All things, good or otherwise, must come to an end.

I’m pretty sure I fall into the “otherwise” category, but I must nonetheless take a moment to let you know that I’m gracefully curtsying out of this space as of, um, right now.

I held on for as long as I could, but as much as I love commentatoring on the tubes, I love being in the thick of politics even more. Starting today, I’ll be returning as Communications Director for the Indiana Democratic Party, a job that precludes me from having an exclusive relationship with one media outlet.

Gone, though, are the days of the “Nastiest Woman In Indiana Politics.”

We’ve entered a new era, and I’m proud that part of my reprised role will be to help disseminate our President’s message of reform and promote new policies that will benefit all Americans, not just a select few. I also look forward to helping recruit and train candidates for 2010 and 2011 while preparing for the objects-in-mirror-are-closer-than-they-appear 2012 cycle.

Now, just because I’m not going to be a venomous political reptile around the clock doesn’t mean I won’t work my tail off to hold folks accountable when things go wrong. Governor? Mayor? Grandstanding Congressional Republicans? That means you.

(Incidentally, if you’re interested in local politics and the future of our city, I intend to maintain my new blog, Envision Indy, as an electronic watering hole where you can chat about what’s going on in Marion County.)

As for what happens next on this blog, I’m delighted to inform you that Thomas Cook of Blue Indiana acclaim will be filling my spiky Italian knockoffs with his patented wit and sensible sneakers.

Thomas’s qualifications are stellar: He’s wicked smart, and for more than a year now, he’s been following me around – in the blogosphere, at state party, in law school and now here – making me look bad. He “gets” politics without having to think about it, and I have no doubt that he will be signing my paychecks at some point down the road.

All that aside, Thomas also has virtually no ego and can survive on a few ounces of oxygen in any given room. This makes him supremely qualified to share the masthead with Abdul. (You know I’m 80 percent kidding, soon-to-be-erstwhile partner.)

I’m going to leave you with a few pseudo-philosophical lessons learned, but before I go, I would be remiss not to thank everyone in the WRTV family for supporting this blog and letting us take to the airwaves to talk politics during the 2008 cycle. It was a lot of fun, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Yes, I have a heart. Yes, it beats more than 20 times per minute.

Before I sign off, allow me to offer up some fortune cookie-esque nuggets of advice for hacks, flacks, hacky-flacks and aspiring politicos:

• Love what you do, but don’t fall in love with what you do. It will never love you back.

• Some people will like you. Some people will hate you. Assume that the latter is universally true, and you’ll never mistake your enemies for your friends. You’ll also be the loneliest person on the planet, but that’s what good wine is for.

• When you speak for someone or some cause, remember that you are not the story. There’s nothing worse than a flack who’d rather be the center of attention. If you find that you’d rather be the center of attention, run for office. Otherwise, you field the bad news and leave the good stuff for your boss to talk about.

• Trust your gut.

• Be a good judge of character. This is Hollywood for ugly people. Everyone’s faking it a little bit.

• You cannot control the media, but you should be nice to them. Ma Wags always said you get more flies with sugar than you do with salt. That, and the Fourth Estate is occupied by real people. Spoken like a do-gooder liberal: War should be your last resort.

• You will screw up, possibly in a way that feels colossal to you. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times, no one will give a rat’s behind. Make your apologies, learn your lessons and move on. Dwelling on your mistakes will consume you.

• Get away from the madness every so often and clear your head. Candidates and campaigns come and go. There’s a whole wide world out there beyond this game, and it’s pretty easy to forget that. (If you’re the forgetful type, buy a dog or bring some other living creature into your life that will remind you, in a very real and non-political way, when it needs to be fed, watered and cared for.)

• Be yourself.

• Look out for yourself.

• Follow your heart.

• Take chances.

• Smile.

So long, and thanks again for everything.

- 30 –

In real life, people under beaucoup stress eat a lot of chocolate and/or ice cream and watch sappy movies by themselves. Hang on. That might just apply to girls.

Regardless, when you’re feeling vulnerable in politics, you invite a few hundred of your closest friends to throw their money into your campaign war chest. Suddenly, you feel a whole lot better — and far less guilty than if you’d downed an entire pint of Phish Food while watching “Good Will Hunting” for the seventh time.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) is stepping up his fundraising efforts in the face of four possible 2010 primary challengers.

Burton’s office told The Hill that the “is serious about meeting this head on” and has “set an ambitious fundraising agenda.” Burton held two fundraisers at the end of last week and raked in approximately $60,000.

The Hill reported in the middle of February that several Indiana Republicans are considering challenging Burton in the 2010 primary. Burton, who is serving his fourteenth term, have never been a favorite of the state party, several GOP insiders in the state contend.

In 2008, Republican John McGoff ran against Burton and surprised many by nearly beating him. Burton won that race 52 percent to 45 percent, leading party insiders to believe that Burton is vulnerable.

Among those considering runs are state Rep. Mike Murphy, former Indiana GOP executive director Luke Messer, Brose McVey, who ran for Congress in Indiana’s 7th District in 2002 and McGoff. Several of these candidates have already filed paperwork to form exploratory committees and some have already put polls into the field, The Hill has learned.
Burton was adamant in a previous interview with The Hill that he plans to seek re-election and his recent fundraising spree underscores that statement. The Republican will ad these recent funds to the $330,000 in his war chest at the end of last year.

The candidate emerging from the Republican primary would be favored in the reliably red district.

The political question that should accompany this story is simple: Who’s going to challenge Jim Brainard in the 2011 Republican primary?

City Council members are outraged over the latest evidence that the mayor withheld the true cost of the Keystone Avenue reconstruction project, even after he was informed it might cost almost $60 million more than he had told the public.

During his 2007 re-election campaign, Mayor Jim Brainard said the project — roundabouts at six intersections — could be covered by the $90 million the state agreed to give the city to take over the road. By summer 2008, City Council members said Brainard told them it could cost $20 million more than that.

But at a Finance Committee meeting Thursday night, an engineering firm hand-picked by the mayor to complete the work disclosed that it had developed a cost estimate months before that, in February 2008. That estimate? $149 million.

“Any idea why this number wasn’t shared with the council?” City Council member Rick Sharp asked the engineers during the meeting. “And point in fact, well into the summer of 2008, in various private meetings, we were told an additional $20 million (over the initial $90 million cost) was needed to construct Keystone.

“If the mayor knew in February of 2008 that the engineering estimate was $149 million, any idea why he told the council he only needed $20 million?”

City Engineer Mike McBride responded: “The direction provided to me and American Structurepoint engineers is that the . . . task asked by the mayor was, ‘Let’s try to find a way to reduce the costs.’ “

The engineers provided one estimate; Brainard offered up a different estimate to Council members and the public.

My assumption is that he figured the economy would still be sailing along, and folks wouldn’t mind him asking for more money after the fact. I’ve said before that I think Brainard is a “think big” kind of leader, but apparently someone forgot to tell him that “thinking big” doesn’t permit you to stop “talking honest.”

You’ve gotta love the irony here (hat tip to Times of Northwest Indiana reporter Pat Guinane for catching the story):

In the next six to eight months, 26 people will build the North Manchester treatment plant, according to the project contract: 11 from southern Michigan, 10 from western Ohio, 2 from Mishawaka — near South Bend — and 3 electrical workers from an already busy contractor in North Manchester.

This is not unusual, contractors and others say, because specialized projects often require a workforce that is not available in many small towns like North Manchester.

“A lot of the projects are quite specialized, and they require specialized workers,” said Mark Schweitzer, senior vice president and research director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Guinane’s take on his blog:

Gov. Mitch Daniels keeps saying Indiana is doing better than other states, so maybe it won’t hurt to toss our neighbors a few jobs. But if the Trib story is true, expect the Republican governor to hear about this from state lawmakers.

Indiana House Democrats have been complaining for months about Ohio residents working on road construction projects in eastern Indiana.

They’ve sent the Senate a bill that would set a 90 percent Hoosier worker goal for state road projects and give in-state companies a cost preference of at least 15 percent (and up to 25 percent) when bidding on state contracts.

In an e-mail Thursday afternoon, an Indiana Finance Authority official said the state agency has yet to finalize the stimulus loan for the treatment plant and it appears North Manchester started the project with short-term financing — not stimulus money — because it had construction bids that were about to expire.

Not sure if that mean there’s still time to find a few more Hoosiers to work the job.

It makes me happy that a bill requiring chain restaurants to post or make available nutritional information cleared the Indiana House yesterday, but the cynic in me wonders if it’ll make a difference.

I read labels and compare products before buying or eating them. Do you?

I’m concerned about society’s expanding waistband, especially when I see kids walking around with spare tires and love handles.

And I absolutely think we need as much information as we can get about the food we’re being served at restaurants that all-too-frequently dish up empty calories to shave cost off the bottom line.

I just wish there was a way to make folks read the information, understand what it means to their long-term health and make responsible decisions.