News Conference Notes

Today's news conference on the Statehouse steps went well. The media attendance was light, though it seemed we may have been competing with an event inside, as reporters stepped out qucikly to get a news release, and then rushed back inside.

Speaking with WIBC 1070-am reporter Eric Berman, outside the Statehouse. From left- Tom Mulcahy, now ex-candidate for House District 96; Kole; Wayne Kirk, Hamilton County vice chair; Kim Brand, now ex-candidate for House District 53; Eric Berman.

I discussed the specifics of what happened to cause us to lose 11 quality candidates, such as Andy Wolf, who would have provided the only opposition to incumbent Scott Pelath, a Democrat, in House District 9; or Tom Mulcahy, who would have provided the only opposition to incumbent Gregory Porter, a Democrat, in House District 96. Bottom line- the two parties wrote a law that was intended to trip us up, and did trip us up. Should we have caught it? Yes, so shame on us. But far more shame on the Indiana Republicans and Democrats for putting the effort into this, for the purpose of their comfort, at the expense of the voters of our state.

I made the case for wider ballot access to all parties. Hoosiers deserve the widest choices possible. Let the voters decide whether or not to elect a Libertarian, instead of having the Elections Division and the Legislature take the choice away. Top rhetorical quotes:

"It is troubling to me that we have sent Indiana soldiers off to Iraq to fight and die to give the Iraqi people full minority party ballot representation, while here we are at home being denied the same thing by Indiana's Republicans and Democrats. There is something very wrong with this."

"If the two biggest oil companies got together to write laws that excluded their next smallest competitors, it would rightly be called collusion. Indiana's election laws are written by Republicans and Democrats who do everything they can to stifle ballot competition, in disregard for the interests of a stronger representative government and fuller citizen participation."

Thanks to Ben Ruben for the picture!