Hey Big Spender

Candidate Steve Braun, running for Republican state representative from the newly created 24th district, which includes Zionsville, says in his mailings he was an all-state wide receiver in high school.

Take a look at his campaign report and from the list of his contributions and there's no doubt he's still an all-state receiver - of cash - but not all his fat cats are from Indiana.

href="http://campaignfinance.in.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/FilingDetail.aspx?FilingID=44976">Just click here on the link below and take a gander at his list of big daddys and who they represent.

And, if you've been paying attention to the expensive mailers his campaign has been sending, there is a glaring omission - none mention what district he proposes to represent, and in the third and most recent mailing it even fails to mention he's a Republican.

http://campaignfinance.in.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/FilingDetail.aspx?FilingID=44976

Braun and his brain trust are betting that claiming to be a ''lifelong conservative'' will register with Democrats who will ask for a Republican ballot in the May 8 primary.

But, don't be fooled.

Though Braun's family has spent the last 10 or so years as Zionsville residents, he spent his time commuting to and from Chicago to work. Although he's running on the Republican ballot, he cast his last vote in a Boone County primary election as a Democrat.

But, Braun knew how to fix that - get a letter from the Boone County GOP chair who would attest that he was a Republican, and that's what good old Debbie Ottinger did.
Why? Ottinger knows how her political bread is buttered.

And, it's all legal.

But, the $64,000 question was when did Braun ask for Ottinger's blessings to run as a Republican - before he filed for office, or after he filed?

If he asked for her approval after he filed, then that's an issue for Boone County Election Board, but don't hold your breath for the GOP controlled courthouse mummy dummies to question Braun's legitimacy. There's too much cash at stake.

Consider this:

To make sure there were no speed bumps for his candidacy, he coughed up $15,000 of his own moola to the Indiana State Republican House of Representatives committee, basically gaining the party's favor to get him positioned against Mindy McMillan in the May primary.

And, guess who's one of Braun's fat cats? None other than master wheeler dealer Chad Pittman.

How can he lose?

Folks, it stinks.

Stay tuned.

Newspaper or Toilet Paper - The Times-Sentinel

This week readers of the Zionsville Times-Sentinel were subjected to a variety of slanted, misleading and biased stories, obviously edited by an employee there who has a vested interest in how these stories were presented to unsuspecting subscribers.

The headline story by Matt Weeney swallowed lock, stock and bagels the pap that the Zionsville Community School svengali Scott Robison has been dumping on taxpayers for years. ''Little Johnnie and Susie are going to lose their teachers if taxpayers don't give us more money.''

The second big story Weeney dribbled out was that the Zionsville Town Council endorsed the controversial school referendum. Is it any wonder the council puppets rolled over? Who dumped gadzillons of cash into their campaigns? None other than Jim Longest, a member of the Zionsville school board.

And just who does Longest represent? The taxpayers of Zionsville who cough-up almost 70% of their taxes to fund Robison's fiefdom, or Longest's company, Beam Longest & Neff, which has the town's contract for engineering services?

But, the most outlandish piece of ''reporting'' was Weeney's other front page story: REI Apartments aid Town, ZCS budgets.'' What is in the water Weeney has been drinking?

As one source wrote Zionsville Confidential:

''I think I am in a bad Alice in Wonderland dream where people can say or do anything they want and it is deemed to be true and people take any story and twist the reality out to some mutant-alter-nightmare. Hard to stomach the actual articles that don't tell the whole truth - hard to believe that the people who write them believe what they are saying, let alone the readers."

''How can anyone believe that an apartment complex, no matter the circumstances and numbers presented can be good for a school system?'' Hey, more students, more state aid, bigger schools, bigger budgets that Robison can manipulate.

Don't forget that Weeney's boss is Andrea Cline, whose spouse is an officer in MIBOR - the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors as public affairs director and also treasurer of MIBOR's political action committee.

And, in case you missed it, MIBOR made significant contributions to members of the current town council in the last election. And, MIBOR never met an apartment they didn't love, and which financing institutions love to bankroll.

It's time that Zionsville residents, tired of being subjected to one-sided and slanted writing by the Times-Sentinel send a letter of concerns to the paper's parent corporation, Community Newspapers Inc. Phone: 334-293-5800 Or online inquirey form.

Thank goodness there is a new news outlet in town. For now, the Times-Sentinel is only giving Charmin a run for its money.