Mayoral candidate claims he's a target :: Lake County :: Post-Tribune

Mayoral candidate claims he's a target :: Lake County :: Post-Tribune: "Mayoral candidate claims he's a target -Jack Lieske coming under fire by ex-worker


January 15, 2011

BY JON SEIDEL, (219) 648-3068
GARY -- A man running for mayor says he's become a political target after a campaign worker slammed him in a resignation e-mail this week.
Jack Lieske also said someone tried to burn down his home on Christmas Day. Lieske said he now lives in the city's Miller neighborhood but won't say where, citing safety.
'I'm a target,' Lieske said. 'I'm continuing to be a target. This is just crazy. I'm trying to do the right thing.'
Traci Bismonte, whom Lieske said was a 'strategist' for his campaign, wrote in an e-mail Lieske 'has never spent one night' in the home that burned.
'Mr. Lieske is not officially a resident of Gary,' Bismonte said.
She also said she is owed $500, that no bank account has been set up to collect Lieske's campaign funds and that he called her inappropriate names.
Lieske said Bismonte is 'disgruntled' and has a personal vendetta against him. He said he'll file charges and sue.
'There is nothing that is true in this e-mail,' Lieske said."

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Guard to Dedicate #Gary #Airport #Armory

Guard to Dedicate Gary Airport Armory

Press Release

INDIANAPOLIS. – The Indiana National Guard will hold a dedication ceremony for its newest facility, the Gary Airport Armory, Monday, Oct. 26, 10 a.m. CDT at the Armory, 6289 West Industrial Highway, Gary, Ind.

“The new armory adds to the capability of the Indiana National Guard in our mission to support the our nation, state and citizens of northwest Indiana. I am extremely excited to see the opening and this next step in our future,” said Indiana’s Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger.

Maj. Gen. Umbarger is pleased to announce that joining him in the ribbon cutting ceremony will be Congressman Peter J. Visclosky, Ms. Emmy Huffman and Mayor Rudy Clay.

The new armory will be home to five Indiana National Guard units including 14 full time support personnel and 225 traditional Indiana Army National Guardsman.

Construction of the 44,000 Sq. foot building began in late 2007. The total cost of the center is $11.5 million. The new armory sits adjacent to the Gary Limited Army Aviation Support Facility which opened in October 2008.

The two facilities combine for a total of more than 100,000 square feet in size. The total cost for both is $31 million with a state portion of $4 million.

Media outlets interested in attending the dedication should contact 1st Lt. Grace Brown or Staff Sgt. Les Newport at the Indiana National Guard Public Affairs Office.


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Battles in Lake Co. Indiana may decide Indiana race

Battles in Lake Co. may decide Indiana race
By TOM COYNE, Associated Press Writer Tom Coyne, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 25 mins ago

CROWN POINT, Ind. – An Indiana county still recovering from a primary night black eye is embroiled in a new election-year drama that could determine whether Democrats win Indiana's presidential contest for the first time in more than four decades.

Weeks after questions arose over suspect voter registrations, a Republican lawsuit seeks to close early voting sites in three heavily Democratic Lake County cities: Gary, East Chicago and Hammond. Democrats say the GOP is trying to suppress minority voting. Four judges have already weighed in on the case, which is headed to the state's Court of Appeals.

The flaps have cast renewed suspicion over the heavily Democratic county that former Attorney General Robert Kennedy once called one of the nation's most corrupt.

"The amount of political corruption that takes place in this county is amazing, for a lack of a better word," said Marie Eisenstein, an assistant professor of political science at Indiana University Northwest in Gary. "There's a lot of it, so people have a right to be suspicious."

Local election officials are scrambling to assure voters that they aren't engaged in familiar political shenanigans in a gritty area dominated by steel mills and oil refineries along Lake Michigan.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay accuses Republicans of using scare tactics by raising the specter of voter fraud in an attempt to make it harder for people in the county's northern communities — many with large minority populations — to cast ballots.

"That is a smoke screen by the Republican Party to slow down, stop and disenfranchise people in Gary, Indiana, and the north end of the county," said Clay, the county's Democratic Party chairman.

Barack Obama needs a strong showing in Lake County if he is to win the state, which no Democratic presidential candidate has done since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Indiana's second-largest county is friendly territory for the senator from neighboring Illinois. It has gone for the Republican presidential candidate only once since 1960 — Richard Nixon in 1972 — and its population is Indiana's most diverse, at 26 percent black and 14 percent Hispanic. The city of Gary, which overwhelmingly supported Obama in the primary, is 85 percent black.

Many polls show the race between Obama and Republican John McCain is a tossup in Indiana.

The pre-election squabbling is "embarrassing to me and embarrassing to the county," said Terry Stanton, 25, a financial analyst from Hobart.

Memories are still fresh of the late vote tallies that delayed results of the May primary. Clay and Democratic Mayor Thomas McDermott of Hammond sniped at each other in late-night appearances on CNN, and the nation waited well past midnight to learn that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had defeated Obama.

In 2003, the state Supreme Court threw out an East Chicago mayoral primary because people were paid to cast absentee ballots. In 1999, millions in city money was spent paving East Chicago sidewalks and driveways to curry favor with voters in the mayoral primary.

Clay insists that's in the past.

"This is the first time in a long time that Indiana's become a battleground state in the presidential election and Lake County is in the battle," he said.

Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita said some of the problems in Lake County, including questionable registrations submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, are occurring in other states as well.

"I'm not sensing this is being done by any local machinery there," Rokita said of Lake County.

A record 4.5 million voters are registered in Indiana this year, and Rokita has encouraged early voting to ease congestion on Election Day. More than 221,000 absentee ballots had been cast statewide as of Oct. 24.

Early voting was delayed by more than a week in the three Lake County communities after Republicans on the county election board voted against opening satellite sites in them.

Republicans contend a single site in Crown Point, in the county's southern portion, is sufficient. They fear additional centers would increase the risk of fraud — even though Indiana has one of the nation's toughest voter identification laws.

Democrats say it's unfair to limit early voting to Crown Point, a predominantly white community not easily accessed by poor, minority residents in other parts of the county who require public transportation.

"I think what they know is that minorities are supportive of Barack Obama," said Democratic state Sen. Earline Rogers of Gary.


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Gary workers face 20 percent pay cut

Gary workers face 20 percent pay cut

August 2, 2008

By Jon Seidel Post-Tribune staff writer

GARY -- Tough times are about to hit employee paychecks at City Hall, where the administration announced a plan to "impose" a 20 percent pay reduction, according to a memo sent to the unions this week.
Celita Green, the city's finance director, warns in the memo of a $12.9 million cash shortfall this year caused by a state-mandated budget freeze and shortfalls in tax collections.

"That means we will not be able to provide services at the current level," Green wrote, "or make payroll through year-end without taking immediately drastic action."

Mayor Rudy Clay couldn't be reached for comment Friday afternoon when some of the unions were scheduled to discuss the notice.

Green wrote in her memo that the city has already reduced its budget by $4.7 million. A 20-percent salary reduction, she wrote, would save another $2.9 million.

"Even with these reductions," Green wrote, "the city will still be cash short by $5 million."

Del Stout, president of Gary's Fraternal Order of Police, said his members have already decided against concessions.

Ted Bilski, business agent and trustee for Teamsters Local 142, said city officials offered his members a choice between a 32-hour work week or layoffs.

However, Bilski said the administration wouldn't rule out layoffs even with the reduced hours.

"That's a very tough decision," Bilski said. "That's why the members will vote on it."

When the Teamsters met with city officials last month, Bilski said he asked for a comprehensive plan from the administration. That plan, he said, has not been delivered.

Green wrote in her memo that the city is making constant changes to its plans, "which would make whatever I give you now obsolete with the next change."

Lorenzo Crowell Jr., an internal organizer for the Service Employees International Union, said he didn't want to speak in detail before meeting with his members next week, but he said he'd been contacted by the administration.

"It wasn't very palatable," Crowell said.

According to Green's memo, department heads will continue to work 40-hour weeks, but they will be paid for just 32 hours. Insurance benefits, Green wrote, will remain in full effect.

The 20-percent cut, Green wrote, will be seen on the Sept. 12 paychecks.

In addition to meeting the cuts for 2008, new property tax laws could force the city to cut its budget by another third in 2009 and by half in 2010.

Contact Jon Seidel at 881-3148 or at jseidel@post-trib.com. Comment on this story at www.post-trib.com


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