It wasn’t exactly the Iowa caucuses, but Gov. Mitch Daniels and his supporters had to be pleased that the guv took first place in a straw poll of Oregon Republicans who gathered for an annual conference last weekend.
Daniels won 66 of 225 votes cast, more than Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and others.
Northwest Republicans must like Daniels. Six weeks ago, he placed first in a similar straw poll by the Washington State GOP committee.
People voting in such polls are usually party activists who probably know the candidates and their positions better than typical primary voters. And while such polls have no direct effect in nominating a presidential candidate, they can be a gauge of the level of interest in a candidate – and whether party activists are ready to knock on doors for him or her.
In Oregon, Daniels was praised for his fiscal conservatism and – despite his lack of emphasis on social issues – for having “core moral values.”
Social media
Republicans criticized Mayor Tom Henry after his administration hired a consultant to develop a strategy for the city’s use of the Internet and social media to interact with residents. Will Indianapolis Republicans criticize their city’s GOP mayor, Greg Ballard, for that city’s latest social media expense?
Indianapolis city officials spent $45,000 to develop a single application for the iPhone to report potholes, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal. Not to develop a wide-ranging strategy but for a single app, which Apple has yet to accept. Developing an app for other smart phones will cost more.
Realistic?
Mayoral candidate Paula Hughes last week announced that if she’s elected, she will order city department heads to conduct internal audits in an effort to cut spending.
“In the first 100 days of my administration, department heads will review their finances, solicit input from city employees and taxpayers, and propose ways to save money immediately and in future budgets,” she said. Her news release indicated she would seek “Departmental Audits with Input from all shareholders.”
Which is fine, though city administrations already conduct internal audits, and that’s going to be a lot of staff time – the city has more than 50 departments.
Hughes’ news releases still identify her as the “leading Republican candidate for Mayor of Fort Wayne” though, in the absence of any publicly released scientific polls, many political observers say it’s a tossup among Hughes, Eric Doden and Liz Brown.
Budget stalemate
Passing a budget is arguably the only step Indiana lawmakers must complete during the legislative session. With House Democrats still absent, the Senate has been moving along as best it can.
But the Senate cannot act on a proposed budget until the House adopts it. The idea that the House does the budget first is more than tradition – it’s in the state’s constitution. Article 4, Section 17: “Bills may originate in either House, but may be amended or rejected in the other; except that bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.”
