08152004 - News Article - The systematic emasculation of the Lake County Democrats - ROBERT CANTRELL

The systematic emasculation of the Lake County Democrats
NWI Times
Aug 15, 2004
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/the-systematic-emasculation-of-the-lake-county-democrats/article_a23ccae1-1064-55c8-b9e0-4dd83c9b701a.html
INDIANAPOLIS -- Most folks in downstate Indiana don't realize the impact that events in the Northwest Indiana region can have on the rest of us. In the early 1980s, the near collapse of the steel industry in the region created such a budget crisis that Gov. Robert Orr had to call the legislature back into session in December 1982 to raise taxes.

Politically, Lake County has been the Democratic bulwark, giving Govs. Evan Bayh and Frank O'Bannon pluralities in the 75,000 to 100,000 vote range, offsetting Republican pluralities from Marion and the surrounding doughnut counties.

But things are changing in profoundly dramatic ways. Two weeks ago, Attorney General Steve Carter filed a civil lawsuit against East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick and 26 others, alleging the city's government is a criminal enterprise. Three days later, in a thunderous decision, the Indiana Supreme Court ordered a new election in East Chicago. It followed a narrow 2003 primary victory by Pastrick over George Pabey, who alleged rampant voter fraud.

Most noteworthy was the vote of Associate Justice Robert D. Rucker, an East Chicago native Pastrick helped get on the high court. Rucker voted with the majority.

"When as here an election is characterized by a widespread and pervasive pattern of deliberate conduct calculated to cast unlawful and deceptive ballots, the election results are inherently deceptive and unreliable," the court said in its ruling.

It was a stunning development on a day that also brought federal indictments of Pastrick confidante James H. Fife III and his wife, Karen Krahn-Fife, and former Schererville judge Deborah Riga.

What is occurring is the systematic emasculation of the Lake County Democratic machine on a five-pronged front, it's impact every bit as dramatic as Evan Bayh's political assault on the Indiana GOP machine in 1986-88.

There are these Republicans: U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen and, higher up in the U.S. Justice Department, Assistant Attorney General Deborah Daniels, who heads the Office of Justice Programs and is the sister of gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels. There is Attorney General Carter, a lowell native, who invoked RICO statutes against Pastrick. There is Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Munster native, who orchestrated a voter file purge that resulted in 70,000 of 340,000 Lake County voter registration validation forms coming back as "undeliverable mail."

Candidate Daniels has been taking aim on the political and economic front. His message has been that Lake County will always have problems attracting good jobs until its corrupt government is rectified.

The list of associates of the Pastrick machine under indictment or investigation -- Fife, former Indiana Democratic Chairman Peter Manous, the mayor's son Kevin Pastrick -- represents a sea change in Lake County and Hoosier politics.

Last September, Pastrick attended Van Bokkelen's "Zero Tolerance of Public Corruption" seminar in Hammond, while at the same time, U.S. marshals fanned out to round up six East Chicago administration and council members involved in the $20 million 1999 sidewalk scandal prior to the primary.

Purdue University Calumet Professor Maurice Eisenstein told the Times of Northwest Indiana he believes the Lake County Democratic machine will slip by at least 15,000 votes this November. Eisenstein said voters might be dissatisfied over Lake County's recent political shenanigans as well as the length of time it took Kernan to propose a solution -- a 2 percent cap of a home's assessed value -- to stem some of the huge property tax hikes in northern Lake County.

"The state's also cleaning up voter rolls," he said. "It'll be much more difficult to pull the hanky-panky stuff."

Democratic stalwarts tend to see Van Bokkelen's efforts as credible, and those by Attorney General Carter, facing a challenge from Democrat Joe Hogsett, as grandstanding.

The irony is that it is the squeaky clean Kernan -- who originally dropped out of the governor's race in part, because of the power play that put the corrupt Manous in as state Democratic Party chairman -- who stands to pay the biggest political price from all the fallout.

Indiana Democrats were slow to cut their ties with the embattled Pastrick. On the night of Kernan's State of the State address, the party under Chairman Hogsett had the "Pastrick Reception" at the Skyline Club.

It's a tough call when to get out the 10-foot pole, particularly with someone like Pastrick.

While few realize the context, the assault on region corruption, the "Indianapolis Works" consolidation proposals by Mayor Bart Peterson, and Brent Waltz's defeat of 36-year Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, all signal dramatic changes in Hoosier politics -- all fascinating precursors to Nov. 2.