Republicans, Corruption, and Joe Hogsett
Friends and Constituents,
I hope you are well and getting a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather in Indianapolis today. I did a bit of that - but mostly spent my day looking at spreadsheets. Let me explain.
Last night, Mayor Joe Hogsett hosted a fundraiser for himself.
Why would anyone give money to a Mayor who is not officially running for re-election, and is several years away from any next political moves?
Because the machine politics in our city are deeply corrupt, that's why.
Take any given Hogsett donor, and you can probably find that the donor is getting out of the City of Indianapolis far more than they're putting in to the Hogsett machine.
Hogsett took ten grand from the company who operates our trash-burning incinerator last year and then rammed through a 10-year extension to their multi-million dollar contract, surprising the Board of Public Works and keeping the City Council and the public in the dark. This will give some of our kids cancer and asthma - but hey, it put money in Hogsett's pocket.
Indiana Fever owners Herb Simon and Steven Rales collectively gave Hogsett over $100,000 last year - and then this year they got a sweetheart deal that gave away prime real estate for free for their new training facility. There were no bids for this land giveaway. We could have had affordable housing right next to the transit center; instead, Hogsett gets paid.
The infrastructure design firm HNTB Holdings gave Hogsett $10,000 last year. This offered an amazing return on investment, as the firm signed $3.7 million in new contracts with the city last year for DPW projects and parks. I wonder how many potholes we could have filled if we prioritized fixing the roads instead of enriching Hogsett's donors!
At least Hogsett's a Democrat, though, right?
No. He's not.
Of Hogsett's 21 top donors last year, 12 of them gave MORE money to Republicans.
For the average Hoosier, the housing market is currently terrible. Average rents in Marion County have gone from around $800 a month in 2016 to nearly $1300 a month today. Black homeownership continues to decline and hundreds of people are evicted every month. But for property management companies like Weston Property Management, LLC, business is booming. That’s probably why they gave “Democratic” Mayor Joe Hogsett $25,000 last year, while giving MAGA Republican Mike Braun $90,000.
Developer TWG gave MAGA Republican Mike Braun $50,000 directly and another $20,000 through the “Indiana Victory Committee”, and let Hogsett have the leftovers to the tune of $10,000.
Developer Michael Browning gave failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Brad Chambers $20,000 prior to settling on giving the next best moderate Republican, Joe Hogsett, $56,500.
Joe Hogsett has been keeping attorneys busy - both with wrongful death lawsuits after officer-involved shootings and with his own legal bills. So it's no wonder law firms want a taste of him. Even though every one of these firms spends the majority of their donations on Republicans, they all saw fit to help Hogsett out with money.
Ice Miller, which uses its ICE PAC to funnel massive amounts of money into Indiana politics, gave over $100,000 to Republican committees, $2000 to our old friend Senator Aaron Freeman, $15,000 to Todd Rokita, and $20,000 to Joe Hogsett.
Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP gave $25,000 to Braun, $1500 to Cyndi Carrasco, and $30,000 to Hogsett.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP gave $60,000 to Mike Braun and over $100,000 more to other Republicans - and $30,000 to Joe Hogsett.
Bose McKinney & Evans LLP - famously the firm that hired Thomas Cook as a partner - gave $151,712.50 to Mike Braun, and $15,000 to Hogsett.
Barnes & Thornburg LLP gave $35,880 to Mike Braun, and $15,000 to Hogsett.
Krieg Devault LLP gave $30,814.89 to Mike Braun, and $11,100.00 to Hogsett.
The megadonors of our city and state understand how this process works: Pay to Play.
Big donations are just a cost of doing business - and again, business is good.
Feel free to check out the spreadsheet I put together showing my work for all of the above: Follow the money.
It doesn't have to be this way. A better world is possible. There are many places in the United States that have meaningful campaign contribution limits that force politicians to listen to us regular people. For example, in New York City, all of the donations I talked about today would be illegal.
Ordinary people like you and me working together can change the political norms of our state and create a real democracy, as opposed to the oligarchy we currently live under.
But that will take a massive number of people rejecting the bought-out politicians from both parties and insisting on financing political work with small dollar donations alone.
(See what I did there?)
It will also take the work of regular people helping to expose the corruption.
Become a Documenter through Mirror Indy!
Join us at the Statehouse and at the City Council to make your voice heard!
Grab a camera and start taking pictures of the people coming out of meetings!
Help out with the Who Owns Indianapolis project to expose the corrupt connections in the city!
And definitely join DSA.
Watch for Part Two of this series, featuring the ways in which this dirty money keeps good people out of politics.
Check out some announcements below, and have a great weekend.
In love and solidarity,
Jesse
Last night, Lauren Roberts released her devastating second Substack article about how her life has been derailed and negatively impacted by the sexual abuse that Hogsett enabled, tolerated, and refused to investigate. On that same evening, the mayor held a fundraiser for himself, under the auspices of the “Committee for Indianapolis”.
As WISH-TV reported, a group of volunteer photographers and activists and I stood outside the event, taking photographs of the donors and supporters who are propping up this failing mayor and enabling his abuses to continue.
We’ll soon be releasing photographs, videos, and business addresses of all donors, and encouraging the public to write letters and postcards to these donors indicating their displeasure. Stay tuned!