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.

Saying he wanted to “trim the fat and cut to the bone,” Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson tonight submitted a new budget request to the City-County Council, $19 million smaller than his original.

Anderson’s original budget request was more than $111 million. The most recent was nearly $93 million. While still $7 million more than what the mayor’s office had budgeted, $85 million, it is still only slightly larger than last year’s total request, $91 million.

Part of the reason for the $19 million increase was part misunderstanding and part overestimation. Anderson’s office thought there was a new court coming on line and so his office budgeted accordingly. In addition several new vehicle purchases have been put on hold. However a good chunk of the savings came from deferred payments to vendors.

Anderson says his original budget request was put together by his staff and he allowed the division chiefs to make the budget proposal, however he had to go back make sure everyone had cut as much as possible.

Anderson says he is optimistic that he’ll be able to function with the new budget request. And Public Safety Director Scott Newman says the two sides are very close to reaching a settlement figure to fund the office. One of the bigger points of contention is the cost per inmate at the County Jail. The city-comptroller’s office estimated the figure at $107 per inmate. The Sheriff’s office puts the figure at about $58.

A final vote on the budget will take place on September 22.

I’m doing some research this morning in preparation for tomorrow night’s Mayoral Budget address.  I’ve already gone over some arts funding figures, parks department numbers, and the possible privatization of the Mayor’s Action Center.

But what’s really interesting is when you start moving into specific areas and certain line items. Take this one for example.  A review of contracts between the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and Counsel to the Sheriff, Kevin Murray, has revealed some interesting information.

By my count, Murray has five separate contracts with MCSD and they are all two-year deals.  Here’s what they are for and how they cost.

• General Counsel Services - $83,442.45 annual retainer.
• Pension Board Services - Up to $60,000 annually.
• Jail Overcrowding - Up to $100,000 annually.
• Labor & Employment - Up to $75,000 annually for services provided to the Sheriff’s Department.
• Labor & Employment - Up to $100,000 annually for services provided to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Making a couple assumptions, Murray was potentially getting paid $836,884.90.  Of course you would have to take into account Frank Anderson no longer controls IMPD as of March of this year and it’s faulty to assume Murray would bill MCSD every last possible dime, but you have to admit, in a day where the city is already $26 million in the hole, six figures ain’t bad take home pay.