Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The People's Mayor

We recently subscribed to the Indy Star and I’ve been reading about the new mayor-elect. I hate to say it, because I don’t like to be a mindless voter, but I really didn’t know much about him when I voted for him. All I knew was he belonged to my party and I didn’t care for the incumbent.

It turns out that the more I hear about him, the more I like him. It was an upset—no one predicted that he would win. But because everyone in Indianapolis is upset that their property tax bills have skyrocketed, now Greg Ballard is mayor.

He just seems to be an Average Joe. He was military until recently and he lives in a very modest house in a very modest part of town. He was outspent 10 to 1 by the incumbent. He only raised 300,000 compared to Bart Peterson’s 3,000,000.

Only time will tell what kind of mayor he will be. But so far I like the guy.

1 comment:

Josh Gillespie said...

I have had the chance to get to know Mayor Ballard (mostly during the campaign) to the point I am allowed to call him Greg. As an aside, to me it's very cool to be able to call the mayor of the nations 12th largest city by his first name.

Greg has a big learning curve given that he has no prior political experience, but I know he will be a refreshing voice for change in Indy and will put the needs of the people before the wants of the establishment.

There will be some growing pains, but in the end, the voters of Indianapolis did the right thing.