Merritt Officially Says He's Not Running For Mayor

Various news outlets are reporting Sen. Jim Merritt has announced he won't be seeking the Republican nomination for mayor next year, still leaving no Republican candidate running to replace Mayor Greg Ballard (R). It looks like a repeat of the 2007 Republican mayor's race when the GOP nominated Ballard as a token candidate and withheld any support for his election until the last few weeks of the campaign when it became apparent voters were prepared to oust then-incumbent Mayor Bart Peterson. A deal was obviously made to hand the mayor's office to Democrat Joe Hogsett in consideration for his agreement to kill public corruption cases involving high-level Republicans in Indiana while he was serving as U.S. Attorney. Expect the Republicans to handpick a controllable figure to act as a place-holder in the event the unthinkable happens, and Hogsett blows the first political race in his long political career that has been handed to him on a silver platter. The notion that a real two-party system exists in Indianapolis is only a figment of our imaginations.