The 2008 session of the Indiana General Assembly has just started. By amending and passing its version of HB 1001, the Senate has drawn a line in the sand and it can negotiate in earnest with the House of Representatives. While it’s easy to see the lines over how much tax relief to provide or which antiquated elected officials need to be protected here is what you really need to pay attention to; both sides are now playing a game of political chicken, but hoping for different outcomes.

Senators want a “philosophical” victory that means they want to adjourn on time, because to stay late would be a loss. House Democrats want to adjourn on time because if they don’t it becomes a campaign issue that they failed to give Hoosiers tax relief. What I worry about is in a rush to “get something done” mistakes are made which will take years to fix and at the end of the day, the only people who will be happy about this will be that other branch of government, the lobbyists.

There are few items from around town worth keeping an eye on this morning. Here they are…

Dr. Ken Ackles inability to pass a state-mandated coroner’s exam has gotten the attention of the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council. The Council wants to know why he didn’t pass the exam which has potentially put a number of cases in the Prosecutors in jeopardy.

Marion County Republicans are disputing a recent poll showing Jon Elrod trailing Andre Carson in the 7th Congressional District. A poll conducted by Gauge Market Research for Howey Politics Indiana had Elrod losing 54-36. GOP officials say the gap is closer to seven points rather than the 18 points in the Howey poll.

Although a Marion County Sheriff once said there’s no room for politics in public safety, that message was lost on his chief deputy. Kerry Forestal and two other high ranking sheriff department officials appear (in full uniform) in political ads for Andre Carson. Forestal is also hosting a fundraiser on St. Patrick’s Day with Carson and Frank Anderson as the featured guests. Forestal is trying to make inroads in the Black Community as he runs for Sheriff. I think it’s ironic he’s using Andre Carson to to raise money as Julia Carson hated Forestal and commented hell would freeze over before she would ever let him become Sheriff. How times have changed.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has been called for jury duty this week. His pool number was called this afternoon.  He’s scheduled to report tomorrow morning at eight at the city-county building.  There’s no word yet on what case the Governor might hear if he makes it through any challenges.

A new poll of likely Hoosier voters shows good news for Barack Obama, Mitch Daniels and Andre Carson. The survey conducted by Gauge Marketing Research for the Howey Politics Indiana shows each candidate with comfortable leads over their respective challengers.

Obama leads Hilary Clinton amongst likely Democratic voters by 40-25 percent with 36 percent of the voters undecided.

Governor Mitch Daniels beats both Democratic challengers Jim Schellinger and Jill Long Thompson. Daniels beats Shellinger 54-31 percent and Thompson 56-33 percent.

Andre Carson beats Republican challenger Jon Elrod 54-36 percent. The two will face each other on March 11 in a special election.

What’s most interesting is that 38 percent of the voters surveyed say they plan to vote for both Obama and Daniels.

The survey was taken of 500 likely voters with 300 of them in the 7th Congressional District in mid-February.

The poll also showed that taxes are the biggest issue on the minds of voters. In addition it showed Daniels with a 52-percent approval rating across the state, but it was 54-percent in the 7th Congressional District.

The statewide poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percent and the 7th Congressional District race had a margin of error of 5.7 percent.

Normally I blog early Sunday morning, but I had some car issues. The stupid key broke off in the lock in Danville (Indiana not Illinois) so my morning project was getting that taken care of. The weekend has been pretty quiet, but I have heard a few things worth mentioning in the world of Indiana politics.

I keep hearing a lot of people in both political parties aren’t happy with the way slating has gone down as of late; especially when it comes to judges (which in my opinion should not be elected but appointed) so watch for things to get ugly in that front.

I also hear Marion County Coroner Ken Ackles may find himself coming before the City-County Council’s Administration and Finance committee to explain why he’s been collecting a paycheck, even though he did not pass his latest state certification exam.

Speaking of Council’s, Mayor Greg Ballard and the City-County Council are negotiating an ethics reform package to be introduced at the next Council meeting. Sources inside the administration say Ballard would like to have strong bi-partisan support on the reform package so he is strongly courting Council Democrats.

That’s it for now. I’m off to go see “There Will Be Blood.”

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.