Thomas v. Ross

by Don Wheeler

One of my main purposes of attending Dyngus day festivities at the West Side Democratic Club was to make some contact with local and state Democratic candidates.

I got to say hello to Mayor Luecke, Speaker Bauer. I was able to have brief conversations with both Jim Schellinger and Jill Long-Thompson. Local candidates were not so much in evidence - or may have chosen later arrivals - due to the star power of the event, I suspect. There was one exception.

Dave Thomas, who is opposing Steve Ross for the Democratic nomination for District 2 County Commissioner had a golf cart with campaign signs on it. Most of the time it was unattended, but after former President Clinton made his exit, I noticed some gents hanging out around it.

People who know me well know that I have had many problems with Mr. Ross' conduct in the prior campaign and as Commissioner. So I was very interested in meeting his challenger.

(If you're wondering why I waited a week to write this piece, it's because I furnished Mr. Thomas with contact information and encouraged him to tell us more about his campaign. I'm still waiting to hear from him)

One of the gents was indeed Mr. Thomas. We introduced ourselves and I mentioned the blog.

I started with the question most people would ask first: "Why are you running?"

He explained to me that he was an accountant, had lived in the area all his life and had an interest in civic affairs.

I assumed I must not have asked my question in the way I had intended - judging by the response - so I rephrased it slightly (I don't remember exactly how).

He pretty much just added onto to his first response.

So I tried another approach. "What is it you would like to do?" And so on.

At some point in this process he mentioned Mr. Ross' poor attendance at meetings and failure to keep any of his campaign promises. He listed these in some detail. And towards the end (noting the name of our blog) he admonished me that we needed to get behind Democrats...At no point did he ever outline any proposals, or even any ideas he had, to better the lives of county citizens.

Last week, in a short South Bend Tribune article, he repeated some of the charges against Mr. Ross. The newspaper gave Mr. Ross a one paragraph rebuttal. As I remember it, Mr. Ross said something like Mr. Thomas was a five time candidate waging a negative campaign, etc.

Ready to vote, Democrats?

Let's start with Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross complaining about someone waging a negative primary campaign is a little tough to take. Mr. Ross first earned my opposition based upon his own intensely negative primary campaign and irresponsible promise to repeal the so-called "Wheel Tax". As Mr. Thomas correctly pointed out, there wasn't much follow up on that promise.

That part is fine with me, but Mr. Ross' complaint about Mr. Thomas reminds me of an old story about certain home construction materials and self restraint.

From all I can tell, Mr. Thomas' campaign message is "I'm a good guy - the other guy isn't. 'Nuff said."

The thing of it is that I have no more idea of what I would get with Mr. Thomas as County Commissioner than I did before I spoke with him. I know what I'll get with Mr. Ross.

Independent candidacy, anyone? Or should we work hard to enact the single professional Commissioner model?