Marion Co. Democrats And Kostas Poulakidas Hit New Low In Deceptive Mailer To Voters In Christine Scales' District

Voters in the 4th District city-county council district received what appears to be a post card greeting from their incumbent councilor, Christine Scales, from Naples, Florida. The post card depicts a million-dollar condo community and marina that is represented to be the vacation home of Scales' family in Naples, Florida. At the top of one side of the post card it reads:  "Naples, Florida has many glamorous million dollar homes, including the one owned by Indianapolis City County Councillor Christine Scales." It then includes this greeting that is represented to be a greeting to the voters of the district from Scales:

Hi! You probably haven't heard of me, but I'm your City-County Councilor! Florida has been great so that's why I haven't had time to spend on the crime, unemployment, flooding and drainage problems and abandoned properties throughout the city! Give me your vote and I'll sent you another postcard in 4 years when I need it again!

Christine

Does she really represent us?

According to a disclaimer on the post card, it was sent out by the Indiana Democratic Party. Scales tells me that she has received phone calls from elderly voters in her district confused that she had sent them the post card to them. They inquired of her why she wrote what she did to them on the post card? Other voters have contacted Scales to express their anger at its deception. The Democrats' and Poulakidas' hopes are that between confused voters and persons down on their luck in the bad economy that voters will be turned off voting for Scales.

For those who know Scales, they know her to be one of the most hard-working members on the City-County Council. She devotes countless numbers of hours representing the people of her district. Her Democratic opponent, Kostas Poulakidas, is a lobbyist/attorney for a big law firm who will have all kinds of conflicts of interest if he is elected to the council. In what may be a first for a candidate for the Indianapolis City-County Council, Poulakidas traveled this summer to attend a fundraiser put on for him by a group of Washington lobbyists and political insiders to raise money for his local council race. In what may be another first, Poulakidas was found by the Indiana Civil Rights Commission to have violated Indiana's Fair Housing Act for discriminating in the leasing of a condominium he owns in downtown Indianapolis. The National Fair Housing Alliance filed the complaint against Poulakidas because it believed he was trying to discriminate against single mothers with children. The ICRC agreed with NFHA. I suppose Poulakidas believes the only way he can win against an honest, hard-working councilor like Scales is to throw mud at her regardless of how deceptive he is to voters in the process.

UPDATE: Apparently, the Democrats are quite proud of their false and negative attack mail piece against Christine Scales that leaves voters with the impression she wrote this post card to voters in her district. The Indianapolis Time Blog has actually posted the offending attack mail piece as if it is something to be proud of:

After taking a look at the post card and understanding that some voters apparently are mistakingly believing that Christine Scales sent them this post card, someone should be calling for a criminal investigation against the Democratic Party for committing forgery and/or mail fraud. Impersonation of another person through written instrument, after all, is a felony.

UPDATE II: There also appears to be a violation of I.C. 3-9-3-2.5 because the piece arguably was mailed out for the purpose of opposing the re-election of Christine Scales. This statute required the post card mailed out by the Indiana Democratic Party to contain a disclaimer indicated one way or the other whether it was authorized by Kostas Poulakidas' campaign. A review of the recent campaign finance report filed by Poulakidas' campaign with the Marion Co. Election Board indicates that his campaign committee donated $12,300.00 to the Indiana Democratic Party to date. The inference to be drawn from the candidate's contributions to the state party is that he is financing the direct mail piece it sent out with its disclaimer. In other words, Kostas is trying to hide behind the state party to do its dirty work for him. Violation of the disclaimer law is a Class A misdemeanor.