Elections scare tactics are bad for area's image and well-being
Post-Tribune (IN)
April 3, 1991
April 3, 1991
Cars stolen and fire-bombed, death threats against a candidate and his family - so far it's been a great election campaign for Gary mayor. This is just the type of thing the city needs to regain its pride and its honor.
The recent incidents involving the mayoral campaign should be denounced in the strongest terms as inappropriate to America's democratic form of government. Attempts to physically intimidate political candidates are a cancer on the election process. They should not be encouraged nor tolerated.
Gary Mayor Thomas Barnes' city auto was stolen from the driveway of his driver early one morning. Police found it burned several hours later. Earlier this week mayoral candidate Scott King called the FBI for advice on how to deal with death threats against himself and his family.
It's difficult to sort out what's going on here. Gary police speculate that politics motivated the fire-bombing of Barnes' car. It's not unusual for crackpots to make threats against candidates and public officials, but each has to be taken seriously.
It would be comforting to think that the potential for violence in local elections is an anomaly. Unfortunately it is not. This year's elections in Chicago had more than their share of violence, including one campaign worker who ended up in the hospital after being beaten by supporters of another candidate.
Lake County's rough and tumble political scene has a bloody history that gives candidates reason to be concerned.
Several years ago, Rudy Clay of Gary, an incumbent Lake County commissioner, was the target of a purported shotgun attack.
Just a few weeks less than a decade ago Jay Givan, a leading Lake County political fixer and East Chicago attorney, was assassinated as he departed a campaign fund-raiser for former Lake County Commissioner Noah Atterson Spann . Unrelated to Givan's shooting, Spann is spending 30 years as a guest of the federal government.
About the same time another East Chicago official and union official activist, Babe Lopez, ended up in the front seat of his car with a cement block jammed against the accelerator as it rested at the bottom of the Grand Calumet River.
It is a tradition that will be difficult to break. Unfortunately, it has left Northwest Indiana with a corrupt image. It also lowers the incentive for honorable people to run for office. The area finds itself trapped in a vicious cycle that has gone on way too long.
OUR OPINION
OUR OPINION
Attempts to physically intimidate political candidates are a cancer on the election process.
