Dyngus Day and the Governor race

by Don Wheeler

When I arrived around 9:30 AM, I joined a line a bit over a block long of people hoping to enter the West Side Democratic Club for Dyngus Day festivities. Within the next half hour or less, the length of line doubled. What most of us didn't know was that all the space inside the club was either taken or reserved.

There was a benefit to standing in this line, however. After a while I noticed Jim Shellinger and Jill Long-Thompson were working their way down the line. Because of this, I was able to have a brief conversation with each of them.

In each case, I mentioned our blog and asked for a way to directly pose questions to their campaigns. In the case of the Shellinger campaign, Jim's wife Judy said she'd make sure their publicity director (who was on site) would make contact with me. That didn't happen. In the case of the Long-Thompson campaign, Jill furnished me with the email address of her campaign website and assured me it would reach her personally. When I mentioned that I had written that address recently to find out if she planned to be at this event, but got no reply - she seemed somewhat chagrined. Ditto for her campaign manager who was standing next to her. Stuff happens.



From what I could hear, there was a sizable contingent of Schellinger supporters inside. Outside, the Long-Thompson supporter clearly dominated.



Jill and Jim were some of the early speakers, with Jim leading off. Their speeches were interestingly reflective of my experience of each of their campaigns to date.

A good chunk of the John Edwards Indiana contingent are involved in the Schellinger campaign. Some of these folks have contacted me - asking for support. I responded to them and made it clear that that was entirely possible - only I wanted some idea of what he proposed to do as Governor. His campaign website had not and still does not make it clear. That request apparently offended them, since I got no reply.

I had a similar gripe with the Long-Thompson campaign (who actually contacted me first) until about a month ago when Jill started rolling out fairly specific policy proposals.

Today Jim touted his South Bend heritage and business background and spoke only in vague ways about policy issues. Jill, on the other hand, spoke very specifically about what she intends to do - starting with immediately restoring state employees' rights to collectively bargain, then make it a permanent right through legislation. That and the other initiatives she spoke of were things likely to make Edwards Democrats proud.

So they're off!

We each need to put energy into finding out what we need to know about these two. Both seem to be decent people. But in six weeks, we need to pick one of them, and it's fair to say we need better information.

I will pose questions to them, as promised. And I will report back to you.

We must ditch Mitch.