Greg Ballard gets my vote for Politician of the Year in Indiana.  Not only was his victory over Bart Peterson one of historic proportions, he represents the property tax furor that dominated public discussion in this state in 2007.  

Peterson and his loss were the big stories on Election night.  A look back over the events of the year, however, shows Ballard atop the political landscape.

The long list of politicians considering a run to fill the vacancy in the 7th Congressional District created by Julia Carson’s death are all silent during this period of mourning.

Bart Peterson is not.

Peterson ruled out a 7th District candidacy in an interview with News 8’s Eric Halvorson today.  “That’s not something I wanna do,” said the outgoing Mayor, “That’s not a job I’ve had a real strong passion to do.”

Peterson added that no one could ever twist his arm to get him to run for the office.  You can catch his comments tonight on 24 Hour News 8 at 11.

Greg Ballard spent part of last week at a Mayor School run by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns.  The Mayor-elect earlier attended one in Boston.

So far, he has made no appointments, at least not publicly.  Is it late?  Maybe not.

Eight years ago Bart Peterson started unveiling major appointments at about this point on the calendar.  Robert Vane with the Ballard Transition team says that announcements will begin around the middle of next week. 

 The quality of the appointments is always more important than the timing but the Mayor-elect also needs to build support and momentum for his new administration.  With that in mind, it would make sense that he needs to get some things established before the holidays arrive.

My ride to work this morning was a little slow, but not bad.  It tells me that Bart Peterson chose not to engage in snow politics.

The way I see it, the outgoing Mayor had three options:

1-Ignore the snow and show his disdain for the voters who threw him out in November.

2-Collect every flake to preserve his reputation for future political ventures while ignoring the budget he will soon hand over to Greg Ballard.

3-Take a routine approach to a December snowfall (and stay out of sight as he’s done since the day after Election day.)

Peterson chose number 3.