Interesting, but not surprising to hear that Rob Pastore got the GOP shaft. Anyone who took the time to sit down and talk with Rob would know that he is a person adamant about cleaning corruption from the political system across the board. That position in its own right would cause some GOP insiders to embark upon a smear campaign because they themselves benefit from the dark side of GOP politics.

The sad part of this is that Hammond and Northwest Indiana has been harmed when Kim Krull, head of the Lake County GOP, removed an honest and ethical representative due to backroom chatter and pressure from the guys who feel threatened by Rob. It is said that George Janiec had a hand in this and I would imagine that not only did George put the squeeze on Rob, but that other guys within the GOP did also. Rob threatens their dark-side stranglehold in Lake County. George is running for Hammond Mayor, Rob Pastore is running for Hammond Mayor.  George Janiec wants power and control and has and will run for any office where he can get his name on the ballot. George is a career politician in that he wants to hold office, any office, not for the benefit of the people, but for his own ladder climbing ambition. Rob Pastore ran for US Congressional District 1 and now for Hammond Mayor in hopes of bringing ethical and honest representation to and for the people. People such as Rob are not well liked by the old GOP guard in that he messes with their game simply by stating that he would root out corruption.

So what do they do?  They bend Kim Krull’s ear and fill it with stories. My guess, considering what she did to Rob, is that she believed those self serving politicians and for her own benefit, acted from pressure with the party higher-ups. She threw Rob under the bus.  My guess is that some politically powerful politicians downstate put the squeeze on Kim to ditch Rob, not because he was wrong, but because he was right.  I will give Kim Krull a little tip: I have heard the conversations from some of the same guys who were whispering in your ear. Those guys do not have your, the people’s or the GOP interests in mind. I am occasionally in the same place as those guys and have heard them trash you, rant on your decisions and I have witnessed them, in your presence, pretend to respect you and tell you ‘helpful’ things; not because what they say is true, but because they want to influence your decisions. They use you. You are basically the most powerful GOP person in Lake County and if they can gain your trust they can thereby influence what happens around here and in all of NWI.

Don’t ask me to name names, I don’t roll like that. I’ll have my conversations regarding this with those guys the next time I see them. My point of even bringing this up is because I hate to see people used.  I know that everyone needs to ask for counsel, bring in differing opinions, but what we have in NWI is a bevy of power hungry guys who will say one thing and do the other and tell you lies to benefit their agenda. My advice to Kim is to clean house, stand back and reflect on who is telling you what and ask why they are telling you anything.  You lost a very good guy in Rob Pastore and it is very troubling that the dark side was able to get to you to push him out. The only people happy with your decision are Democrats and the sleazy GOP crowd. There is a reason why they went after Rob. Think about it.

You did not have to look too far during this recent primary to see and hear the gossip and workings of the crooked politicians. These are the same guys who planted candidates in the District 1 race, who walked door to door with 28 year old Peter Lindemulder III, who with no experience in the real world, but with buckets of money, managed to pull out a number two spot.  Imagine that, a young guy who is unable to relate with the common man, as he was raised in a privileged environment, comes in second. If Pete Lindemulder III had received the primary nod it would have been another guaranteed Visclosky win. He would have run a half-assed race against Pete V. because he and his business partners want Visclosky to stay in.  Lindemulder has a vested interest in keeping Petey Visclosky in office through Visclosky’s earmark handouts and favorable legislation to the waste management industry.  We know what will happen next; Peter Lindemulder will get a seat on the Lake County Waste Management board and wield the influence garnered by his father’s association with Allied Waste. Lindemulder was only running in the District 1 race to get name recognition. Nothing he will do will be in the people’s interest. Don’t be fooled by campaign rhetoric, Peter Lindemulder III would have been a younger version of Pete Visclosky.

Mark Leyva got the Democratic votes, again, and pulled down the #1 spot in District 1.  It was Operation Chaos in reverse; the Dems came out to vote Republican in the primary to make sure that Leyva won, again. Mark Leyva is a loser. He has lost every race for Pete’s seat since 1998.  Of course the Dems will vote for him in an open primary, there is nothing to lose, they switch back and vote Dem in the general, and  they have everything to gain by knowing that Mark will hand Pete  Visclosky another victory.  The only real race here is to see if Mark can set a record for losing  the longest and also give Visclosky the largest win percentage in Indiana history.

Valparaiso Mayor John Costas has to be in Pete Visclosky’s pocket. He got his brother-in-law, Adam A. Dombkowski, to run in the District 1 race, effectively controlling what happened in Porter County, ensuring that votes were split off until there was nothing left and that nothing was and is Mark Leyva, AGAIN. Adam’s candidacy was a successful plot to split the vote and ensured that Visclosky would have no competition come November.  Thanks John,  Adam had no business in the race and you knew it. I attended many Lake and Porter County candidate forums and never once did I see Adam in attendance. I met one person out of hundreds that actually saw him at a forum and they said that Adam was pathetic, ill-equipped to even answer questions from the audience. If you think that Adam would be a good congressman then Valparaiso should take note and replace you come the next mayoral election.  John, your sense of what is good for the people is blinded by your desire to manipulate election results.  Ladies and gentlemen, just wait for it, wait for it… I bet that Valpo/Porter County gets a large chunk of ‘gimme’ money from a Visclosky earmark down the road.  Just wait and watch.

The general population is blind to the behind the scenes bullshit that these guys pull. The majority of the GOP people that I met do not have the people’s interest in mind; they have a narcissistic desire for power and control. This is evident in how they insert themselves into politics. Their conversations lean towards who is doing who and lots of anecdotes of what “so-and-so said”. They bend your ear to fill you in on what is really happening behind the scenes, talk smack about their fellow GOP pals and then turn a happy face on when in the company of those same persons.  Just think of elementary school yard politics on steroids. The difference between the school yard antics and what these GOP guys do is that the GOP guys are now adults and dangerous and affect all of our lives with their backroom deals, underhanded smear campaigns, stacking elections, vote splitting and ‘you name it’. They send in plants as candidates and they plant people in candidate campaigns to gather info and negatively affect the campaign.  Ask those same GOP dudes that want to influence Lake County about the issues and you will get a politicians dance with moves designed to never dive deep into the topic and never reveal that they do not have a grip on the issue. It is just a game to them.

Rob Pastore is a person who has the potential to stand in the way of corruption. Rob Pastore would actually govern FOR the people, knows the issues on top of his being ethical and moral. Those qualities made him a liability to politics as usual in Lake County.  It is disappointing that Kim Krull did not stand on her own, judging Rob’s merits and contributions and instead was influenced by not so hidden agendas.  Just when we thought that the Lake County GOP was growing a set, would recognize corrupt, power hungry politicians, we have this setback.

I am more than angry with what is happening with the Lake County GOP, I am frustrated with political corruption, the dangerous games they play with our lives, their complete inability in the primary to get out the vote and get people to the polls. I am livid that the GOP has fallen for the dirty games, dirty politics all of which was supposed to have been on its way out.

There is a lot of work to be done before we have honest and ethical representation in the Lake County GOP and in NWI. Some in the GOP have their heart in the right place and they must strive to weed out lies and corruption.

One good thing that comes from this is that Rob Pastore is free to run his Mayoral campaign with fewer distractions.

Related posts:

1. ROB PASTORE ISSUES STATEMENT REGARDING OBAMACARE AND THE FIRST CONGRESSIONAL SEAT

Please welcome Ken Davidson, a Northwest Indiana resident as an author on ONL.

Ken brings interesting views on issues and he tends to be research oriented in his writings. I am glad to have him write on ONL as he will contribute to local topics, regional issues, and national concerns as well.

Ken and I write differently and his contributions will be a breath of fresh air. We do not agree on all issues, we hold differing views on a variety of subjects and that makes for healthy discourse.

His views are not mine, and mine are not his.

Again, although we have far more readers than people who comment, I encourage you to come out of your shell and post your thoughts.

Related posts:

1. Michelle Obama and Poor Women

To start this off, I participate in a variety of Tea Party events and have attended events where the Lake County Tea Party has been present.  I found the members friendly and enthusiastic in their promotion of the group motto, “Taking Action-Taking Responsibility-Taking Back America”.

From its inception by leader Mark J. Leyva, there has been suspicion that this Tea Party is exactly what the National Tea Party Patriots warned us about, the Republicans will attempt to take over the Tea Party for political gain.  The self-proclaimed Leader of this Tea Party, Mark J. Leyva is a perennial candidate for Congress, having run for that office hoping to unseat Pete Visclosky since 1998.  That is a long time and Mark is on his way into the Indiana Hall Of Fame as a perennial candidate, which by definition is a candidate who runs with little or no hope of winning. He just keeps running and running and when Mark Leyva wins the primary, it is a guaranteed win for Visclosky come November in the general election, as years of the Leyva vs Visclosky races have shown us. Pete Visclosky loves it and may even support Mark’s campaign from afar because if Mark wins, Pete wins.

The URL to Mark Leyva’s Tea Party site reads, “http://teamgopin.com/wordpress/”.  Read that again, it is “Team Grand Old Party (GOP) Indiana”.  He created his tea party site as an extension of the Republican Party. Those of us in NWI, knowing of Mark Leyva’s many political campaigns, smelled something foul when he claimed to be a Tea Party Leader.  His Lake County Tea Party has not yet captured much support in the area.  Lake County has a large population and with Mark in control of this Tea Party it has floundered in obscurity. To gather a 25 to 100 people at a rally = failure when you have population numbers that are greater than the next county over, Porter county, which has drawn 1000 people to its rallies. Quite a few Lake County people attend the Porter County rallies held by Faith Jones of the Northwest Indiana Patriots, (discussion board here.) Faith is a regular citizen who has no political aspirations, unlike Mark Leyva who jumped onto the Tea Party bandwagon to use it as a tool for his never-ending campaign for Congress. I might post more on another day, discussing the candidate forums where Mark Leyva talks about the Tea Party during campaign forums, speaking of his hopes the Tea Party will do what he has not been able to do in 12 years, and that being winning a general election. Unfortunately, the INTeaParty down in Indianapolis has fallen for the Leyva ruse and have been behind the scenes in assisting him. (Psst, Indy, S. Martin, we need to talk).

Wouldn’t it be fitting that the Democrats down south control the Tea Party of Lake County, purposely hindering the message of the Tea Party in Lake County so as to keep people uninformed and thereby secure another Democratic win in the primary and general elections? Hmm, we have the Indy Tea Party being duped by Mark and then we may have the Democratic Party from down south actually running the Lake County Tea Party. I say ‘may’ because the evidence is there, but I don’t have my hands on it, so I cannot make a claim aside from throwing in ‘maybe’s’.

Politics is a wicked game for Lake County which ranks as one of the most corrupt in Indiana, centering in East Chicago, Indiana.  (Do a little speculation as to what is going on behind the scenes and you will be on target at least once if not twice.)

Regarding the title of this post, I wrestled with what I would say.  I appreciate the Tea Party Movement for the massive informational conduit that the grassroots organization provides.  I hesitate to lay out any claims that may detract from the movement.  Yet, I cannot ignore the path that Mark Leyva has taken.  Most know that the Tea Party is under assault from the Democratic Left as being racist, homophobic, violent and anti-American along with a host of other insults. From what I have witnessed, the opposite is true of the Indiana Tea Parties in general with one exception in the homophobic category.  In the category of homophobic I believe that Mark Leyva promotes hate against homosexuals and he does this alone, no other Tea Party joins him in that crusade.

Yeah, I said it.  Mark Leyva has an irrational fear of homosexuals. I say this because this is not the first email where Mark J. Leyva has attacked a portion of the populace, used hate and fear-mongering to further his agenda. There are other emails as evidence.

Depending on his mood, Mark Leyva sends out what he calls, “Pass On Material” email blasts.

The Mark Leyva Tea Party email blast dated April 19th, 2010 has a disturbing link on the bottom left corner.  The link is titled: Crown Point HS 19 10.doc (27k)”.

I honestly do not click on his links most of the time, but I clicked on this one. For those that do not live in this area, there is discussion regarding the National Day of Silence that was held on Friday, April 16th. The article has 335 comments so far and is not stopping.

The National Day of Silence is described on their website as this:

On the National Day of Silence hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.

I will note that studies have found that the teen population consisting of Lesbians and Gays has the higher suicidal thought plus attempted suicide rate, higher than any other group. Our children, regardless of their sexual orientation, are killing themselves because they cannot stand living in a world where they are bullied and hated not only by their peers, but by adults. Mark Leyva is Catholic, does his religion condone homosexual hate, or has he strayed?

With the knowledge that our children are vulnerable and in need of help, how can Mark Leyva promote the letter I am about to post here?  Mark J. Leyva, who dreams of being a Congressman for Indiana District 1, who wants people to believe that he cares about Northwest Indiana, promotes the degradation and isolation of a vulnerable portion of our society. If Mark J. Leyva cared about Northwest Indiana he would have NEVER included the hate filled letter against teens in his email blast, he would have stood up for that segment of the population. Mark J. Leyva proposes to represent a select demographic during a stint in Congress; he will represent some of the people, not all of the people. He not only included that letter, he promoted it, and that in itself says he agrees with this hate filled diatribe against the vulnerable teens who are gay. So yes, that makes Mark J. Leyva homophobic. No two ways about it. 

Keep in mind that the Lake County Tea Party email blast this letter came with is an email that Mark Leyva approves. It is not like a discussion board where anyone can sign up and you never know what they will say.  Mark has to specifically cut and paste links in order to compose his email. Everything in that email is on purpose, selected and promoted and represents Mark J. Leyva, a candidate for Congress, District 1.  There are no gnomes that sneak in weird articles in the middle of the night, adding links to his emails. All of that is done by Mark Leyva.

So here is a letter that Mark agrees with and chose to add to his email blast. The author is unknown. Read it for yourself and ask how he can promote this unbridled hate, by an adult, aimed at teens who may be different from you.   Is this really what we want as a U.S. House of Representatives candidate?  You decide. Will this push another child to leave us, choose suicide, because she or he cannot stand living in this world?

Here is Mark J. Leyva’s approved message to the people:

Ok I am pissed to put it mild

This morning I got a message that

Crown Point High School

In Crown Point , In was

having a

“Day of Silence ”

on Friday April 16, 2010

This is a day of promoting

the gay life to our kids

: Four Things You Should
Know about Student Rights and Day of Silence (2010)blog.dayofsilence.org

It makes me disgusted that they are using

our tax dollars for this

I called the high school and district office and

left them with a piece of me..

The secretaries were shocked as I was at the high school when the
announcement was read over the pa

The district office wasn’t even aware of it yet

Please call and tell them they have a lot of nerve using our tax
money to promote this crap

and If you have a child in the public school system or know of any,
please

check and make sure how they will be observing this Friday at

their school..this is nationwide

They are after the kids..i would keep mine home if i still
had any in school

Sent with love for our children and our country

Pj

Please pass this on

Crown Point High School  663-4885

district office  663-3371

Related posts:

1. A Letter to the People, Lake County Indiana, Corruption, Pay-to-Play, Pete Visclosky

Cheryl Oprisko, is a true American, backed by her husband Mark Oprisko. They are convinced that the Tea Party is a violent group of extremists and they must protect all children from exposure to a Tea Party event.  Never-mind that Tea Party events are a celebration of America where all events opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, a statement  honoring all veterans and the singing of the national anthem. Cheryl and Mark are upset that the Marine Junior ROTC from Portage High School in Indiana wants to carry the colors in the opening ceremony and lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

(See the bottom of the article for the time and date of a meeting with the Portage school board to discuss Northwest Indiana Patriots and the JROTC). See UPDATE for location at bottom of article.
Is this a Northwest Indiana Tea Party Patriots tussle with the Portage ROTC? Some want to believe that this is a tussle, a fight. I think not. It is a discussion which will continue this Wednesday, Apr. 7th,  where those who may not know what a Tea Party is will have an opportunity to receive some firsthand information. I believe that some want it to be a ‘tussle’ as it suits their political agenda. They want to make it a fight between the Northwest Indiana patriots and the Portage High School.  It is just wrong headed of these pundits to create that atmosphere.  Talk about showing colors, we have seen some people who pretend to be with NWIP finally come out of the closet and acknowledge that they used NWIP to launch their political career and meanwhile they work behind the scenes to dismantle and slander that same organization. Creeps.

Is NWI Patriots causing problems with the Portage JROTC?  What is the problem? The Portage JROTC agreed to carry the colors and leave. The school board, accommodating the concerns of one person, Cheryl Oprisko, scheduled a meeting to further discuss the issue. Sounds pretty straightforward to me. It is a discussion, not a fight. The school board invited Northwest Indiana Patriots to this meeting, NWIP didn’t create this scenario, Cheryl Oprisko did. NWIP is responding to an invitation. I hear that one local candidate for office is going to grandstand the meeting in defense of the ROTC claiming that they will sully their reputation by associating with Tea Party event and NWIP. Hmm, when I checked his website, before and after he  came out as a politician, he had photos and videos of his very attendance at these tea party events. In fact, he managed to be a speaker at most of those same tea party events.  This should be fun to watch on Wednesday. He did a little dance on his website with a post to distance himself from NWIP. After using NWIP to advance his political agenda, he no longer needs them, saying that NWIP has ‘changed’. Nothing has changed with NWIP in 1 1/2 years, it is just politically expedient to bash NWIP.  He was for it before he was against it.

Oh horrors that our children desire to be patriots. The JROTC agreed to carry the colors, lead the Pledge of Allegiance and then leave.  Cheryl claims that the event is a poltical event.  I have attended these events and Cheryl has not, so I am trumping Cheryl and Mark Oprisko.  These events are an honoring of veterans and America. It is a gathering of people from all walks of life, your neighbors, your pastor, your friends, your countrymen who love America. I have witnessed 80 year old farmers attend alongside 20-somethings with their young families along with all the other groups represented in society as a whole. Yep, there are speeches regarding the current state of affairs, there are speeches on the Constitution and they do at times have a political bent. Our entire lives are affected by politics in some manner every waking moment of every day. You cannot escape it. The conversations and speeches at a Tea Party event are no different than what citizens may have around their coffee table any day of the year.  It just so happens that the people talking about America at a Tea Party have a microphone.  People who attend these events take what they want from what is said and leave the rest. On this particular day, the Portage JROTC is scheduled to open the event and then leave. They will not be exposed to any patriotism beyond that and this in itself should calm the worried and frightened.

Cheryl Oprisko was a bit rushed, imo, when she blurted to the Post-Tribune newspaper that Tea Party groups are extremist.  Poor choice of words, slanderous actually, when in this day and time, in the aftermath of 9-11, the word extremist easily equates with terrorist.  Cheryl did not do much thinking at all on this matter. My guess is that she reacted as a typical leftist reacts with name calling and trying to sway opinions through using emotionally charged words. Reality and truth have nothing to do when the Left has to protect children from groups openly showing patriotism. They will none of that.

Northwest Indiana Patriots (NWIP) is a legal, 501(c)3 non-profit educational charity. They cannot hold political events siding with one party or candidate over any other. In fact, I know it to be true that members of NWIP include Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Greens, You-Name-It.

So what is Cheryl really trying to protect children from when she says that the Portage Marine Junior ROTC should not carry the colors?

Me thinks she may watch too much Keith Olbermann, lame stream media and leftist talk radio or might have taken Nancy Pelosi’s seriously in her efforts to paint any Tea Party event as dangerous and filled to the brim with extremist and terrorist. If that was indeed the case, why did Nancy Pelosi and crew walk through the middle of hundreds of thousands of these violent extremists carrying a huge gavel to signal the passage of Obamacare?

This is on top of over 1 Million Tea Party extremist/terrorists bringing their violent tea party movement to the Capitol steps on Sept. 12th, 2009 where the largest known march on DC took place and there was not one arrest.

See all those little dots that looks like a field of flowers, that is the extremists crowd that took their concerns to DC on Sept. 12th., 2009. No arrests, no scuffles, no problems with over 1 million people in one place. Now THAT’s ‘extreme’.

See clipped article below.  Visit the link to read it in it’s entirety.

PORTAGE — The Portage Township School Board might have to move a special meeting scheduled for next Wednesday to decide whether to allow the high school Marine Junior ROTC unit to participate at a Northwest Indiana Patriots rally in Valparaiso on April 14. [Meeting is at 3pm, Portage HS Admin Bldg. , 3pm, Wed., April 7th]

At this week’s regular board meeting, member Cheryl Oprisko strongly objected to the cadets posting the American flag and leading the Pledge of Allegiance at the courthouse…which was announced on the group’s Web site www.nwipatriots.com .

“Parents brought this to me. I couldn’t believe it. I think this is an extremist group, and I don’t think our students should be affiliated with any political organization,” she said, telling the rest of the board about what she found on the site.

“I did get a phone call from a parent who was also concerned,” board member Deb Ekdahl said.

Oprisko’s motion to deny the permission for the appearance received no response.

Board member Bill Fekete said he recalled high school football players appearing at polling places for Democratic Party candidates.

“As a taxpayer in Portage, I have a real issue with sending students to an event like this,” said Mark Oprisko, Cheryl’s husband.

Board president Terry Hufford suggested the special meeting, to take place before April 14.

Portage Township Schools Supt. Michael Berta said senior Marine instructor Maj. John Johnston and Principal Caren Swickard will be at the special meeting and defended the cadets’ appearance.

“Our students have been asked to participate in the posting of the colors of our country, and that’s what they responded to. This is not an affiliation,” Berta said.

[Faith Jones, Founder of NWIP] noted that when the Valparaiso Board of Works granted a permit for the rally, city attorney David Hollenbeck said their previous meetings have been orderly and nonviolent.

Johnston said he took the request from Jones to Swickard, who approved it. Swickard also was contacted and said the involvement was “strictly nonpolitical” and the cadets would leave after performing their duties.

Meeting Information here.  (“The meeting has been moved to the West Cafeteria of the High School.
You will enter the building through Door F and turn right at the first
hallway. The cafeteria is the first door. There should be some signage.”)

Related posts:

1. Portage High School Meeting, Wed. 4-7-2010 Canceled

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Christopher Mullins, and I have been active in conservative and pro-taxpayer causes, off and on, since 2000. Over the past ten years, I grew to admire the resiliency of the American public, their ability to stand up for what is right, to never countenance hatred against family values and our cultural heritage, and to glower over those politicians who hold little or no regard for ethical conduct.

I must then appeal to you, as a citizen who is greatly concerned with the direction our beloved country is going, to your belief in holding politicians liable for their machinations and their specious belief systems. As such, I must request you please take a deeper look at the unprecedented corruption, as well as the unsung political reform movement currently taking place here in Lake County, Indiana.

Much can be said of the staggering levels of corruption and graft, which has turned Lake County into a verifiable ‘Tammany Hall’ style syndicate, consequently enabling 80 years of Democratic rule in Indiana’s First Congressional District. For even the late Attorney General Robert Kennedy had remarked that Lake County was one of the nation’s most corrupt counties. U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Merrillville), 26-year incumbent for Indiana-District 1, has the reprehensible distinction of being named one of the 15 most corrupt Congressmen, by the independent watchdog firm Citizens For Responsibility And Ethics In Washington (CREW). For example, Rep. Visclosky’s ties to the troubled, now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group run deep, having secured more than $23 million in earmarks for PMA Group clients in 2008 (with $117 million total in earmarks for 67 projects), and another $10 million in 2009. Moreover, Visclosky has given other lobbying firms, such as K&L Gates, a similar “swift path to earmarks”. Given all of this, I weep for the people of Northwest Indiana; for Rep. Visclosky has only directed 3% of his earmarks to local businesses and nonprofit entities, depriving his own constituents of sorely needed financial resources.

Municipal governments in the region have also been subjected to such incredible graft. Robert Pastrick, the former mayor of East Chicago for 33 years, along with six shell corporations and two of his allies, was ordered to repay the city $108 million in their 1999 “sidewalks for votes” scheme. In rendering this verdict, District Judge James Moody declared Pastrick-run East Chicago a “corrupt enterprise”, which was the first time any federal judge has used such terminology to describe a city government. Furthermore, Pastrick’s successor, George Pabey, was indicted last month on embezzling city funds for remodeling one of his residences. Last but not least, 38 of 53 officials in East Chicago had been convicted of vote fraud in the 2003 mayoral Primary. Unfortunately, similar occurrences of gross corruption have also occurred in Hammond, Gary and Merrillville.

But what is not usually known, is the extent to which such large-scale corruption had permeated into the Lake County Republican Party. The Lake County Democratic Central Committee (LCDCC) had conducted a progressively ruinous campaign to ensure political control of the region, by paying off a handful of Republican officials, and/or respective relatives and business associates. The LCDCC seemed to conduct these efforts simply to sabotage honest, genuinely conservative Republican candidates. In other words, this small yet highly influential (i.e., LCDCC-connected) cadre of Republicans would routinely favor “patsy” candidates in a given Primary election, so that the Democrats could cruise to easy victories in the General election. A pointed example of this is former East Chicago Republican chair Bob Cantrell, who was sentenced to 78 months of jail in 2008, for 11 counts of ‘defrauding the public of honest services while working for a public entity’, “insurance fraud using the U.S. Mail”, and filing false tax returns. Cantrell has long been noted as a Democratic plant, claiming ties to the GOP while pulling the rug out from under honest Republican candidates in their Primary elections. What is unfortunate, though, is that strains of this puppetry still rear their ugly head in 2010, with multiple “planted” candidates (i.e., those that have not made any effort of campaigning, who cannot articulate their platform) trying to siphon votes off of candidates of honorable repute.

In general, things are rapidly changing for the better, however, as the extent of the corruption in Lake County has reached critical mass. Over the past twenty years, a highly spirited group of reformers have worked diligently to clean up the corruptors and infiltrators that had turned the Lake County GOP into a token opposition. St. John GOP Chairman Joe Hero and Hammond GOP Chairman Rob Pastore have spent their entire public lives working to make local Primary elections free and fair, without the pernicious tentacles of the corrupt LCDCC getting in the way. Highland GOP Chairman Mario Martini and former Highland Chairman Cy Huerter also strived to support and mentor honest, genuinely conservative candidates, in spite of apparent risks to their reputations. And former U.S. Attorney Joseph VanBokkelen strove to pursue corrupt politicians in every nook and cranny of the region, conducting unprecedented investigations and prosecuting several landmark corruption cases.

Citizens should be able to seek redress from their representatives, without “pay for play”. Yet this is how “politics as usual” has always been in Lake County. I have written several Letters to the Editor and Guest Commentaries, as well as a few dossiers chronicling ethics violations and general corruption, and I try to keep up the faith that things might change here. Though I know that more and more work needs to be done, in order to get the public to realize that graft and avarice from their elected officials is not acceptable, it is becoming more difficult by the day.

Please, I beg of you; there are several pro-reform, pro-taxpayer, genuinely conservative candidates running for local offices in 2010, who desperately need your moral and financial support. In my best estimate, these fine folks have allied themselves with all that is ethical and just, and have never been associated with “pay for play” and other such nefarious schemes. Rob Pastore is an example of such a candidate, in that while he has never run for political office, he has served the people of Hammond and Northwest Indiana without resorting to corrupt practices and ethical lapses. Yet in spite of the lack of mainstream media coverage, Pastore’s (and others like them) consistent message of eliminating the “politics as usual” is starting to gain traction with hard-working people all across Northwest Indiana. For it is this new breed of Republicans, both having an unmitigated commitment to fiscal and social conservatism, and lacking the devilish taint of corruption that had served to poison their efforts here in the past, which will help turn this long-suffering region around.

Thank you for reading this letter, and may God bless you and your families. These candidates, such as Rob Pastore and Cy Huerter, need your support: If you have anything to give, please open your hearts and contribute all that you are able. The time is now; for if we cannot manage to elect such honest, fundamentally good people in the Primary on May 4^th, and subsequently in the General election, we may not have another opportunity to shatter the circle of corruption here for another 20-30 years.

Sincerely,

Christopher Mullins

Some Informative Contacts:

Northwest Indiana Patriots (Local Tea Party Group) – http://www.nwipatriots.com

CREW articles on Rep. Visclosky: http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/39810

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/43122

Rob Pastore, Candidate for District 1-IN, U.S. House: http://www.robpastore4congress.com

Cy Huerter, Candidate for State House District 11: http://www.citizens4cy.com

Related posts:

1. House Ethics Committee Stonewalled by Visclosky, Pete’s Pay-to-Play Case kicked up to the Dept. of Justice.

Pete Visclosky (D) currently warms the seat as a U.S. Congressman in the House of Representatives, Indiana District 01. District 01 covers Lake, Porter, Newton, Jasper and Benton counties. Come May there will one democrat challenger to  Pete and 8 Republican challengers. You can go here and read the entire list (pdf) of candidates across the entire State of Indiana.

I have talked with two of the challenger for District 01 and I’ll let it be known that Rob Pastore is the guy I will be helping to win in the primaries and then helping toward a win in November.

Rob is holding a Meet & Greet this Friday, February 26th at 6:30 pm in Merrillville, IN

Go here and read the details.  This will be a good opportunity to talk with Rob. Leave your index cards at home, unlike Visclosky, he will not cherry pick questions.

If you live in any of the five counties listed above, contact Rob on his website and arrange a meeting.  I suggest gathering friends, patriots, tea party persons, and anyone you know and invite Rob to your home, business or wherever and have a meet & greet. See the form on his website under the ‘Volunteers’ label for a checklist of ways you can help and also to arrange a meet & greet.  While you are there, feel free to drop a little in the Contribute bucket. Every dollar helps.

Robert (Rob) Pastore for Congress U.S. Congress – District 01

Related posts:

1. Rob Pastore Meet & Greet, Question and Answer, March 27th., Valparaiso, Indiana.

Mind you that Evan Bayh represents the entire state of Indiana, but the Chicago connection seeps into Indiana from the northern border. So for the thugs in Chicago to be campaigning and fundraising for an Indiana Senator is no big news.

According to Hillbuzz:

More on this later when we have time to tell you the whole story, but here in Chicago there’s a push going out from big donors we know from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.  Evan Bayh seems to be in a lot of trouble in Indiana.

All it took was one Democrat — JUST ONE — to tell Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the White House that more time was needed for the public, let alone the Senators voting, to understand what was really in the Healthcare Rationing Bill before voting on it.

Evan Bayh had the chance to stand up, courageously, and tell Democrats they were operating in the dead of night, in secret, contrary to all their promises they would handle healthcare in the open following  the wishes of the people.

Bayh could have ground everything to a halt and FORCED Democrats to behave responsibly, sensibly, and in the manner they promised in 2008.

He didn’t.

That was his choice.

Though it pains us to side against Evan Bayh, we feel Evan Bayh sided against us in the Nightmare Before Christmas.

How much trouble do you think he’s really in in Indiana?  The talk we hear is that, as of the latest internal polls this week, he’s going to lose his seat.

Read the entire article here.

Related posts:

1. Praise the Lard – Senator Evan Bayh Not Seeking Re-Election

In Northwest Indiana we have patriots that gather around two tea party groups. One group is lead by a woman and the other by a man. This is not a woman vs man thing, but merely a way of distinguishing the two groups. The woman began her group from her living room and it is the largest in the area. She has never ran for office and has no plans to run for office. Her events draw large crowds. The man’s group is run by a politician who has run for Congress many times and jumped onto the Tea Party bandwagon as a Republican candidate for Congress.

His focus at protests has not been the protest itself but in sending out minions to gather names, addresses and telephone numbers. We know why politicians do that sort of thing. This guy does this under the guise of being a Tea Party leader who needs all of that personal information so that he can keep you informed. Yeah, right, you need our street addresses and telephone numbers? Mark my words, Tea Party people will begin to see his campaign propaganda show up in their mailboxes, at their front door and be phoned during dinner come campaign time. And some Tea Party people may wonder how this politician got their personal info. It is an underhanded and classless move by this guy.

He takes no initiative to pursue freedoms for the people as much as he takes his lead from the Indiana State tea party group. They are the self appointed leaders for the State of Indiana and reside in the Indianapolis area. He has pursued good relations with the State group as a method of eventually using them to promote his run for Congress. They don’t believe he is anything but a great tea party guy and the people in Northwest Indiana who actually live here and know about this guy have been trying to wake up State for a long time. The Indiana State Tea Party is being used by this guy and it makes a person wonder just what is going on in Indy when they have allowed a politician to take over a tea party.

People are murmuring that the Tea Party people should vote and campaign for this guy because he is a Tea Partier. They could not be further from the truth and this becomes a dangerous position for the Tea Patry. Just because a person, a politician has aligned himself with the Tea Party movement, he or she should NOT be given a pass and be viewed as the best candidate. People must investigate each and every candidate as an individual and ignore any R, D, I, G or whatever after their name. Republicans ARE trying to use the Tea Party for their political gain. We saw and continue to see that with The Tea Patry Express. We have a very clear example here in NWI with they guy who runs a tea party here, a Republican who saw this as a political vehicle from day one.

Listen, politicians such as the one I am referring to are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They take no action, join no group unless they see a way to use that group for their personal gain, for votes while stepping on the back’s of the unsuspecting Tea Party people to attain a self-centered, narcissistic goal of winning a political office.

This ties into what Kyle-Anne states as her experience below in that the tea party people smell something funky when it comes to politicians using the Tea Party Movement. Funky is not the word for the Patriots in Northwest Indiana. It outright stinks up in here.

Sure, politicians may have an opinion that is shared or resembles what the Tea Party Movement stands for, but to be a politician and run a tea party, to actively run for Congress and run a tea party, to pull some stunts at tea parties that shows people that you are a politician first and an American second, to write website posts that push your political agenda while pretending that no-one notices that you are a politician using the Tea party movement, well, those things do  not pass the smell test and yes, We The People notice.

Kyle-Anne Shiver writes: (Excerpts posted below. Bolding mine. Read the entire article HERE.)

Since last April, I’ve written a few columns on the Tea Parties, but I had never actually
attended one in person. I harbored a few misconceptions, formed at a
distance through the media’s drive-by lens. Being a woman who tends to
cower in crowds and who loves the security and solitude of my little
office-cloister, I had been content to write based on the observations
of others. But an Alabama homemaker-turned-activist, Suzanne Green of
Birmingham, pulled me into the bosom of the Tea Party movement along
with the Rainy Day Patriots.

So what’s a Tea Party?

In
a nutshell, the Tea Parties are a visible expression of the widespread
rekindling of the love of liberty. This rekindling of freedom’s fires
seems to be occurring among diverse individuals independently, and then
they seek out fired-up others with whom to connect. Among Tea Party
participants, there is a demonstrated willingness to actually do
something tangible in order to claim those unalienable rights of which
our Founders wrote, and for which so many have given their lives in
battle.

This
may be the movement Americans truly have been waiting for. It’s the
real deal, the genuine article. It comes from the groundswell of the
people, not from the power-broker elites in political, corporate, or
religious America. It’s middle-class, thoroughly unpretentious, with a
good sense of humor and a keen disdain for things like faux Greek
columns, tacky props, and professionally written hyperbole. At a Tea
Party, you won’t find puffed-up hubris or even a tad of the liberally
popular it’s-all-about-me syndrome.  

Party operatives? Not
welcome. Political candidates?  Keep your mouths shut and your ears
open. Prefer a D or an R after your name? Not here, not on our time, or
on our dime.

The clear message: This is the people’s movement. Outsiders, opportunists, and party pols are vehemently not invited.

Out of all the people
I spoke with — every single one — I did not find a solitary person
willing to identify with a political party. “Independent” was the only
identifier with which people would agree to be labeled. Some said, “I
used to be a Democrat,” or “I used to be a Republican,” but they
invariably put a sharp edge on the words “used to be.” The sense of
betrayal by politicians is palpable among Tea Partiers.   

Related posts:

1. The Tea Party as a Third Party – What the National Tea Party Says