Questions Fair on Delayed Mask Mandate

Eric Holcomb
Official State Photo

A month ago, after seeing a 300+ case one day jump, I raised concerns on Twitter about that jump in COVID-19 cases. The state COVID-19 dashboard shows the precipitous rise since then.

For the last few days, we've seen numbers topping out at or near state records. We've seen hospitalizations jump. We've seen positive case testing rates jump. Things have been rising up up up. It's not new. It's been happening for weeks.

All the way, Governor Eric Holcomb has been going about his jovial way. He dishes up sports clichés and Hoosierisms quickly, but he dithers when it comes time to take decisive action preferring to leave it to the local governments to make the toughest decisions on the pandemic.

But, the numbers don't lie and someone saw that.

Joe Hogsett has been ahead of the Governor on almost every action when it comes to the pandemic, but he's gotten very little credit for his efforts and even has received unbelievable flak for them. That's not to say that Hogsett has been perfect. The idea that the Marion County Fair was allowed to happen boggles my mind, but Hogsett did react to the increasing numbers with a mask mandate on July 2. He made that mandate take effect on July 9.

Many were flabbergasted when the Marion County Republican Party came after him for not instituting the mask mandate immediately. Chair of the Indy GOP, Cindy Kirchhofer asked, "If Joe Hogsett says masks will save lives on July 9, why wait until then?"

Well, Rep. Kirchhofer, if Governor Holcomb says masks will save lives on July 27, why did he wait until now? Furthermore, why did he wait at all?

Ask Governor Holcomb why did he not see what dumb me saw when I saw that huge jump back in June? Why did he ignore as we went from 350 to 450 to 550 to 650 to 750 to 850 to 950 cases per day? It's been a march.

Of course, Kirchhofer won't answer, and she won't press the issue. I'm assuming she'll issue some sort of congratulatory news release praising her party's governor for taking this action.

Since she won't ask the questions, we all should. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians. We should all be mad as heck that it took Governor Holcomb this long to finally make a decision to "mandate" people to wear masks.

I put mandate in quotes in that last paragraph because, like Hogsett's order back in early July, there are technical penalties for not wearing masks. Governor Holcomb said that the "mask police" would not be out to enforce the mandate. It's my opinion that those mandates should be enforced, strictly. The education would be your fine for not wearing a mask. The people that won't comply are happy not to.

I'll praise Governor Holcomb for doing the right thing. I'll just wonder why it took more suffering to do something to try to reverse a trend that's been a reality for a month.

Indy GOP Masks True Intentions

Cindy Kirchhofer
Photo: Indiana House Republicans

The Marion County Republican Party once ruled the roost in Marion County. Now, it can't even muster enough people to help run an election...even in heavily Republican areas.

This once dominant party can't even get politics right either. Today, the party released a statement from current chair Cindy Kirchhofer. Let's say...it missed the mark. The statement kind of sort of praises Mayor Joe Hogsett for doing the right thing on making masks mandatory but then somehow tries to criticize him for his implementation schedule.

The statement goes:

"I believe that masks are an important precautionary health measure. However, it's sad but not surprising that once again Joe Hogsett picks politics over protecting people as he issues his mask mandate."

"If Joe Hogsett says masks will save lives on July 9, why wait until then? I fear this isn't about protecting our neighbors but about protecting his political career.“

Now, if you read that statement, it could go a lot of different ways after that first sentence. It could have said, "I believe masks are an important precautionary health measure. That's why I join Mayor Hogsett in urging all Indianapolis and Marion County residents to wear a mask. Here's where you can go to get a free mask from the city of Indianapolis. You can also pick one up at points in the city or call (317) 327-4MAC."

OR

It could have said, "I believe masks are an important precautionary health measure. That's why I am urging Governor Eric Holcomb to join Mayor Hogsett in issuing an order to make masks mandatory across the state of Indiana."

Of course, I'm living in a mythical world and not the one where where Cindy Kirchhofer is the Chair of a failing at the Indy ballot box political party that STRETCHES to score political points on Mayor Hogsett while at the same time trying to also care about mask wearing.

Joe Hogsett
Photo: Indy.gov

It is July 2. Governor Holcomb just announced yesterday that he would encourage but not require masks across the state. I'm sure Hogsett and Dr. Virginia Caine of the Marion County Health Department were waiting for that guidance. So, now, Mayor Hogsett is left with a mandatory order that will require people to not only hear about it but to obtain a mask to comply. Of course implementing it right away isn't an option. A week seems perfectly practical to anyone that isn't thinking with the political point scoring brain.  If she truly did care and think mask wearing was so important than she should be bending the Governor's ear on the subject of a mandatory mask order.

And, let's look at all the things that the Indy GOP could be doing to score political points right now. I just wrote another long post today about Mayor Hogsett's challenges. Yet, Kirchhofer chooses pandemic masks to accuse the Mayor of trying to score political points. Come on Rep. Kirchhofer, you CANNOT be serious.

If anything, the political ploy here was not to take up quarrel with Hogsett's timeline. The political play here for the Republican Party would be to play that libertarian angle. The mandatory angle was the play. Of course, that's the wrong play, but, at least it makes some sense given the traditional GOP party line.

As it stands, Hogsett's order may be disliked by some, but at least he's given everyone a chance to comply. Plus, the numbers in Indianapolis show that we're actually holding our own in comparison to some other areas when it comes to COVID-19. We need to keep it that way, and Hogsett's order will help do it.

By the way, Mitch Gore is running against Kirchhofer for the District 89 seat. You can find his website here.

Mears Wins Prosecutor 500

Ryan Mears is the Marion County Prosecutor.

Earlier today, the man serving as Interim Prosecutor won the right to serve in that capacity through at least 2022 in a narrow vote over Timothy Moriarty, an advisor for Mayor Joe Hogsett. Politically and morally, I think Mears won this election on the first full day he was on the job as Interim Prosecutor.

The day after former Prosecutor Terry Curry announced he was exiting, Mears immediately made news by announcing that Marion County would no longer be prosecuting marijuana cases for amounts under one ounce. This made sense in a number of ways, but it also signaled that Mears didn't care about the GOP's or the FOP's reaction...that he was going to make his own call and stand on his own principles about these cases. Politically, I'm sure it caught Moriarty and probably everyone fairly flatfooted, and suddenly, he had to react to something his opponent in the race was proposing.

The last few weeks have not been, on the surface, a good show for the Marion County Democratic Party. Major names backed Moriarty. Joe Hogsett and André Carson were chief among them, and Mears had his own backers too...namely his former boss Terry Curry and Senator JD Ford.Mears had his own backers too...namely his former boss Terry Curry and Senator JD Ford. There was also this perception that the deck was being stacked in favor of one candidate. Local pundits like Abdul-Hakim Shabazz have written about it on his Indy Politics site. I've seen the sentiment, though, from grassroots Democrats, too. In the end, Mears' message carried the day.

I think the General Assembly needs to take a look at these countywide offices and perhaps make a change to allow all the voters to participate in a special election. It could be done in May or November along with regular elections to keep costs down. The only complicating factor would be that one year where there aren't elections, but that could be rectified too.

Regardless, I think Marion County got itself a good Prosecutor today. I wish him the best of luck. I also wish my friend Tim Moriarty the best. I think the day will come for him to serve our city and county in an elected capacity, too.

Merritt, Indy GOP All Hat and No Cattle on Potholes and Tort Claims

We are one month away from the Primary Election, and we still have no idea what Jim Merritt wants to do if he's elected Mayor of Indianapolis.

He certainly can hold a press conference. We know that! So far, he's held several on potholes and tort claims, but, when pressed for solutions, he comes up empty. Most embarrassingly, the media asked Merritt if he would change the tort claim procedures for Indianapolis (which are largely dictated by state law and not city ordinance), and Merritt became the guy that couldn't find his wallet when it came time to pay the check.

Don't bother to look online for his ideas, either. His website provides no more guidance beyond a promise to roll out his policies during the campaign. Inspiring.

Here's the truth. Jim Merritt, as a state Senator, has been a member of a Indiana General Assembly that has Kathy Bates-in-Misery-style hobbled local governments. Time after time, they've pushed the funding of city governments back to the cities and towns and then cut off the ability for those entities to raise funds. Constitutional tax caps slapped a big governor on the engine of city and local governments.

Years of mismanagement of Republican City-County Councils and Mayors of Indianapolis has also placed us in this situation. Roads were not updated and repaired, and, when they were, they were done so in such a shoddy fashion that many of the improvements have simply fallen apart. Can Joe Hogsett do more? Sure! He has to have the ability to do so, though. In the current funding structure, it's just not feasible.

Indiana has run up is surplus on the backs of local governments, cities, and schools. Jim Merritt won't tell you that at his next press conference. He'll tell you that the General Assembly threw some chump change at the problem when in reality it's going to take a concerted effort and much more political capital to truly fix our problems.

Are the attacks on Joe Hogsett fair? I don't think so unless you're going to do something different than what he's done. Indy's Department of Public Works is doing what it can, and I think Hogsett is, too.

Merritt is all hat and no cattle at this point. His party likes to throw up memes on social media and tag Hogsett as "Pothole Joe", but they ignore their role in getting us here. As for Merritt, he wants your vote without any plan to fix anything in this city, so I've got a nickname for Jim Merritt since he has no plan: "Meritless Merritt".

I think it fits.