Dan: I posted this on Charles’ blog, but I’ll repeat it here. Charles is incorrect on this one. The outdoor company erroneously put Mitch’s poster up next to Chris’s (the posting had been charted out of South Bend, where they are less aware of who’s running against whom in the Fort Wayne races). Their Fort Wayne office caught it, and–in accordance with their policies against posting competitors’ boards next to one another–made the call to take it down. (This would apply if it were a grocery store, coffee shop, etc.) Chris’s campaign did follow up on his behalf, but it was already resolved by that time. And Asher would make that same follow-up call for any of our clients.

I’m not sure why Charles is slinging mud in Chris’s direction, but for a guy who was running against Mitch a few months ago, he seems to have become awfully friendly with Mitch. Maybe in a few months he’ll change his mind again–who knows. In any case, I recommended that he edit his post to reflect reality. He did so with his initial endorsement of Mitch when he took some heat for his original comments, so he doesn’t seem openly averse to correcting himself when the moment’s right. Maybe that same logic will apply here. If not, I’m sure he has his reasons.

I’ll put in a call to Burkhardt tomorrow. It seems to me that the word competitor would not apply in political advertising, but what do I know. I’ll share an example from the primary with you tomorrow if I can find it.

If that definition doesn’t apply in political advertising, I don’t know where it would…but what do I know? I’m just an English major. :^)

Dan…Democrats are running scared and Karen Goldner has hit a new low in attacking Don Schmidt. Also I’m interested in knowing if the election were held tomorrow…Would you vote for John Crawford?

Dan:
I’m thinking that you’re being way too kind when you refer to it as “mud”…

Gonna need a larger sling for THAT…LOL!

B.G.

Dan,

Here some mud I heard this morning. But this mud is being used as mortar to build a stadium.

On Thursday morning, Tom Henry gave an interview on Radio Station 101.7FM. The first question put out by host Jim Reed was “where is the money coming from to finance the Harrison square project”. At best, Tom Henry gave a factually lacking answer. His first statement on the issue was that the Harrison Square project was a very safe investment for the people of Fort Wayne. To substantiate this, he declared that the private sector in this project is investing 65 million dollars into the effort. The rest of the money he said, was coming from a TIF district. He defined the TIF district as (paraphrase) : A system where the taxes generated by an area are used to pay the mortgage. It would be just as if you paid taxes on your house, then the taxes were used to pay the mortgage. And the rest of the money would come from CEDIT taxes, which are used for development. (end paraphrase). Well Mr. Henry, I have a much better analogy that describes what is happening.
We are taking money from the people of one area, who have been taxed under the promise that their money was going to be used for development in their geographical area and using it somewhere else. It would be just like you paid additional taxes on your house, because you were promised that parks would be added and street work would be done in your neighborhood. But then that money was taken away and used to build a condo across town for some other people to live in. In addition, if that condo can’t make money, then you will have to give more tax money to the condo owners so they can have a profit. That sir, is what is happening. You forgot to mention who was initially putting up that mortgage, and who is guaranteeing it.
With Harrison Square, we as Fort Wayne Citizens are being forced into collectively making one of the biggest sports bets in history. We are being forced to put up all this money to develop downtown based on the fact that the Wizards are going to draw people in. But what if they have a bad year? What if they slump? What if they move away? The Indianapolis Colts have one hell of a following right now, self included. But a few years ago, when they were not so hot, there attendance was way, way down. This could happen to the Wizards. In the debate on Tuesday, Tom Henry listed all of the cool features of Harrison Square. The ball park, the shopping mall, the hotel, the condos. But what all of those are depending on is the fact the Wizards will draw enough people to capitalize on. The shops and hotels are not the draw; they are just the mechanisms to extract the money from the visitors. The draw is the game of baseball. If you lose that, the entire rest of the money chain collapses. It doesn’t matter how fancy or slick the facades are. No fans, no money. This by no means is a safe bet.

To all you Fort Wayne residents that said that you would never be a gambler, guess what? You are all High Rollers now.

Ken