Repost from Hoosier Access by Scott Fluhr

(This reeks like a series of similar events here in Allen County not long ago).

And not just any American Idol system; one that is packed with Marion County heavyweights and tilted toward Luke Messer. P.E. McAlister was, with Jim Kittle, one of the first names supporting Messer).

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I don’t normally opine much on the 5th District; I sort of view it with a distant and cynical eye. I’m inclined to think that the 2008 primary served a good purpose and that another one is a waste of finite resources that could be better spent ousting Democrats in Congressional and state legislative races in November.

Presented for your consideration, an email sent from P.E. MacAllister (Indy GOP bigwig) to various Republican leaders in the 5th District:

Some of us in Marion County are watching with interest the contest in our Fifth District, where four men are challenging the continuing tenure of Dan Burton. The issue of whether or not this is a great idea is by now irrelevant since the candidates are already in the fray, each hoping to win the primary. The nature of the field may be interesting, but impact of such a donnybrook has every prospect of doing considerable damage, despite the fact “this is a free country” and anyone who wants to run for anything is allowed to do so. If there is ample reason to challenge the incumbent, perhaps exploring some way of lessening harm done is in order.

I have discussed the race with both the Marion County and the State Republican Chairmen, hoping to minimize the adverse impact, but for reasons of his own, neither thinks it wise for him to exert the authority the party has given him, leaving us with a spectator role in this critical exercise.

The cynic in me has to pipe up and interject at this point…

Seriously expecting Murray Clark to take a stand on anything other than ramming the governor’s attorney general candidate down the party’s throat probably too much to ask.

But I digress. The email continues…

I appreciate their position but don’t see it helpful. My memory of the last free for all, harkens back to a sheriff’s race in Marion County an election or so ago, which got very bitter, very expensive, and was productive of zilch for either candidate.

There could be an alternative. Maybe pretty wild, but here’s one idea. Let all four challengers do their best to line up support, but by the end of the year, say by Christmas time, allow a panel of 25 party elders, respected figures, influential people, major donors, judicious folks from the district, determine which of the four is the best candidate. Let’s assume we can get the contenders to agree on this tack, which means the three losers gracefully depart the scene and support the selectee in the spring primary.

Who selects the party elders? A party elder in Hamilton County is not a party elder in Marion County is not a party elder in Howard County, etc.

A letter has gone out to 21 people here in Marion County and includes figures like Jim Morris, Jerry Semler, Fred Klipsch, Jim Dora, John Mutz, Mike Alley, Yvonne Shaheen, Don Palmer, Al Hubbard, Danny Danielson, Bob Bowen, seeking their participation as ultimate adjudicators and requesting their agreement in principal with the idea.

21 of the 25 people are supposed to come from Marion County?

Tom John reminded me that the sun does not rise and set on Marion County but beams on other counties in the district, and including them in this experiment is essential.

Marion County is the sun around which the other counties of the 5th District should revolve? Does that make Tom John, like Louis XIV, the Sun King? (I jest, obviously.)

Thus this letter to you, asking for: your reaction; requesting your cooperation as one of the “judges” and helping us in finding other worthies in your jurisdiction. The panel, in other words, is a work in process.

This program has to be impartial; has to include promise of total anonymity so no one knows how we vote. It has to include established candidate criteria…past experience, intellectual capacity, persona (charisma), ability to articulate, fundraising capacity, stance on given issues; nature of community support (who is in his list of donors and advisors), etc.

So, we have a Messer ally proposing a presumably pro-Messer panel. Who will that panel think fulfills the candidate criteria? Maybe Luke Messer?

I cannot assure all will buy in. Two of the contenders have signed on, agreeing to the principle, pending details of how it is handled.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the details are not something with which the other candidate suggesting a “pre-primary” (Brose McVey, I believe) will agree, let alone the other candidates.

We need to contact the other two, but my point will be that this is one way of determining who represents the district come the primary. The inference is if a losing candidate opts to run against us after his peers have declined support and puts his personal ambition above that of party unity, he needs not call on me next spring for money.

Cordially,
P.E. MacAllister

Maybe these party elders might decide that no primary against Burton is actually necessary. Oh wait, they won’t. The necessity of the primary is already assumed by the very structure of Mr. MacAllister’s panel at its inception, along with the apparent pro-Messer origins of the very idea.

Far be it for this southern Indiana blogger to say anything about Indianapolis or the mighty 5th District, but this is America. We have a primary system, not a court of the Star Chamber or a Guardian Council.

I’m a big believer in primaries, but the amount of money and resources that will be expended in the 5th District boggles the mind. But better a free-for-all primary than a bunch of party elites picking and choosing who gets to stand against an incumbent. But then, it’s also my opinion that a bunch of party elites shouldn’t be picking and choosing whether to keep that incumbent, either.

That’s what primaries are for.

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