After a Star poll released on Thursday showed a dead heat in the race between Mayor Bart Peterson and Greg Ballard, Peterson's campaign manager Mike O'Connor said Peterson would not be changing his re-election strategy. He lied. Peterson's campaign is conducting negative push polling in the final days of the campaign to smear Ballard. Callers for Peterson's campaign are telling voters Ballard intends to eliminate basic city services like trash collection and sidewalk repairs if he's elected mayor. Relying on the old Democratic favorite of scaring senior citizens, the callers are telling people Ballard will end meals on wheels.
“It’s a shame that Bart Peterson would resort to scaring senior citizens. But we’ve seen this before,” said Marion Co. GOP Chairman Tom John. “Lifetime politicians like Bart Peterson will say or do anything when they realize that voters are about to hand them their pink slip.” John added, “I call on Bart Peterson to apologize to the voters of Marion County for engaging in these despicable tactics.”
You can bet that Mayor Bart Peterson's internal polls are showing results similar to the Star's poll or he would not be resorting to negative push polling to shift voters' opinion. The local news media owes it to the public to call out the Peterson campaign on these desperate lies.
9 comments:
Why all of a sudden is Tom John speaking out about Peterson's re-election tactics against Ballard? Where has he been, up in East Chicago and Gary collecting his payoff for not supporting Ballard?
Hey Tom, shut your pie hole! If you want to help, get off some fat-cash and buy some TV ads for Mr. Ballard, you know, they guy you slated as your mayoral candidate! You and the rest of the so-called Republican leadership in this county make me want to puke!
Boy sounds about right to me. Actually this is the firs plan I have heard from Ballard. Funny how it had to come from the Peterson compagnie.
At least, Peterson has refrained from talking about the skeltons in Ballard's closet.
This posting would have credibility if you would have bothered to cite your sources.
That "Mr." John calls not-even two term Mayor Peterson a career politician makes it all the more ludicrous.
Perhaps if his golden boy Ballard had put forward one single idea in the last six months that would be even more miraculous. But no, Ballard has no plan, no vision, no ideas, no specifics, no clue other than to cynically ride the wave of voter discontent.
It's easy to campaign on the backs of negativity, it's a lot harder to actually come up w/ plans, isn't it?
The race must be closer than even I thought it would be. If Peterson really had such a strong lead, why would Amos Brown and TDW be slamming the Star poll? They claim it is because the polls should be fair or something. It would seem to me that if you honestly thought the poll was wrong and you knew your guy was going to win hands down, why would you care?
Ballards plan is simple for those of you who plan to vote for Bart. It is end corruption that currently occupies our city government. I dont think Greg Ballard will send a budget to the CCC that has blank spaces. I dont think Greg Ballard will appoint cronies to "do nothing" positions like Bart has done with Steve Talley and Jerry McCory. I doubt Ballard will let a fire chief who is in public in full uniform address a citizen as "our resident bull dyke". I seriously doubt Greg Ballard will fill a CCC meeting with city employees who are ordered to clap for a 65% tax increase while the real citizens who will pay for it are made to stand outside in 90 degree heat and not be allowed to voice their opinion. A lot of you Petersin pumpers say Ballard has no plan, but if this is Bart's way of running city government I'll take no plan over this any day.
Proof, please, that there's push-polling?
Repeating an allegation does not make it true.
Absolutely true! I have received two calls from pollsters. The first call was the normal questions age, political part etc.. Now the bulk of the questions surprised me. The first poll a couple of weeks ago hammered on all of the good (take with a grain of salt) things Mayor Bart has done. Sewers, charter schools, crime prevention, more cops on the streets. A number of these statements were taken (possibly out of context) from the Indy Star. I kept telling the pollster that most of these things that were done raised my taxes. I also told her there has been no proof that the merging of the police departments have saved any money. After I got off the phone I told my wife that it sounded like a Democratic poll. Thursday night I get another call the same questions up front. Then the pollster starts to quote the Star and state that Ballard is going to raise taxes (build a new government center to the tune of 35 Million) in every statement she reads me (also quotes taken from the Star). I stopped her and asked if this was a Democratic poll. There was a long pause and she said she was calling from Florida. Was this a legit poll or are the Democrats using scare tactics to frighten the voters into voting for Mayor Bart? So are these calls being made from Florida or is this the Democrats using scare tactics??
Make no mistake about it. These are killer calls. Candidates have been beaten in the 11th hour before by them. Jeb Bush lost his first run for Governonr after Gov. Chiles' campaign swamped senior citizens with calls claiming he wanted to abolish social security. It clearly cost him the election, even though the phone calls were complete lies. Democrats are deliberately making up lies about Ballard in a last-ditch attempt to define him while Bart claims to be staying positive and saying nothing negative about his opponent. The media should be leading with this story, but they're all in the tank with Peterson because he's bought so much advertising from them and won't report it. I believe our laws should be changed to allow candidates to be criminally charged for pulling this crap. It isn't about free speech at all. It's fraud, pure and simple.
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