What's the Matter With Portage?
Indiana Federation of Democratic Women
Posted by Alison Zuidervliet
August 18, 2014
http://www.ifdw.org/what_s_the_matter_with_portage
Though I currently live in Indianapolis, I am proud to call Portage, Indiana my hometown. If you don’t know where Portage is, it is in the Region, northwest Indiana. It is the largest city in Porter County and sits on Lake Michigan between Chesterton and Gary. It is a city of hardworking people with steel mills and other blue-collar jobs dominating the landscape. Up until 2011, it had a successful string of great Democratic mayors.
In 2011, the people of Portage elected a young Republican, James Snyder, to be Mayor. It was a U-turn for the city. Snyder pursued familiar Republican policies and politics, including privatizing services, fighting with unions, and slowing the city’s progress. All the while,Snyder was mismanaging his campaign funds and the city’s tax dollars. He did this so blatantly that he is currently being investigated by the FBI. Their agents are making weekly trips to the county courthouse to pull documents and strengthen their case against Snyder.
Snyder, for his part, seems to not even realize he’s done anything wrong as the case against him grows stronger every day. This is a symptom of the disease that is the Indiana Republican Party.
Since the Republicans have come to their current position of overwhelming power in Indiana, they have systematically lined their own pockets and those of their buddies. The lineup of GOP criminals includes corrupt politicians like Tony Bennett who changes grades for cash, Rep. Eric Turner who stands to make over $900 million after asserting his power and lobbying against bills that would hurt his business deals, and Mitch Daniels who used his own Governor-appointed Purdue Trustees to make him president of the university.
The Indiana Republican Party is acting like it is straight out of a mafia movie. They are an organized crime syndicate, systematically stealing our money and hurting our state while they get richer and become more and more destructive. We should just call them what they really are: the Indiana Republican Mafia.
I need you to help the Indiana Federation of Democratic Women stand up to this corruption and call it out when you see it.
Have you seen an instance of political corruption in your community? Do you know of an official that has violated the public trust without consequence?
Please email me at ali@ifdw.org and let me know about what you see going on in your county. Enough is enough.
Onward to November!
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