Is there anybody capable of  forming a coherent public policy thought over at Marion County Democratic Party headquarters?  If there is, will you please get out of the building before all the intelligence is sucked out of your brain.  I cannot believe the party that has a lot of pretty bright people in its ranks can have such bumblers as leaders.  Allow me to explain.

As I wrote yesterday, two Democratic members of the Waterworks Board have missed the last three meetings, holding up a vote on the proposed transfer of Citizens Gas as well as $4 million worth of other water projects.  This has annoyed Republicans who say they will introduce and ordinance transferring the Board’s power to the Public Works Board.

County Chairman Ed Treacy told the Indy Star, with a straight face, that he couldn’t believe that the Republicans would stoop to such a low level and when they don’t get their way, they change the law.  Someone needs to remind Ed that at least the Republicans showed up for work.

Treacy also went on to say that by not showing up, Democrats are trying to put pressure on the Board to provide more answers.  So let me if I get this, you want more answers to your questions, so you decide the best way to get them is not show up?

You’re kidding, right?

I’ve never understood the Democrats political strategy on their opposition to the water deal.  Maybe it’s because they don’t have one.  On one hand they say they want more answers so they don’t show up to meetings and vote not to keep the dialogue continuing.  On one hand they complain about the deal and call it a rate increase, on the other hand they’re secretly calling the Mayor’s office begging to make sure their roads get fixed if the deal goes through.

I don’t know who’s in charge, but they need to put down the political crack pipe.  A coherent strategy should have been in place a long time ago.  The only Democrat with a somewhat coherent argument against the deal is mayoral candidate Brian Williams, and even Brian’s arguments fall somewhat short, but at least he put something on the table.  Favored candidate Melina Kennedy can’t speak out about the deal, because her law firm, Baker & Daniels is helping move it forward.

Democrats privately admit that the proposal will likely move forward without their support.  With that knowledge you would think they would be offering amendments to fine tune the deal.  And that way, should it pass, they can show up at the ground breaking and deny the Mayor the opportunity to take all the credit.  But instead, the Marion County Dems are being shortsighted and  demonstrating a clear lack policy formation.  But then again, isn’t this the same type of thinking, and I use the term loosely, that got the City in this situation in the first place?

I thought so, too.

While most Marion County politicos were watching County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi not run for a third term and Helen Marchal announce her candidacy, there was some interesting movement on the Democratic side of the equation.

Candidate David Orentlicher filed paperwork showing he had more than $184,000 in cash on hand in his race for prosecutor.   Greg Bowes had about $4,500.   Party favorite Terry Curry had not filed yet, but campaign sources say his reports will likely show less than $80,000 on hand.   I called Curry’s campaign on Friday, but no one has gotten back with me.

Shortly after I posted this information on my blog and Twitter feed, Democrat Terry Burns immediately jumped up to comment that most of Orentlicher’s money came from a handful of donors and those weren’t “real contributions.”   When I asked Orentlicher about that he told he had more than 125 donors.  Which is true, while there about six donors who gave Orentlicher $25,000 or more 99% of the rest of the donations were in the $75-$500 range.

In addition, the campaign finance experts I spoke with all said that Orentlicher’s fundraising puts him in a very strong position because by raising very large contributions he can show other donors that he can raise money and isn’t wasting anyone’s time.   Obviously he’s had an impact on the County party and is scaring someone, otherwise Burns (who won’t breathe unless Chairman Ed Treacy gives him permission) would not have chimed in so quickly on both my blog and Twitter feed.

Now I am not saying that Orentlicher even has a chance at winning slating, those cards were stacked a long time ago.   However, if he does decide to buck the party establishment and run his own race against the slate, his access to cash would make him an extremely formidable opponent.

Stay tuned.

My Democratic friends are circulating a Night Before Chirstmas parody that mentions yours truly.  So not to be out done, and to show I’m a good sport, I took a sneak peak at the Marion  County Democratic Chairman’s Christmas carol collection and noted the following titles. Enjoy

• All I Want for Christmas is a Tax Increase
• Little Dummer Boy
• Did You Hear What I Hear (On Abdul’s radio show)
• Oh Kennedy, Oh Kennedy
• O Little Town of  Greg Ballard
• Here Come Democrats
• I’ll Have a Blue Pant Suit Christmas Without You (tribute to Jill Long Thompson)
• Up on the Pea Shake Rooftop
• Simply Having A Wonderful Taxing Time
• Run, Run Rudolph.  Just Not For Mayor
• God Rest Ye Merry Precinct Committeemen
• Grandma Got Run Over By Minton-McNeil
• White Christmas*
• Rudolph, the Red-ink Reindeer
• O Come Peterson Faithful

You can create your own lyrics and with the White Chirstmas remark, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Love local politics? You won’t want to miss Will Higgins’ story in this morning’s Indianapolis Star about the fading power of precinct committeefolk in Marion County.

The once-coveted positions, drained of their influence in this post-patronage era, today go begging in Marion County and across the country. Even as a historic presidential election looms, local Republican and Democratic parties each have about 50 precinct openings. They have had vacancies for more than a decade, but the waning interest is especially startling because in January the number of precincts in the county was reduced from 914 to 590.

The job used to mean constant door-to-door canvassing, voter-registering and sometimes front-porch debating.

These days, not so much. For a variety of reasons — personal safety, increasing reliance on political advertising, expanded voter registration methods — it’s no longer common for precinct committeemen to walk their neighborhoods.

I’d argue that there are still a small handful of powerful PCs in the county, but Higgins is right: They’re a dying breed.

Personally, I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. It just means the parties have to be smarter about recruiting talented, involved people who can carry the message back to their neighborhoods. It’s not enough to rely on yard signs, slate cards and the string-laced field maps of yesteryear. There are new technologies and strategies out there that can make party organization a lot easier; we just have to embrace them instead of clinging to the way we’ve always done things.

Though I’ve got Barack Obama’s groundbreaking, impeccably executed campaign in mind, the lessons learned apply to folks on both sides of the aisle.