One party has run Marion County, Indiana, for decades. On Saturday, March 6, the local GOP will elect a County Chair. Three candidates have announced: John Schmitz, Alex Henby and Joe Elsener. (Michael-Paul Hart dropped out.)

The focus is on who can raise the most money so the Marion County GOP can be in the best position to sell its message. Mr Hart’s numbers indicate that a majority of an annual budget of almost $84K paid “a full-time Executive Director.”

The Marion County GOP has done a hell of a job: in 2019, it won five seats on the City-County Council and came in second in the race for Mayor. That’s a positive “spin.” That “5" was down from “11.” And in the race for Mayor, only 1st place counts.

Rather than focus on a “yay-rah!” message, like politics is the same as varsity sports, a better tack would be to address philosophy and issues. Lee Atwater, et al, saw the “Southern Strategy” as a way to create a GOP monopoly on racism.

To paraphrase Tallyrand, racism not only is wrong, it’s stupid. Marion County is an oasis of progressive views in an otherwise red State. The GOP historically has been progressive. But one party controls Marion County, as it has for decades.

The Marion County GOP should adapt to changes in our country and focus on issues. Money should be spent on what lies beyond a dying convention trade, not on expanding the Convention Center. We also need to fight cancer - the fiscal cancer of TIFS.

Developers and movers & shakers love to build even unnecessary things. If any spare change floats around downtown, owners of professional sports franchises nail it. These are the forces that control the one party that has dominated Marion County for decades.

The party that IS the power in Marion County is neither Democratic nor GOP, but green, and not as in an environmental “green.” Money runs politics here. (The pigment of C-notes has begun to change, so maybe it’s now the blue-green-holygraph party.)

The GOP is a not-for-profit corporation that has a statutory sinecure in our political structure. It is a reality of the political landscape. Sure, money buys ad time, but ads don’t vote. People vote. And people in the 21st Century vote for people who take 21st Century stands.