Ballard's Strange Set Of Circumstances

During the recent "Mayor's Night Out for Indy Youth, a young man, Kellin Thomas, asked Mayor Greg Ballard, "When and why did you decide to become the mayor?" Ballard's rambling response to this simple question reminded me of that moment during the 1992 vice presidential debate when Ross Perot's running mate, Admiral James Stockdale, rambled on about "Who am I and why am I hear?" moment. Here's how Ballard responded:

Okay, That's a good question. The uh. I really felt like the city was, uh, going in the wrong direction, and I just thought we could do a better job than what we were doing. That's really pretty much it. I, uh, do this not for me. I'm very candid about this. I spent 23 years in the Marine Corps. This is strictly public service to me. That's all it is. There is no ego in this for me. I'm just trying to do the right thing here for the city. I thought we could do a little bit better. I thought spending was out of control. I thought crime was up. That sort of thing. I thought we can do better. I think so far that's proven to be true. Spending is under control, crime is down and that sort of thing. I decided that. It's a strange set of circumstances when I did that. It was in the spring of 2007. I had just a couple of people asking me you need to look at that--look at running for mayor. I had something else in mind. I knew I was going to do public service again after the Marine Corps. My kids were growing up. It's time to go do something and the opportunity arose after a strange set of circumstances in the spring of 2007, that I won't necessarily go into--it might take 10 minutes to go through all of that but through a set of circumstances I was able to get the nomination and win the election.

"A strange set of circumstances?" I'll say. By the way, Greg "I'll end country club politics in Indianapolis" Ballard is throwing another fundraiser hosted by Hunt Construction Co. and Riley Bennett & Egloff law firm, both major contractors with the City of Indianapolis. So much for campaign promises to clean up city government. Pay to play is the Ballard way. His crack team of advisers are holding a press conference today at the scene of the latest murder in the City to reassure people in the near southside neighborhood while the Mayor is on his latest junket to Europe.