Kempton, IN– (WISH) A Tipton County home that belonged to ancestors of Barack Obama is now the focus of a documentary film in an effort to shed light on the President’s roots.  The project is called “A Single Root.”   It’s all about exposing the background of Barack Obama’s white mother and her family.

This week a California film crew showed up to document improvements at the Dunham House outside Kempton in Tipton County, and to record the history of the home built by Barck Obama’s great-great-great-great grandparents.
Steve Zukerman is overseeing the project.  “You know, as a filmmaker,” said Zukerman, “my goal is to tell stories that have social significance.”

And so that’s why George Roe of Brownsburg was answering questions in front of three cameras.  His son lived in the house in the ’40′s.  “I think it’s very significant that we have the roots of our President represented in this house,” Roe told filmmakers.

Executive Producer John Kleiman hopes to create a theatrical film.  “I do believe we’re preserving history,” he says.  Some of that history includes a 2004 visit to the home by then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who stopped campaigning long enough to attend a picnic.

One hope is that a successful film could help finance renovations here and that could lead to another visit by the President.  “We want to do something that we know that he’s going to appreciate and he’s going to be proud of,” says Dunham House owner Shawn Clements. “That’s my number one goal.”

Zukerman hopes the film could help make the President less of a polarizing figure.  “There’s a divide going on still based on race and culture,” he says, “and it’s something that we need to get past.”

There’s also a desire to generate more visitors to the Dunham House.  “I wish this would become Kempton’s field of dreams,” says Kleiman.  Plans call for the project to be completed before the November election.  Those plans also call for premieres in Kokomo and and Indianapolis.  Ancestors of Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight also lived in the Dunham House.  Goodnight and the President are distant cousins.

Kokomo is the Community of the Year in Indiana according to the state Chamber of Commerce.

Kokomo was cited for improvements in the downtown area, in parks, and economic development.  Kokomo also has a AA+ credit rating.

The award will be given at an Indianapolis dinner on November 17th.  Public disclosure of it now helps make a factor in Greg Goodnight’s effort to be re-elected mayor.

Republicans are saying that Democratic state Representative Ron Herrell went out of bounds with a new attack ad. That’s not an unusual charge. However, a leading Democrat doesn’t like the ad, either.

It’s Democrat Ron Herrell’s ad and it imitates a movie trailer. “Coming to Kokomo. Tax Hike Mike,” blares the announcer.

“It’s my opponents voting record,” says Herrell. “I went and looked it up. It’s facts.”

It’s directed at Republican Mike Karickhoff, who voted for a local option income tax in 2007. No argument there. But Karickhoff reads from city council minutes and the testimony Ron Herrell gave prior to the vote. “We asked to give local government tools to try and use to help with the property tax problem and that’s what I feel we’ve done,” he quotes Herrell saying. Then, he speaks for himself, “I mean, anybody who sat in the room knows he endorsed this idea because it lowered property taxes.”

“He (Herrell) did speak in favor of it that night,” says Democratic Mayor Greg Goodnight, backing up the Republican. “There’s a lot of other things we could probably be talking about.”

Emotions are high because this is about more than just who represents Kokomo in the state legislature. The Herrell/Karickhoff race is one of the key races that could determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the Indiana House of Representatives. And Herrell isn’t backing down.

He says he cautioned the city council in 2007. “And I have the testimony right here, you can read it word for word,” he says, and then begins reading, “Do we want to shift from property taxes to income taxes and possibly sales taxes on a state level?”

It was a unanimous vote in 2007 that’s the source of controversy now. The ad also accuses Karickhoff of voting for two pay raises. They are pay raises that he later voted to rescind before they took effect but, again, he did cast the votes.