Comments on Advance Indiana™: Luke Kenley Is No Friend Of The Taxpayers

A former Barnes & Thornburg attorney, huh? We...

2009-02-14T07:52:00.000-05:00

A former Barnes & Thornburg attorney, huh? Well, it's all starting to make sense now. Kenley was on the Senate Education Committee when Sen. Weatherwax submitted a bill to address the AEPA/Wilson Education Center/Tremco no-bid scheme that taxpayers have been complaining about for years. Barnes & Thornburg attorneys were hired to do the bidding for the schemers. Kenley's behavior at that committee hearing and afterwards makes perfect sense to me now. This was politics at its absolute worst! Good government obviously took a back seat to political cronyism.

I've been thoroughly educated, and I fully understand how government really works. It's sickening!

I forgot to mention that Kenley is a former Barnes...

2009-02-12T19:28:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention that Kenley is a former Barnes & Thornburg attorney. He would have done much better if he had remained there instead of attempting to run the family grocery story business.

Mayor Ballard's campaign kicked in $2,000 to Kenle...

2009-02-12T13:55:00.000-05:00

Mayor Ballard's campaign kicked in $2,000 to Kenley's campaign committee last year. Ballard pocketed $5,000 from Irsay and another $5,000 from the Simon Property Group. That doesn't count the hundreds of thousands of dollars law firms representing various Irsay/Simon interests contributed to Ballard's campaign.

Too bad there's no public record of how many other...

2009-02-12T12:29:00.000-05:00

Too bad there's no public record of how many other perks may have been given to certain legislators. I wonder how many "free" tickets, etc... have been handed out to supportive legislators. It was a sad day when I realized that legislators don't really work for the hard working citizens of the state. They've been bought and paid for by special interest groups and their lobbyists.

Kenley has accepted about $3,000 in campaign contr...

2009-02-12T08:47:00.000-05:00

Kenley has accepted about $3,000 in campaign contributions from Irsay and the Colts organization.

Politicians fund the Colts and the Pacers for the ...

2009-02-12T08:09:00.000-05:00

Politicians fund the Colts and the Pacers for the same reasons that they do pretty much everything else - for their benefit.

They are crooks, nothing more, nothing less.

Advance - Great article. Most people in Indiana s...

2009-02-12T08:04:00.000-05:00

Advance - Great article. Most people in Indiana still have such total faith in their government that they can't 'get' that Luke Kenley is part of the problem. Good old Luke, he can't possibly be in on this whole thing ?

Luke Kenley is Irsay's man in the statehouse.

Hoosiers can't understand what crooks the Simons and Irsay are. People still think that pro sports is somehow good for the city and that the outlandish cost of the two Colts stadiums is ok cause it's "infrastructure".

Hoosiers can't understand that the Super Bowl doesn't bring in much revenue - San Diego's last one brought in $96 million total. But the CIB can hire some accounting firm that will say the SB brings in $396 million, which is a lie.

Add up a couple hotel nights on average for 70,000 people, and a couple hundred bucks in meals etc for a wild weekend in Indy, and you get about $35 million. Most of which goes to the hotel owners.

There should be an independent evaluation of the P...

2009-02-12T07:53:00.000-05:00

There should be an independent evaluation of the Pacers financial situation. Why should we have to give them more money based on the Pacers claim, unsubstantiated, that they are not making money.

Brilliant column, Gary. I'm sorry I missed the Kenley interview. Then again, it sounded like it would have made me sick to the stomach to hear it.

Follow the money. Look at Luke Kenley's campaign ...

2009-02-12T07:01:00.000-05:00

Follow the money. Look at Luke Kenley's campaign finance report. Here are three names that you might recognize that are on it:

Irsay, Bob Grand, and The Indianapolis Colts

One might come to the conclusion that he's been paid via campaign contributions to do this job, because it's the only thing that makes sense otherwise.

I believe an inspection of their books WOULD show ...

2009-02-12T06:53:00.000-05:00

I believe an inspection of their books WOULD show they are losing money.

The reason? They hand over too much to player salaries. That whole matter is driven by the 'who makes more than who' competition. Teams give players celebrity status, and then create a problem of how to keep that player from going to another team if they don't make more than their counterparts on other teams.

Yeah, it's the same ploy the team uses to extort money from it's host city.

'Host city' is a curious term, isn't it? It's also used when describing parasitic plants and organisms, which feed off their 'host', letting the host provide their sustenance. Remove the parasite from its host and it dies.

Pro sports is also a parasite. Our elected officials are regrettably too timid to pick up the tweezers and pluck the bloodsuckers.