Unlike Graham Richard before him, Mayor Tom Henry is more populist than policy wonk, a characteristic reflected in his choice of the name for the new city-county government building.
He exhibited a populist approach weeks before naming the building by encouraging the public to submit suggestions and “vote” for preferences among all the suggestions.
Perhaps this desire to involve the public is in part politically motivated. After all, he took office in the midst of lingering complaints (only partly valid) that public input was lacking in building a new baseball park and the smoking ordinance.
But his method was well in line with the way he approached his position on City Council and in the mayor’s chair, often voicing concern about how government initiatives will affect regular people.
What could be more populist than “Citizens Square”? It puts the people first; connects figuratively with the adjacent Summit Square and the nearby Harrison Square; and it’s short, simple.
“We want it to reflect the spirit of our community and its important civic purpose,” he said, emphasizing that the building is for both city and county governments.
In announcing the name, the mayor joked some more about the Harry Baals episode but said – more seriously – that he didn’t want to name the building after any one person.
At the same time, Henry had only good words to say about the county commissioners’ decision to name the current City-County Building after the late Ed Rousseau, a Republican who was a longtime commissioner but had also served on the City Council.
The influencer?
“Mitch Daniels: Candidate or influencer?” was the headline Monday on “The Fix,” a political website by the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza.
“Looking back at Daniels’ recent public comments – and, he has made quite a few – it seems he is more interested in impacting the debate going on in the party as it heads into 2012 than in leading the GOP as its presidential nominee,” Cillizza writes.
“Add it all up and it seems as though Daniels wants to wake up the party – and the 2012 candidates specifically – to the dangers posed by placating social conservatives in the primary fight at the expense, literally, of the economy.”
Changing tune
Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White took some time Friday before his not guilty plea to voter fraud charges to tell reporters that it’s wrong to call him the state’s top election official and his office isn’t really all that involved with elections.
But that wasn’t exactly the tack he took in his campaign. In fact, his campaign website – CharlieforIndiana.com – lists four major duties of the office, No. 1 being “The oversight and certification of elections.”
And the first of the four “values” that shaped his campaign?
“Election Integrity: Charlie will protect and defend Indiana’s Voter ID law to ensure our elections are fair and protect the most basic and precious right and responsibility of our democracy – voting.”
