POST PRIMARY '23 THOUGHTS

Christians United Church, Indianapolis.

 

 After looking at the ballot for Tuesday's Republican primary, Becky asked if I wanted to run for City Council. 😱

Let me give a little background, and then I'll share some thoughts. 

We are in the city of Lawrence (Indiana), which is in Marion County; Marion County and Indianapolis are one in the same. Thus, I live in two different cities, represented by two mayors and five councilers (Indianapolis 10th district, Lawrence's 3rd, and three at-large Lawrence representatives. At the moment, all except the Lawrence mayor are Democrats.

I'm typing this on the day of the primary election. There were five candidates for Indianapolis Mayor on the Democrat side (including the incumbent, Joe Hogsett, running for his 3rd term) and four Republicans. For Lawrence Mayor there was one Republican and two Democrats (the Republican candidate probably finished due to term limits?). 

The primaries are over and I will predict that in the Council races, the Dems will maintain their majority in both Indy and Lawrence. Why? Out of the 25 seats in Indianapolis, 12 have no Republican candidate. In Lawrence, same is true for half of the half dozen districts; true, there's three at large seats which are contested, but if the Dems win either those three seats or two of the contested seats, they've got the majority.

Okay, that's enough for the background. My thoughts?

• Have the Republicans given up on Indianapolis (and Lawrence)? Is it better to save money and work on races that aren't expected to be won, or to fight on the ballot even when the odds are against them?
• Related. Is the thought that partisan control of a city does not make a difference as much as it does with state and federal government? Thus, is the GOP saving up for the seemingly more important races?
• If the Libertarians got aggressive and ran for every seat the Republicans are ignoring, would the voters there realize that there is an alternative to the Democrats and encourage them? Or do Republicans (and Democrats) think it's better to let the "bad guys" have control than to let the revolutionaries (e.g. third parties) provide some needed choices other than the two bullies?
• Are we heading to a point where a single party has control? And is there anyway that this is good for freedom? 
• We have open primaries where you can vote in one party's primary, even if you are probably voting for the other party in the November elections. Is that good, or should the selection of the November candidates be done by those registered in a certain party?
  
• The Republican running for Indy mayor spent 1 mil of his own money to get the nomination. With the money involved, is running for office any different than gambling? And does that make money spent in campaigns money that could be used more effectively elsewhere? 
• By the way, except in the case mentioned in the above paragraph, who pays for the Bully... I mean two major Parties' primaries? Yep, us taxpayers. Should we put an end to that?
  
• Let's move from the unimportant to matters of faith. As Christians, do we either a) ignore battles we should be fighting (should the Republicans and Libertarians make sure no seat is unchallenged) or b) spending time and money for earthly things (even in the church) instead of heavenly things (should the Republicans not challenging a seat being wise)?

Yes, of course I'd love to hear your thoughts on these questions. And should I run for office? (Honestly, I think Becky would be a better candidate than me.)