merritt said. “We have to improve ourselves. I wouldn’t want to invest in the Republican Party locally right now.”
But he did, adding county chairman to his gig at the state Senate, where he has been a powerful voice on issues such as hunger and opioid addiction in recent years. He says he has to start “with the basics, the blocking and tackling of politics” as party chairman, recruiting new precinct workers and raising money. But then the party must focus on doing a better job of offering ideas and an “urban Republican model” that can appeal to more people.

“We have to show people that we can challenge Democrats and lead the county on tough issues,” he said. “In Indianapolis, we cannot be the party of ‘no.’ Not this time. This city obviously has crime problems, fiscal problems, infrastructure problems. There’s an opportunity to show that a Republican model of a big city can work.”
Unlike in many larger cities, Republicans at least don’t have to go too far back in history to find big moments of success. Former Mayor Greg Ballard won a surprise victory in 2007 and then cruised to re-election four years later. Former Gov. Mitch Daniels, elected in 2004 and 2008, won the county big. Those two men, known for running pragmatic, idea-driven administrations that didn’t get caught up on social issues and appealed to voters from both parties, have provided the road map for success in a big city, Merritt argues.
“We’ve got to be about having a broader appeal,” he said.


As evidence of that, Daniels won the county by almost 50,000 votes in 2008 after running, in large part, on a message of government efficiency, thinking bigger and making Indiana more attractive to employers. Four years later, fellow Republican Mike Pence, with his well-established position as a socially conservative leader, lost the county by 80,000 votes. That 130,000-vote swing tells you a lot about what kind of Republican can sell in Indianapolis.


The above paragraphs shows why under Jim Merritt the Democrats are in no danger of losing their dominance in Marion County. If anything the Marion County GOP will only continue to shrink. It's true that Greg Ballard was elected as Indianapolis Mayor twice and both times Mitch Daniels ran he carried Marion County. The problem is that Daniels was running against very weak opponents. That is the only reason he carried Marion County. In 2012 and 2016 both times the Republican Gubenatorial Candidate lost Marion County by large margins. Mike Pence did better in Lake County than he did in Marion and there are no republicans in Lake County! Ballard only won in 2007 because Bart Peterson was stupid enough to shoot himself in the foot prior to the election by pushing to raise Indianapolis's property taxes. In 2011 he narrowly won reelection against a very weak opponent. So citing Daniels and Ballard as a way for republicans to regain ground in Indianapolis is not a good suggestion. The baseline republican vote in Marion County is around 40% and that seems to be dropping each election. Greg Ballard is not very well liked by rank-and-file republicans due to his nonstop taxing and spending, his hostility to gun owners, and his turning the keys to Indianapolis over to the establishment hacks in both parties.




Merritt is moving the county party out of its standalone location and into the state party headquarters, a cost-cutting move but also one he hopes will help the local party better coordinate with a state organization that has won a solid string of elections in recent years. He believes he has a better chance of growing the party locally with the election of Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican who has won praise across party lines.


He is focusing on local races in 2018 and helping current GOP council members better get the word out on their initiatives. He is already scouting for 2019 mayoral candidates, but he knows the party must improve its infrastructure in order to attract a top nominee. Above all, Merritt said, the party must market itself as a force trying to improve the community by offering smart ideas on core city issues.
“If we do our job and add solid people to the organization and support a broad range of candidates, we have a chance,” he said. “Greg Ballard proved it, and that wasn’t so long ago. We have a chance to win in this county. But we have to give people a reason to want to be Republicans.”


Why Merritt thinks that Eric Holcomb will be able to help rebuild the Marion County GOP is beyond us. If the above photograph of Merritt is any indicator than it would seem likely that Merritt just has no damn clue what the hell he is doing! He looks like his brain is struggling to deal with his own stupidity! Holcomb lost Marion County by a large margin last year in his race for Governor. And years ago when Holcomb was the State Republican Chairman he did less than nothing to help out the Marion County GOP.  Holcomb seems like the person to go to if you want to mess things up in Indianapolis! Merritt is the last person who should be speaking about building the party up. He is one of the insiders that tried to defeat Christine Scales in the 2015 Primary and was probably a factor in her leaving the Republican Party. If Matt Tully had any brains he would have asked Jim Merritt for specifics on how he intends to fix the GOP. But he won't because that would cost him points with the members of his circle jerk club! Time will tell but so far there is no reason for us to believe that Merritt will do anything other than to continue turning the Marion County GOP into a wholly owned subsidiary of the Marion County Democratic Party.