Council Candidate Kostas Poulakidas Continues To Show A Complete Lack of Class, Integrity In Campaign

Let's check the District 4 Scales-Poulakidas scoreboard.

Kostas Poulakidas

The Democratic Party puts out two negative mailings on Republican candidate Christine Scales which purport to be post cards written from Scales from Florida, telling voters that if she is re-elected she will continue to spend her time in Florida and ignore her constituents' concerns.   Of course, Scales has near perfect attendance on the council and is a constant presence at neighborhood meetings.    The postcards, which contain a fake Scales' signature are not only horribly false, they are quite possibly a crime under Indiana's forfeiture statute.

Does Scales opponent, Kostas Poulakidas, criticize the mailings?  Absolutely not.

The Republican Party then puts out a negative piece on Poulakidas which, according to Scales contain false and misleading information.

What does Christine Scales do?  She issues a heart felt apology about the mailing.

Does Poulakidas, who again has never apologized for the fake Florida post cards sent out by his party, thank Scales for her apology?  No, he uses the apology to launch another attack on Scales.

*********************

Apologize Only If You Mean It.


The last week of the campaign has been a tough one. Many of you have called or emailed us about the ugly mail pieces that our opponent has sent to your home about us and our family. We appreciative the support and kind words expressing that they are “so unbelieveably (sic) untrue and hurtful."

We also appreciate our friends throughout District 4 sending us the email that our opponent sent to them yesterday attempting to apologize for these hurtful attacks – you can see her email below. Some have let us know that your decision to give us your support and vote was made as soon as you saw this ugliness.

We believe it is important to forgive people, but we also believe once a mistake is made you need to be responsible for it. While it is clear that these ugly attacks are causing Mrs. Scales more harm than she expected, she should also be honest in her apology to you:

• Mrs. Scales says to you that she did not authorize the attack mail, but yet she paid for them to mailed out. Disappointing.

• Mrs. Scales says it was never her desire to respond negatively, but yet she did.

• Mrs. Scales admits she sent these attacks only to clear up her record, but yet she doesn't even talk about her record in the mailings.

• Mrs. Scales said she “implored others" not to attach us but, alas, had no control over not just one attack, but all three. If she can't control her own campaign, what does that say about her and her ability to lead?

• But most disappointing is that she says she has always served with “integrity.” But when Mrs. Scales ran in 2007 for this position, she made a public pledge with her opponent, who is a neighbor and dear friend of our family, not to use negative attacks. Her opponent kept her word, but right before Election Day 2007, Mrs. Scales send out negative and completely false attacks against her. Mrs. Scales won that election by only 1%. When asked why she broke her promise, Mrs. Scales said “I could not stop them.” Four years later, she does it again.

When a mistake is made, you take full responsibility. The value of an apology comes from it being sincere. Asking for forgiveness means you won’t do it a second time. These are the values we teach our children, but yet these are not values we have in our elected officials or in Mrs. Scales.

While we may forgive Mrs. Scales (a second time), we cannot re-elected her to represent us, our families and what we expect from our elected officials. Please help us clear our name by forwarding this email to your friends and neighborhood associations. It is important.

We have worked hard together, and we will do good together – but we must also vote together.

-- Kostas and Madeline Poulakidas

Poulakidas undoubtedly knows how campaigns in competitive districts are run.  The candidate does not get pre-approval of pieces before the party sends out the mailings.    Further, the notion that Christine Scales specifically cut a check to the party to send out the mailing, is also a complete misrepresentation of how these mailings work.

Christine Scales is a nice person, a fact Poulakidas has no problem exploiting.  She is too nice of a person to call Poulakidas out on his cheap shots.  I, however, have no such limitation. 

Poulakidas has already sent out a mailing in which he criticized Scales for voting against a tax increase that was to be used to give more money to Indianapololis' professional sports owners, including billionaire Herb Simon, owner of the Pacers.  (Scales also voted against giving millions more to the Pacers for operating Conseco Fieldhouse, a taxpayer-owned facility for which the Pacers get 100% of the revenue.  Undoubtedly Poulakidas would have voted for this giveaway too.) Poulakidas represents the elites in this city who want more tax dollars from working men and women who are struggling in the worst economy since the Great Depression. 

But this campaign he has proved himself to be even more than that.  Kostas Poulakidas has proven he is a classless, dishonest jerk.  The choice in District 4 is a no brainer.  It is Christine Scales.

Councilor Christine Scales Shows Class by Apologizing for Unfair and Misleading Party Mailing Against Opponent

Christine Scales

Indianapolis City-County Councilor Christine Scales issued a statement today apologizing for some of the recent negative mailings done by her party in response to the cheap, underhanded postcards sent out by the Democrats on behalf of her opponent Kostas Poulakidas:

Scales For Council, District 4

It's important to me that you know...

I did not approve or authorize the campaign mailers that were directed at my opponent. I am grieved by their tone and content.

It was never my desire to respond in kind to the negative and misleading postcards that targeted me.

It was my decision to clear up falsehoods attacking my record as Councillor in as straightforward a manner as possible.

I implored other parties not to "go negative" with their planned responses. In the end, I did not have control over what was sent out.

I have served as your Councillor with integrity. That is how I wish to continue. I am paying for this card with the hope you will understand and accept, that I had nothing to do with the mailers targeting my opponent.

It's important to me that you know.

Sincerely,
Christine Scales
City County Councillor, District 4

Paid for and Authorized by Scales For Council, District 4

Of course, no good deed goes unpunished. Rather than accept Scales' comment as sincere, Terry Burns, an unabashed Democratic partisan and publisher of the blog Indianapolis Times declares Scales is lying when she says she has no knowledge of the contents of the mailings by the Republican Party.


Lawrence Township Constable
and Blogger Terry Burns

The fact is, when the parties decide to spend party money to target someone, they don't run their attack pieces by the candidate and get his or her approval. When I ran for the House in 2000, the GOP decided to target the race.  The good news is my campaign would be fully funded.  The bad news is I completely lost control over what was sent out attacking my opponent.  The state GOP ended up sending out horrible attack pieces on then first term legislator Jeb Bardon. The attacks completely distorted his record. One even suggested Rep. Bardon supported putting child molesters back on the street...based on a misrepresentation of a small item in the budget bill.  To this day, I feel bad about the attacks which I had no advance knowledge of or option to prevent.
Burns, who has served as executive director of the Marion County Democratic Party and communications director for the Indiana Democratic Party, undoubtedly knows that parties don't run attack pieces by candidates. Yet he chooses to pretend he doesn't know and says Scales heart-felt apology is a ruse. I don't mind the fact that Burns is a partisan. But there is a way of standing up for your party without using a heart felt apology by an opponentt as yet more campaign fodder, especially when you flat out lie in the process.

When she learned of below the unfair mailings her party sent against her opponent, Christine Scales publicly apologized for them.  Meanwhile, her opponent, Kostas Poulakidas, has said not one word about the underhanded, pretend postcards from Scales, sent from her supposed residence in Florida. 

Scales is a class act.  Her heart felt apology is more evidence of who the voters should vote for in Council District 4.

Do We Need Another Lobbyist From a Big Law Firm, a Certified Insider on the Council?; Choice in Fourth District is Clearly Christine Scales



Kostas Poulakidas

 Anyone who reads my blog knows I have been very critical of fellow Republican Council President Ryan Vaughn.  Vaughn is an attorney/lobbyist with Barnes & Thornburg, a major Indiana law firm which dominates the administration of Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.  B&T represent numerous government and government contractor clients and measures affecting those clients are constantly before city elected and appointed officials for consideration. Conflicts of interest, or appearances thereof, are inevitable given Vaughn's day job.  The most obvious example of the conflict was when the Council was taking a vote on awarding ACS, a major Barnes & Thornburg client, a contract that would give the company 70% of the City's parking meter revenue for the next 50 years.  Vaughn lobbied for and cast the tie breaking vote for the measure.

The fact Vaughn isn't a Barnes & Thornburg partner and doesn't have an equity stake in any fees ACS paid, doesn't change the fact that ACS is an important client to B&T.  Vaughn's job would undoubtedly be in jeopardy if he started voting against the interests of law firm clients like ACS.

The Democrats though have a candidate who could easily exceed Vaughn's conflicts.  Kostas Poulakidas is a partner at Krieg Devault, a major downtown law firm that does business with the City.   According to the law firm's website, Poulakidas represents an assortment of commercial clients who want advice on such things as tax increment financing (TIF), economic improvement districts (EID), tax abatements, economic development incentives, and property taxes.   These are all things city government officials, including councilors, deal with on a regular basis.  Yet Poulakidas is also an attorney dealing with those issues for clients. How is he going to keep those two roles apart?

Poulakidas' wife had been employed as business developer at Develop Indy, those wonderful folks who brought us the LiteBox fiasco.  According to Linkedin, she quit working for Develop Indy in 2011 but is still involved in marketing and advertising.

Poulakidas is a partner at a law firm doing businesses with the City.  If Krieg's share of business with the City increases or if private clients flock to the law firm due to the newly elected councilor's influence in city hall, Poulakidas is directly financially benefited.  At least with Vaughn, since he is not a partner, the incentive to act in a manner that benefits Vaughn personally was indirect.  Poulakidas' incentive is direct.

Christine Scales

The last thing this city needs is another insider on the council, someone who puts corporate interests ahead of taxpayers and the best interests of hard-working Indy residents who continue to suffer through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.  Yet Poulakidas promises to be exactly that type of councilor.  Recently the Democrats sent a postcard on his behalf that pretended to be from Scales discussing how she voted against a 'bipartisan"  (an incorrect usage of the term) job proposal measure that would benefit 66,000 people.  What the postcard does not say is that the vote referenced was for a tax increase to bail out the Capital Improvement Board from an alleged deficit and that tax increase gave Indianapolis the highest combined hotel/sales tax in the country.  Also, that supposed "bipartisan" vote was only one Democrat joined with the remaining Republicans to vote for the CIB tax increase at the behest of Mayor Ballard. 

Of course, the notion that 66,000 jobs were in jeopardy was a joke then and still is. Poulakidas' 66,000 figure actually originates with Mayor Ballard when the administration was lobbying the legislature for tax increases for the CIB.  The number is actually a reference to hospitality workers in Central Indiana area.  It is not even a Marion County number, much less representing the number of downtown Indianapolis workers (working part-time, often seasonal jobs) who might be affected by the hypothetical loss of sporting events.  Of course as any economist will tell you, any lost downtown spending on professional sports is simply discretionary spending that moves to another part of the Indianapolis metro area.  The money doesn't go away.

Scales is one of the hardest-working members of the Council, someone who attends neighborhood events on a regular basis and has a near perfect attendance record on the council.  Scales also has shown independence from the Mayor, willing to say "No" when Mayor Ballard's proposals have put corporate insiders ahead of what is in the best interests of the people.  

Would Kostas Poulakidas stand up to his corporate clients and fellow big law firm partners?  Extremely doubtful.  In his attack piece, Poulakidas has makes it clear that he puts the downtown fat cats feeding at the public trough ahead of the people of the 4th District.  If the issue is whether to raise taxes to pour more money into the CIB or to demand accountability and that the Board be fiscally responsible in its decisions, Poulakidas would clearly choose the former.  More money for the insiders.  I guess he feels the people of the Fourth District can always take a second job if our taxes, due to this City's penchant for corporate giveaways, gets too high.  The choice in the 4th District is a no brainer.  Christine Scales.

In Strange Twist Democratic Challenger Kostas Poulakidas Attacks Republican Councilor Christine Scales for Not Supporting Mayor Ballard CIB Tax Increase

Kostas Poulakidas

In what continues to be a bizarre approach to campaigning by Kostas Poulakidas in Indianapolis City-County Council District 4,  the Democratic challenger has mailed out yet another mailing pretending to be from Republican councilor Christine Scales.  But that's not the bizarre aspect of the mailing.  What is bizarre is that the piece actually slams Scales for not voting for a Capital Improvement Board tax increase for the sports stadiums pushed by Republican Mayor Greg Ballard, a tax increase which only one Democratic councilor voted for.  (Note:  Poulakidas refers to it as a bipartisan vote because one Democrat who crossed over.  That does NOT meet the definition of a bipartisan vote. A "bipartisan vote" is one where majorities in both parties vote on the same side.)
Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana reports:

Kostas Poulakidas seems determined to bring down the legal profession of which he is a member as much as possible given the unethical and deceitful campaign he is running against 4th District City-County Councilor Christine Scales. Apparently it was not enough for him to blanket 4th District voters with a post card impersonating Scales, giving them the impression she is an inattentive councilor who spends all of her time living at a family vacation home in Naples, Florida by making it appear that she had handwritten a post card to them from Florida. He decided to double down by breaking the law again by sending yet a second post card to voters in the district impersonating Scales. The text of the handwritten message on the post card impersonating Scales reads:

Crazy, right?! Second time you've heard from me in 4 years! I hear Indianapolis' unemployment rate is one of the worst in the state and incomes have dropped 9.8%.

Bummer! Too bad I voted against a bipartisan City-County Council proposal that supported 66,000 Indianapolis jobs and families.

Since I don't need to work, I'm not sure why anyone else does.

Councilor Christine Scales

--Christine

Ironically, the proposal the post card references that Scales voted against, which supposedly "supported 66,000 Indianapolis jobs and families" was actually a tax increase enacted to bail out the Capital Improvement Board after it claimed it was facing a major shortfall. After the ordinance passed, which only one council member of Poulakidas' party supported, the CIB used the money to give a $33.5 million subsidy to the billionaire Simons and their Indiana Pacers, including a subsidy to cover costs for this season even though a chunk of the NBA season has already been cancelled due to a lack of a collective bargaining agreement between the billionaire owners and the players who earn millions of dollars a year. The agency is so flush with money that it's giving away money to help fund millions more in law enforcement expenses for the Super Bowl since the city's operating budget is short the necessary funds to pay for those expenses.

Contrary to the impression the post card tries to leave that Scales is an absentee councilor, she has an exemplary attendance records at council meetings and regularly attends community group gatherings in her district. Scales has received numerous awards from community groups in her district for her work on their behalf. She even donates the salary she earns as a councilor to charity.

To see the rest of Gary's column, click here.

I guess if you want to raise taxes for sports teams, you should vote for Mayor Ballard and Kostas Poulakidas.