Importantville: Pride weekend split screen—Altman's new strategy—Importantville launch—Hill profile
By @AdamWren & design by Kris Davidson
Days to Midterm Election: 148
It was a fascinating study in contrasts this weekend. In Indianapolis, Sen. Joe Donnelly marched in the Pride Parade along with his fellow Democrat Mayor Joe Hogsett.
And in Boston, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, in town for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, marched in Boston’s Pride Parade.
Meanwhile, in Evansville, Republican Senate nominee Mike Braun rallied with Attorney General Curtis Hill to support a traditional definition of marriage. At 9 p.m. on Friday at the Evansville Hilton Garden Inn, Braun teamed up with Hill to show support for a traditional definition of marriage. Per an invitation:
Come out to hear from Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill and our Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun. Show your support for retaining the 2016 language on marriage in our party platform.
On Saturday, the Indiana GOP adopted by voice vote platform language that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, rejecting new language that would’ve expressed “support for traditional families with a mother and father, blended families, grandparents, guardians, single parents and all loving adults who successfully raise and nurture children to reach their full potential every day.”
This weekend was the contrast Team Donnelly wanted. And the move seemed in tension with the goals of the Indiana GOP Chairman.
We must recognize that #Indiana is becoming more diverse, more urban and as is always the case, every year another set of young voters cast their first ballot. It's imperative that our party grow and evolve at this same pace. #INDGOP18
June 9, 2018The Indiana primary is over. Braun needs to be moving toward the center and building a broader coalition of voters for the general election. This was an unforced error.
And a Democrat close to Donnelly asked:
Why on earth has Braun calculated that it makes sense to publicly distance himself from what the very popular incumbent govern was trying to work with this platform? It’s weird.
Here’s how the Indiana Democrats spun the move:
On Saturday, members of Governor Holcomb’s own party handed him an embarrassing defeat after GOP delegates ratified language declaring marriage is between a man and woman. Holcomb’s hand-picked party chairman had earlier maneuvered to remove the language but was outflanked by hardline Republicans including Rep. Mike Braun, Attorney General Curtis Hill and Speaker Brian Bosma. Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody was surprised the first-term governor ceded his role as leader of the Party so easily.
But one Republican inside the convention hall told me to take talk of a “platform fight” with a grain of salt. Republicans, he said, walked out of the hall united. There were no ill feelings. It was another step—if an incremental one—in socially moderate Republicans’ years-long bid to move the party closer to the center.
I think the language ought to be more inclusive, but the war is over. Gay marriage is legal. It's an older crowd at the convention. It's hard to win in that room. Republicans fended off a constitutional amendment in the past. We fixed RFRA. We still need to nudge the issue forward.
What’s next?
Good Monday morning, and welcome to Importantville.
Where’s Mike: The vice president has no scheduled events today.
The president is in Singapore today ahead of his historic summit with Kim Jong Un at 9 p.m. On Thursday, the World Cup kicks off in Russia. Soccer fans will recall that Indianapolis was on a shortlist to host a World Cup game in 2018 or 2022, and again in 2026, but lost those bids. I’m still smarting from the U.S. absence from this year’s tournament. Go Iceland, whose population could be neatly fit inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!
Congressman Jim Banks’ NoKo curtain raiser
In the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
While recent discussion has been focused on denuclearization, a comprehensive planning effort should address all of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction programs alongside political, economic and social concerns. While these considerations are unprecedented, the planning should incorporate the applicable lessons from the post-Soviet era and those elements we are hopefully learning in stabilization operations currently under way.
Breaking this morning, via Politico: Obama has been meeting with 2020 contenders, and Pete Buttigieg was among his callers.
Happening now: The accused Noblesville West Middle School shooter makes his court appearance today, per Indy Star.
The new Importantville
After nearly a dozen test editions, I’m excited to bring you the new Importantville. It’s more comprehensive, and features a slick new interface hosted by Substack. Importantville denizen Kris Davidson, of Mile High Creative, developed new branding (that you may see on actual merch in the coming weeks).
Here are few nice things people have said about Importantville in the first three months:
For Hoosiers in Indiana or in the diaspora (me) @adamwren’s newsletter on Ind politics is must read. subscribe: https://t.co/i9vRhYwZfw
April 30, 2018At a time when the mainstream media is cutting newsroom staff, gutting coverage of govt and politics, and forcing reporters to write to clicks instead of holding government accountable, it is refreshing to see Importantville enter the arena. God Speed https://t.co/tuQx6If2zA
April 16, 2018Finally, Indiana has its own Playbook, from Indiana's version of @mikeallen, @adamwren. First issue of Importantville out today has lots of great original content and highlights of Indiana-related articles from respected sources.https://t.co/amZNJL2HI7
April 16, 2018Thanks to @adamwren and his political newsletter Importantville, I had the information I needed for today’s Marion County Sheriff primary election. Subscribe, people!
May 8, 2018For the next two weeks only, as an early adopter of Importantville, you can subscribe for a 50 percent discount: $5 a month or $50 a year (you’ll get two months free if you sign up for the latter version). If you’re a fiscal conservative—and in Indiana, even Democrats are fiscal conservatives—the only intellectually honest and consistent option is to sign up for an annual subscription. We’ll keep the receipts. Kidding. But I will literally have the receipts.
After two weeks, prices will jump to $10 a month, or $100 a year. A subscription gets you two weekly issues delivered to your inbox, plus breaking scoops the minute I have them and can get them into an email. If you choose not to subscribe, no need to do anything. You’ll continue to get occasional free updates, but you’ll miss out on conversation-driving scoops and insights.
I’ve opted against selling ad-space. That allows me to target the content to your needs—not those of advertisers.
To subscribe, just click the button below.
Importantville Scoop: Altman’s new strategy
Independent U.S. Senate candidate Nathan Altman is pulling the plug on his bid to accumulate the 26,669 traditionally verified signatures required to land on November’s ballot. After cobbling together approximately 2,000—less than 10 percent—of the required signatures to seal his spot as Indiana’s first-ever independent candidate, the 30-year-old tech entrepreneur is abandoning Indiana’s traditional ballot access process in favor of a digital-only signatures.
For Altman, the setback is a testament to Indiana’s outdated laws, which he believes are weighted in favor of the two established political parties. Altman plans to continue collecting digital signatures via his website ahead of a June 30 deadline. If he hits 30,000 signatures, the former Burning Man project manager will hold a similar kind of event for a select few supporters, burning down the structure pictured below. The donkey and elephant will go up in embers, but the steel independent “I” will remain. Do you see what he did there?
The shift in strategy led one of Altman’s staffers to leave the campaign, and Joel Searby, the Florida strategist behind Evan McMullin’s independent bid for president, is now only an informal adviser, after agreeing to help launch Altman’s campaign.
Reading between the lines, the only way Altman can get on the ballot now would be to mount a legal challenge to Indiana’s ballot access laws. Stay tuned.
Braun’s first general election ad
After what seemed to some insiders to be a sluggish start to his general election campaign (it’s just that time of year, says one Republican insider), Braun debuted his first general election ad late last week. It’s called “Here at Home.”
Also, Indiana’s U.S. Senate race is likely going to have the budget of a Hollywood Blockbuster.Senate Majority PAC (a Democratic group) is reserving $80M worth of fall TV airtime in these nine states:
Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia. https://t.co/dRczJ3lf3q
The Sunday show
Fox 59’s INFocus tackled Donnelly’s poll numbers, the platform fight that wasn’t much of a fight, and this week’s winners and losers.
Department of Hmmm: The mysterious case of the bipartisan infrastructure commission
Remember this March headline from the Indy Star? "Amid 'Pothole Joe' jabs, Indianapolis council will ask state lawmakers for help to fix streets"
This is not going to be some five-month commission," [Councilor Jared] Evans said. I want to do our meetings and wrap up and present findings within six weeks to two months.
It's been close to three months. What's happening? Here’s what Evans told me:
We are about to finalize the proposal with suggested meeting dates. I expect it to be introduced by our July meeting. If we have two, I suspect we’ll get underway in July but if we only have one full council meeting that month it’ll be August. Slower than I had hoped for. A part of having a part-time Council.
Myself and Councilor Kreider have requested a meeting with the Mayor to discuss infrastructure prior to kicking off the commission and we’ll be discussing the murder/violent crime.
Importantville reads
BUTTIGIEG IN BOSTON: James Pindell, the pride of New Castle, writes in the Boston Globe: "When Mayor Martin J. Walsh joins thousands of marchers expected for the Boston Pride Parade Saturday, he will be joined by dozens of mayors from across the country."
Buttigieg told Pindell: “When it was hard to imagine in Indiana that we were anywhere near equality, you could look out to what was going on in Massachusetts and realize that progress could happen someday.”
INDY’S UNSOLVED HOMICIDES: The Washington Post dives deep on unsolved homicides in Indianapolis.
“There are 17 cities where killings have spiked over the past decade but where police now make fewer arrests. One is Indianapolis, where only 64 of the 155 criminal homicides last year resulted in an arrest.
The city has four zones with a high concentration of unsolved killings.”
…
“In interviews, Indianapolis police officials blamed the low arrest rates in Crown Hill and elsewhere on frayed relationships with residents and on witnesses who are unwilling to cooperate.
“The lack of cooperation is what we battle the most,” Deputy Chief Chris Bailey said.
PROTESTERS OUTSIDE AZAR’S ABODE:
Per Indy Star:
Dozens of protesters were arrested after a demonstration Sunday outside the Northside Indianapolis home of a member of President Donald Trump's cabinet.
The protesters from ADAPT, many in wheelchairs, chanted and hoisted signs for hours at the home of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, near 75th Street and Washington Boulevard, in Meridian Hills.
It ended with 26 people being taken into custody and booked into the Marion County Jail on suspicion of trespassing.
INDY EATS: WaPo picks Indy spots for breakfast, lunch, and dinner:
The word “Indianapolis” is all but synonymous with a 500-mile car race, and the whole state embraces its connection to basketball, but there’s a lot more going on than that. The city was founded to be the state capital, and all the government workers aren’t the only thing that will seem familiar to visitors from Washington: The city was designed by one of Pierre L’Enfant’s aides, who used some of his mentor’s favorite tricks (state-named major thoroughfares running on the diagonal!), and the city has more memorials to veterans than any city other than the District. Chefs are embracing the state’s role in agriculture, featuring products grown on the nearly 15 million acres of cultivated land in the state. Hoosiers are proud of their popcorn (only Nebraska produces more) and their pork (the state’s 3,000 pork farmers are mostly family operations).
The picks:
WaPo Breakfast: Cafe Patachou
Importantville pick: Milktooth
WaPo Lunch: Mug-n-Bun Drive-In
Importantville pick: Shoefly Public House
WaPo Dinner: Bluebeard
Importantville pick: Ukiyo.
HILL PROFILE: Indianapolis Monthly is out with a smartly-timed Curtis Hill profile, “Party of 1.” In the piece, journalist Kelly Kendall poses the question, “[I]s Hill a stand-up guy, or a guy who grandstands?”
Hill doesn’t deny that he’s interested in a different gig: “The way I see it, opportunities where I can perhaps be of greater service as they come about—I have to look at those,” says Hill. “I can’t say there’s anything that’s off the board.”
And, check out *that* kicker:
At his IU law school speech, one student raises his hand. It’s been widely reported that Hill has been kicking the tires on a Senate bid …
Hill smiles. “I just got elected AG. I think I’ll drive this vehicle for a while.”
But if you think he’s expecting, even for a moment, that it will be an easy cruise, think again. As I gather up my materials after our first interview for this story, I mention that I plan to talk to some of Hill’s friends and colleagues, too. He laughs. “Curtis Hill? That guy is such a prick,” he says, imagining out loud the material I’ve been getting. I assure him I haven’t heard anything of the kind. He just smiles again.
“You will.”
That’s all for today. Paid subscribers will get the first members-only edition of Importantville this Thursday. Tips and feedback are appreciated: cadamwren@gmail.com