Anti-Elite Todd Rokita's Meeting the Elite!

Todd Rokita

It seems that man of the people Todd Rokita just can't seem to catch a break. In last Friday's Indianapolis Star September 1, 2017 Brian Slodysko reported more on Congressman and Senate Candidate Todd Rokita's management style both as a Congressman and former Indiana Secretary of State. IR recently reported on Todd Rokita's treatment of his drivers here. We are curious to see what other insights are to be gleaned about a man who desires to be a United States Senator. Also we will be delving a little bit more into some aspects of good old Todd's background that he would perhaps prefer people avoid. But as Mr. Rokita is seeking an office of great public trust. And as his allies have seen fit to start off by using scorched earth tactics against his Senate Primary opponent Congressman Luke Messer. We shall see if Rokita can take it as well as dish it out.

Brian Slodysko reporting for the Associated Press writes:

Staffers in tears. Pay cuts for small mistakes. Aides who walked out of the office — and never came back.

Working for four-term Republican Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana is an exacting job with long hours, made more difficult by a boss known for micromanaging and yelling at his staff, according to 10 former aides who spoke to The Associated Press.

All but one of the former staffers spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern of retribution from the congressman. They include five former congressional staffers, three who worked for Rokita when he was Indiana’s secretary of state and two who worked on his political campaigns.

But even in Congress, where ambition and ego can go hand-in-hand, Rokita’s behavior is outside the norm, according to the former aides, most of whom have worked for other elected officials.

“Todd’s a hard boss to work for. He’s got some staff turnover issues,” said Tony Will, who was a constituent service representative for Rokita for nearly three years. “But he is a very hard worker.”

One moment Rokita could charm at a GOP fundraiser. The next he would belittle his aides or question their competence over the route they took to the next event, or their choice of parking spot, three former staffers said. Some say he turned angry over small details, like the kind of letterhead used on office or campaign documents.

A Jasper County teacher asked Rokita to leave his high school civics class in November 2016 after a talk that was supposed to be about the Constitution got off on the wrong foot, according to two students.

Rokita had asked the class if they were taught about “American Exceptionalism.” But when a number of students seemed puzzled by the concept, he had a testy exchange with their teacher, Paul Norwine, whom he criticized for not including it in the curriculum, the students said.

“Mr. Rokita got very angry and said, ‘You have an American congressman in your class, what are you doing?’” said Marcus Kidwell, 19, a Donald Trump supporter who was a senior at the time. “He seems like a pretty hot-headed guy. That disappointed me because he’s a Republican and I was pretty excited to meet him.”

A review of records maintained by the Congress-tracking website Legistorm shows the rate of turnover in Rokita’s office is roughly double that of his fellow Indiana Republicans in the congressional delegation. The analysis excludes temporary workers, interns or employees who are shared by multiple members of Congress.

At least two staffers were fired after they said they intended to quit, according to three people with direct knowledge of the firings. Rokita also docked the pay of at least two congressional aides for mistakes, like a minor error in a news release, according to three former aides with knowledge of the actions. Another two staffers simply walked out on the job, according to four former aides.

Mr. Slodysko's citing that Rokita has a much higher staff turnover rate than Indiana's other congressmen lends credence to the allegations that Rokita has a problem managing his staff. If Rokita does have such a huge problem managing his own staff than one has to question his suitability to be a senator. Also for a man who claims to not be an elitist, his attitude towards his workers is confusing. Tony Cook wrote a piece for the Indianapolis Star on August 24th, 2017 titled "Indiana's anti-elite Senate candidate Todd Rokita to hold swanky California fundraiser". 

Here are some excerpts from Tony Cook's article:

U.S. Senate candidate Todd Rokita, the Indiana congressman running on an anti-elite campaign theme, is holding a swanky fundraiser in California next week.

An invitation to the Aug. 30 event  requests contributions as high as $5,400 — the maximum allowed for federal elections — and the luncheon will be held at Wayfare Tavern, a restaurant founded in 2010 by celebrity chef Tyler Florence of Food Network fame.

"With the news of Rokita's list of rules for chauffeurs and now this exclusive California fundraiser, maybe Congressman Rokita should change his catch phrase to 'meet the elite,'" said Jason Kneeland, a Messer campaign advisor.

Our staff in the course of our research came across two interesting observations made about Todd Rokita by the late great Gary Welsh on his Advance Indiana blog back in 2006. We thought we would share them with you all. 

Welsh wrote the following about Todd Rokita in 2006: "Rokita, who formerly lived in a downtown condo above a gay video store on Massachusetts Avenue as a bachelor, recently moved to Pike Township after getting married last year."

Gary Welsh also had this to say about both then State Senator Brent Waltz and Todd Rokita: "There are those among us who think that Rokita and Waltz have a distinctive similarity, but their OUTward appearance is not one of them."

We are not sure if Gary was privy to some information about Todd Rokita and former State Senator Brent Waltz's private lives or not. But based off of rumors that all of us have heard over the years about Waltz and Rokita. It wouldn't surprise anyone here if Gary was onto something about these guys. 

Todd Rokita-Luke Messer Primary Battle getting nasty Part II of II

                   

Luke Messer                            Todd Rokita 

As promised we are continuing our coverage of the Messer-Rokita brawl. Yesterday Congressman Luke Messer announced that he is running for the US Senate. So far no word from Congressman Todd Rokita on whether or not he will throw his hat into the ring for the Republican Senate nomination next year. Earlier this week Tony Cook of the Indianapolis Star reported here on some unusual activity that has been occurring on Luke Messer's Wikipedia page.

Cook reported:

A slew of recent edits to Rep. Luke Messer's Wikipedia page closely align with his likely primary opponent Todd Rokita's campaign attacks, setting off a new round of finger pointing in what is expected to be one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate races in the country.

Over the past month, Messer's page has been edited to emphasize his work as a lobbyist, his decision to move his family to Washington, D.C., and a controversy involving his wife's lucrative part-time legal work for the city of Fishers.

The edits were made under user names that make it difficult to identify the person behind the changes. But Wikipedia editing logs show that Messer's page is the only one they've edited, suggesting they are more interested in influencing Messer's image than providing objective information.

The Rokita campaign has routinely criticized Messer in recent months as a "lobbyist turned politician" who left Indiana for "one of the wealthiest suburbs of Washington D.C."

Messer's campaign, meanwhile, has shot back, accusing Rokita of peddling negative stories and attacking Messer's family.  At one point, an official with the Messer campaign told the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that “Rokita has a history of making unhinged comments."

In response to inquiries from IndyStar, the Rokita campaign denied editing Messer's page, suggesting instead that the Senate seat's current occupant, Democrat Joe Donnelly, was behind the changes. 

"Joe Donnelly and his allies are clearly good at editing websites ... ," Rokita campaign spokesman Tim Edson said. "That said, most of what they’ve posted about Luke Messer’s record seems accurate."

Donnelly campaign manager Peter Hanscom laughed at the assertion that Donnelly's campaign was behind the edits.

"We have absolutely nothing to do with it," he said. "It's childish behavior. This is not the way you win a United States Senate seat."

Indiana Democratic Party spokesman Will Baskin-Gerwitz also said party members were not behind the changes.

According to Cook's article the Messer campaign does not believe that Senator Donnelly's campaign is behind the editing of Messer's Wikipedia page. 

Tony Cook continues:

Messer's campaign said the edits — which include a new section about immigration intended to make Messer sound less conservative — are obviously geared toward a Republican primary audience.

 "Of course it's Rokita," Messer campaign spokesman Jason Kneeland said. "Typical of the level of ugliness we've seen from him. Nobody has declared in the Senate race, but Todd has already established he will say or do anything to get elected. I just don't think that works long-term here in Indiana."

Cook writes that their have been some edits to Todd Rokita's page as well. But Tony Cook states that the changes to Rokita's page have been "mostly positive". 

If the Wikipedia drama is not enough to pique people's interest. Another plot twist emerged today on the "Luke and Todd Show." Kaitlin Lange over at Indystar.com wrote a piece called "Trump and Pence camps at odds over best choice for U.S. Senate: Messer or Rokita?"

As Ms. Lange reports it appears that the President and Vice Presidents key Hoosier supporters are splitting over who to back for the Senate.

Lange writes:

Associates of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appear to be at odds over the best candidate to run for a hotly contested U.S. Senate seat in Indiana.

For months, multiple people close to Pence, along with his brother Greg Pence, have thrown their support to Rep. Luke Messer, R-Shelbyville, as the Republican choice to run against Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly in the 2018 election.

On Thursday, Rex Early, the Trump Indiana State Chairman, and Tony Samuel, the vice chairman, joined the fight, sending a letter suggesting support for Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Indianapolis. 

“Of the members of Indiana’s congressional delegation, Todd Rokita is the only one that actively and specifically campaigned for candidate Trump — never wavering and never jumping on and off the Trump Train,” the two said in the letter.

It was a clear jab against Messer. But Early and Samuel went on to say they weren’t endorsing a candidate yet, adding there are multiple qualified people considering running.

It is important to remember that Todd Rokita still has not yet officially entered the U.S. Senate race. So far only Luke Messer has. But all indications are that Rokita will enter the race eventually. We can't see any other reason why Rokita's people would be lining up the endorsements and fundraisers they are unless they plan to run for the senate. Kaitlin Lange goes onto report the following response from the Messer for Senate campaign quoting Vice President Pence's brother Greg Pence:

"I can say I know and like both Rex (Early) and Tony (Samuel). While, I respect them, there are some inconsistencies in this statement. In fact, Congressman Rokita endorsed Sen. (Marco) Rubio (for president),"  said Greg Pence, who is also the chair of Messer's finance committee. 

IR has previously reported on Greg Pence's possible run for congress here. Since then Indy Republican has heard conflicting stories about whether or not Greg Pence will run for his brothers former congressional seat. So at this point we are not sure what to think. Anyway getting back to Messer and Rokita.

Lange continues her report:

Messer's campaign also pointed out Rokita's recent opposition to Trump's Federal Aviation Administration reforms, as well as policies Messer supported that they say line up with Trump's agenda, such as finding funding for a Mexico border wall by eliminating tax credits for illegal immigrants. 

Messer supported Jeb Bush for president early in the primary and gave money to Rubio's campaign.

Trump's approval rating is low in general, but he still has a 86 percent approval rate among Republicans, according to Gallup. Rokita's campaign is trying to appeal to those Trump supporters.

While Rokita himself has been a Republican office holder since 2002, he may not have as much support from the party establishment. The Indiana Republican State Committee passed up Rokita when he attempted to become the party's gubernatorial candidate after Pence dropped out of the race last year. Instead they chose Gov. Eric Holcomb, whom Pence endorsed.

In 2011, Republicans rewrote congressional boundaries following the census and ultimately wrote Rokita out of his own district.

Lange also cites a political scientist for their take on whether being associated with Donald Trump will help a candidate running statewide next year or hinder their campaign.

Andy Downs, a political scientist at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, argued having the support of those with Trump ties may not be as helpful as it was during the election year. 

"Feelings about Trump change very rapidly, but there are still a fair number of people who like Pence," Downs said.

So far we have one candidate for senate and one probable candidate who have each lined up notable supporters and fundraisers. IR is not as yet ready to make an endorsement in next years GOP Senate Primary. We can say with great confidence that we will not support Todd Rokita should he decide to run. We have never really thought well of Congressman Rokita and the likely conduct of some of his supporters in throwing the kitchen sink at Luke Messer shows that there is good reason to believe Rokita is trying to keep others from looking into his past.

IR has in the past cited a blog post written by the late great Gary Welsh in which he cited allegations made by former Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White about information he discovered about his predecessor Todd Rokita's conduct as Secretary of State. Welsh wrote:

I would be remiss if I didn't remind people that former Secretary of State Charlie White reported his predecessor, Todd Rokita, to the state's Inspector General and the Marion Co. Prosecutor, for similar violations after he and his staff uncovered campaign-related documents on the state's computers in his office when he took office. The spouse of one of the employees cited in the Inspector General's report on Bennett's office was at the center of those violations in the Secretary of State's office. Both the Inspector General and the Marion Co. Prosecutor's Office refused to investigate White's allegations. The State House media has refused to report on White's allegations because they don't like him and want him destroyed.

Gary Welsh was referring to how Todd Rokita is alleged to have used employees of the Indiana Secretary of State's office to perform campaign related work for his 2010 congressional run. Just like former Indiana Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett was alleged to have used some of his employees to due political work for him on government time. Something tells us that if Todd Rokita should pull the trigger on a run for the Senate this and other issues will pop up to bite him in the ass! At the very least they should!

Todd Rokita-Luke Messer Primary Battle getting nasty Part I of II

Congressman Luke Messer

Former Indiana Secretary of State now Congressman Todd Rokita 

Indy Republican has been asked by many of our readers to cover the ongoing feud between Congressmen Luke Messer and Todd Rokita in their potential battle for the GOP Senate nomination to take on incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly next year. This feud is even more bizarre given that neither Mister's Messer or Rokita have officially filed to run in next years Senate primary. 

IR apologizes for our delay in covering this slug fest. But due to the myriad of twists and turns in this case we felt a need to gather more information before proceeding to write about this in depth. So we have decided to do our first two part blog post. The Rokita-Messer dispute stared back in May of this year attacks started to appear in the press on Luke Messer's wife Jennifer over a contract she has to perform legal tasks for the City of Fishers for which Mrs. Messer is paid $20,000 per month. 

Brian Slodysko reported for the Associated Press on May 11, 2017 "Fishers pays Rep Luke Messer's wife 20K/month" had this to say: 

A burgeoning Indianapolis suburb has paid the wife of an influential congressman $580,000 since 2015 for legal consulting she largely does from the Washington, D.C., area, an unusually large sum even in a state rife with highly paid government contractors, according to a review by the Associated Press.

Jennifer Messer, the wife of Republican Rep. Luke Messer, makes $20,000 a month working as a contract attorney for Fishers, according to the AP's review of public documents. That's drastically more than either of the city's two staff attorneys are paid — or many other government lawyers in Indiana.

In a statement issued late Thursday (May 11th, 2017), Luke Messer defended his wife's job, calling her "the brains of the Messer outfit" and pointing out that her work as a lawyer predated his political career.

Both Jennifer Messer and Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, a rising Republican star in Indiana, say the arrangement has been beneficial to the city and helped usher in an era of "unprecedented" economic success in the growing suburb of about 85,000 people.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness responded by defending his city's contract with Jennifer Messer. John Tuohy reported Mayor Fadness's response in the Indianapolis Star's Hamilton County News section on May 12th, 2017. Mr Tuohy reported the following:

Amid a torrent of criticism on social media, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness on Friday defended his $240,000 per year hiring of Jennifer Messer, the wife of U.S. Rep. Luke Messer, to handle city legal business from Washington, D.C.

Fadness said the contract with Messer saves the city money, and he has no plans to drop her. Messer said the implication she was being paid gratuitously for little work was "straight-up sexist."

"She has worked with Fishers since 2010, well before her husband was in Congress, and authored every major economic deal we've completed for the past several years," Fadness said in an interview with IndyStar. "I looked around and concluded she was the most qualified and experienced outside lawyer we could hire."

If anyone is interested click here to look at Jennifer Messer's contract with Fishers.

Jennifer Messer also responded to criticism of her legal work for Fishers in an Op-Ed published on May 15th, 2017. Mrs. Messer's wrote:

Last week I (Jennifer Messer) was featured in a news story about the fact that I provide legal services for the city of Fishers. The story was unfair, intellectually dishonest and straight-up sexist. You know the charge — congressman’s wife (by the way I have a name; it’s Jennifer Messer) gets paid too much for not really doing very much — leaving the presumption that me and the local municipality are doing something wrong.

Well, these are the facts:

• I (Jennifer Messer) have worked with Fishers for nearly eight years, and Fishers was my client two years before my husband was elected to Congress.

• I am paid well for my legal services but the city is paying less today for legal services than it was before its contract with my firm.

• I work diligently for Fishers and have never, in eight years, taken my job for granted. My job is a privilege — not just because I love the economic development work that I do, but because I work with a group of rock-stars. These are people who wake up every day and want to make Fishers a better place for its residents, potential residents and businesses.

• There are simply no facts suggesting that Fishers has received anything as a result of my husband being a member of Congress. Put simply, the premise of the entire Associated Press story is false.

Before we proceed to the most recent developments in the Messer-Rokita Smackdown. We all would like to comment on Jennifer Messer's Op-Ed.

Indy Republican does not necessarily believe that the criticism's of the City of Fishers contract with Jennifer Messer are completely unwarranted. We don't know. But as far as we have been able to discern Jennifer Messer is absolutely right in stating that there is no evidence her contract with Fishers has anything to do with her husband being in Congress. The fact that she was hired two years before her husbands having been elected to congress would seem to undercut the allegation that she was hired because of her husband. Legitimate questions could be raised as to whether her contract with Fishers is a wise use of taxpayer money. But that is a matter for the municipal government in Fishers it has nothing to do with Congress. Our suggestion to Todd Rokita's campaign or whatever parties are involved in these pieces designed to damage Luke Messer is: Confine your criticisms to actions that have been performed by Congressman Messer himself. Leave Jennifer Messer out of this. You may regret attacking Jennifer Messer. God knows we would!

In Part II we will continue our coverage by discussing some interesting alterations that have been done on both Luke Messer and Todd Rokita's Wikipedia pages.

To be continued........

Easily Fooled Opportunist Mike Pence should resign the Vice Presidency now!

Mike Pence praying that people are buying this bullsh@! he is peddling

Good evening everyone in cyberspace! Well we here at IR had thought we could give Mike Pence at least till Halloween to prove himself as Vice President. Old Mikey though continues to exceed the already low opinions we have of him. Only six months into what we hope will be his only term as Vice President. We honestly can say we have seen enough. Our advice to the Vice President is: "Resign now while you still can!" After countless denials of what is going on in the administration that he is part of. He is either a fool, a damned liar, or both. 

In an article published on IndyStar.com today called "Vice President Mike Pence unaware of Donald Trump Jr's Russia meeting" Tony Cook reports:

"The Vice President is working every day to advance the President's agenda, which is what the American people sent us here to do," Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said in a written statement. "The Vice President was not aware of the meeting. He is not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories about the time before he joined the ticket."

Trump's oldest son released emails Tuesday showing he knew the damaging information he was seeking about Hillary Clinton was being peddled by the highest levels of the Russian government. 

Told that the Russians had "incriminating information" about his father's Democratic campaign rival, Donald Trump Jr. responded: "If it's what you say, I love it."

The emails appear to back up the most damning revelation in New York Times reports that Trump's closest associates and family members actively sought information they knew was part of a high-level Russian government effort to support Trump's campaign.

Pence has repeatedly denied any contacts between Trump associates and Russia since taking office as vice president.  

During a round of Sunday morning news show appearances in mid-January, Pence told John Dickerson of CBS' Face the Nation that there had been no contacts. 

"I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy," Pence said at the time.

That same day, Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday, asked Pence if he had asked whether there had been any contacts between Trump associates and the Russian government or its intermediaries.

"Of course not," he said. "Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?"

A month later, Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn was fired for lying to Pence about contacts with a Russian official. 

Pence has also said he did not know Flynn had secretly lobbied for the Turkish government, despite reports claiming Flynn had actually disclosed to the Trump transition team back in January that he was under a federal investigation.

Pence was leading the transition team at the time.

Once again Tony Cook writes another article that is so good we can't figure out why he is still employed by The Indianapolis Star also known as the CIA's paper of record. He points out very well about how it is strange that Pence claims he didn't know that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had lobbied for Turkey. Even though it appears that Flynn disclosed this to Trumps transition team which Mike Pence was in charge of!

Also as we have chronicled on this blog several times. Pence spokesman Marc Lotter is not to be believed on anything. He is a former lackey of "Godfather" Governor Mitch Daniels and former Indianapolis Mayor "Boss Greg" Ballard!

Also his actions as Governor ranging from his stiffing the Hoosier state with the bill for Bicentennial projects, to picking Eric Holcomb as his successor, and appointing that dumb as a door post Rick Hite to run the Indiana Civil Rights Commission. These actions as Governor and his unbelievable denials and asskissing he has committed as Vice President show clearly he needs to leave political life entirely. 

C'mon Mikey! You are obviously stressed out, and tired after rolling out of bed at noon everyday. Public life doesn't suit you. Find something else worthwhile and salvage something of your dignity. Just resign and leave Washington. 

A reader of ours posted a comment back in May of this year saying: "MIKE PENCE IS POLITICAL MENTAL PORNAGRAPHY TO THE CRITICAL THINKER PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO RESCUE OF THE REPUBLIC." We of course are not sure what kind of porn they are comparing Pence to. It could be 1990's scrambled porn, midget porn, etc. Who knows!

Here are what some others think of Vice President Pence:

John Weaver @JWGOP

Replying to @BillKristol

The Sgt. Schultz act won't survive. Jerry Ford without the lasting friendships, integrity or balls.4:53 PM · Jul 11, 2017 from Cannes, France

51 Retweets

236 Likes

Lane Terrell @WorldTrvlrDaddy·6h

Replying to @JWGOP and @BillKristol

Exactly! @JWGOP This whole episode will amount to a very short resurrection of his career.

Middle Is @MAmichigander·6h

And when it's all done, we in Indiana respectfully request that he and his mother stay the hell away from us.

    https://twitter.com/BeingKimmieToo/status/884848982048088064