By: Zachary Stuard

Members of the City-County Observer staff spent hours reviewing the donations to Winnecke for Mayor for 2011 last Sunday. We have highlighted donations that we have found especially interesting. We encourage you to take the time to look into a few of the donations that caught our attention during this initial review of Mayor Winnecke’s financial contributions received for the 2011 year.  We also encourage you to post follow up questions or comments shedding light on any of the information provided in this summary. This is the first installment of the City-County Observer’s dissection and review of Mayor Winnecke’s campaign contributions covering the years of 2011-2013.  We urge you to continue reading the City-County Observer daily as we continue to release additional updates and continue to provide you with the ONLY published analysis of the Mayor’s contributions financial records by a local media source.

To begin this series we would like to point out a particular donation that really caught our interest. The 2013 Mayor’s financial report indicates a political donation given to the Mayor by former Democratic Party Chairman and Union Leader Jack McNeely.  We can’t wait to hear your comments regarding this donation.

For today’s segment we’ll turn our focus to a sampling of Mayor Winnecke’s campaign contributions for 2011. We hopes that you will analyze this data and comment accordingly in the section provided below.  Please keep comments respectful.

The campaign stated with $147,000 cash on hand beginning of reporting period.  The campaign raised about $640,000 during 2011.  The Mayors political war chest for 2011 was about $787,000.

Our first list entails non-union based PACs that donated to the Winnecke campaign in 2011 that we found interesting.  We guarantee that you shall be surprised to read who and how much this group gave his campaign in 2012.

Southern Indiana Home Builders Association – $8,500.00

HG PAC – $995.00

Capital PAC – $1,000.00

OL PAC (Old National Bank) – $13,000.00

CD PAC (Clark Dietz Engineers) – $8,250.00

HNTB PAC (Hunt Construction) – $3,000.00

Integra PAC – $5,500.00 (donated by employees of a now defunct bank)

Realtors PAC (National  Associations of Realtors) – $3,250.00

Our next list contains select Trade Union groups that made campaign contributions to Winnecke in 2011.  Just wait till you read how many Unions and the amount of political contributions they gave to Winnecke For Mayor campaign fund in 2012.  

Millright – $413.31

Laborers International – $500.00

IBEW Educational Committee – $500.00

Teamsters local 215 – $5,000.00

Our final select list of contributors is composed of both corporations and individuals that donated to Winnecke’s Mayoral Campaign in 2011.  You’ll be surprised to read who gave to the Mayor’s campaign fund in 2012.

Ted Ziemer-$17,622.47

Sue and John Helfert-$15,000

James Stevens-$11,600

Robert Kock-$8,500

John Schroeder-$11,000

Brent Beeler-$6,000

Retired Vectren CEO Neil Ellerbrook – $8,200.00

Edmound and Sharon Hafer-$4,025

John Dunn-$5,000

Homemaker -Barbara Keller – $4,100.00

Vanderburgh County Republican Party Chairman Wayne Parke – $12,000.00

Danny Hermann of Ameriqual – $11,000.00

Steven Chancellor-$6,000

Willis Conner with American Structurepoint – $14,000.00

Fred Klipsch, CEO and Chairman of Klipsch Investments & Klipsch Audio – $1,000.00

David Shane, CEO of LDI Engineering Firm – $1,000.00

John Brand-$2,600

Frederick Geissiner-$3,250

William Butterfield-$2,000

Maria Del Rio Hoover-$4,000

Carolyn McClintock-$4,000

Steve Carter foe Attorney General-$5,000

Russell and Susan Woosley–$3,000

Beam, Longest, & Neff Engineering Firm – $3,500.00

Keith Lochmueller of Bernard, Lochmueller, and Associates – $10,600.00

DLZ Engineering Firm (Past architect of the Vanderburgh County jail) – $6,000.00

TKG properties (headquarters address of the Kunkel Group) – $2,000.00.

Todd Ponder with Ice Miller Law Firm – $1,000.00

Lisa Lee with Ice Miller Law Firm – $1,000.00

Brenda Horn with Ice Miller Law Firm – $1,000.00

Philip Genetos with Ice Miller Law Firm – $1,000.00

Thomas Downs with Ice Miller Law Firm – $1,000.00

Barnes & Thornburg Law Firm – $1,000.00

Ersal Ozdemir President and CEO of Keystone Construction Corporation – $1,000.00

David Schroeder-$2.300

The Referral Company LLC (interesting that this office is located at FC Tucker – Emge) – in -kind service for $5,152.25

Micheal Hinton-$11,000

D. Sanjay Patel-$6,000

J P Engelbreckt-$2,200

Burkley and Sharon McCarthy-$10,000

James Wade-$2,500

Steven Jones-$5,100

In addition to the above donations Mayor Winnecke paid out $388,000 to Axiom Advertising firm of Evansville for all of his campaign marketing efforts in 2011.

It is also worth noting that the Indiana Republican State Central Committee donated $100, 540.83 total, 8% of Winnecke’s total campaign contributions for his entire 3 year period as Mayor.  We are puzzled why $65,183 of this donation was returned to the Indiana Republican State Central Committee as in-kind services.

Paid the Kunkel Group Realty $28,000 for rent.

Paid Public Opinion Strategies polls $40,000

Paid Barbender Cox  $31,120 for Media Productions

Paid  $52,000 Limestone Strategies for Political consulting work

This begins our segment looking into some of the campaign contributions and expenditures report for Mayor Lloyd Winnecke’s early stint as Mayor of Evansville.  Next week we shall be providing more information concerning the Mayor’s 2011 political fundraising report.

Finally, the CCO shall be doing similar articles on County Commissioner and County Council  members who are running for re-election.

 Representative Larry Bucshon, M.D. will hold a bipartisan roundtable discussion on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Friday, January 24, 2014 at Ivy Tech in Evansville. Bucshon invited a wide spectrum of participants who provide a variety of perspectives and experiences on how the ACA will affect Southwestern Indiana.

Who:                    Rep. Larry Bucshon, M.D.        

What:                  Bipartisan Roundtable Discussion on ACA
When:                 Friday, January 24, 2014 from 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM CST

Where:               Ivy Tech (Board Room #201) – 3501 N. First Avenue, Evansville, Indiana 47710

The invitees include local officials, both Democrat and Republican, businesses owners, healthcare professionals, school officials, and taxpayers who have had experiences with enrolling in new health plans.

The event will be open to the media and the full invite list is available upon request.

RESOLUTION C-2014-1 INTRODUCED BY: BRINKERHOFF-RILEY

A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE, IN

WHEREAS, The Common Council of the City of Evansville, Indiana recognizes the historical significance of the USS LST-325, a decommissioned tank landing ship of the United Sates Navy, docked in Evansville, and the importance of its role in our local economy, as well as expresses gratitude to the USS LST Ship Memorial for its restoration and preservation efforts; and

WHEREAS, the USS LST-325 was first launched during World War II when it left the U.S. on October 27, 1942, and sailed north of Africa to assist in the invasions at Gela, Sicily and Salerno, Italy; and

WHEREAS, on June 6, 1944, the USS LST-325 was part of the largest armada in history by participating in the Normandy landings at Omaha Beach and carrying 59 vehicles, 31 officers and 408 enlisted men on its first trip. In returning to England, the ship and her crew carried 38 casualties. Over the next 9 months, the USS LST-325 made more than 40 trips across the English Channel, carrying the thousands of men and pieces of equipment needed to liberate Europe. The ship continued to run supply trips before returning to the United States in March of 1945. She was decommissioned in July of 1946, and put in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet; and

WHEREAS, the USS LST-325 was reactivated in 1951 and added to the Military Sea Transportation Service, where she was involved in constructing radar outposts along the coast of eastern Canada and Greenland, which was known as “Operation SUNAC” (Support of North Atlantic Construction in the Labrador Sea, David Strait and Baffin Bay). In 1961, the USS LST-325 was again taken out of service and became part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet; and

WHEREAS, the USS LST-325 was put into service a third time and given to the Greek Navy in 1964. The ship served under the name Syros until she was decommissioned again in December of 1999; and

WHEREAS, a nonprofit organization made up primarily of retired military personnel, the USS LST Ship Memorial, acquired the USS LST-325 in 2000. The group went to Greece, made numerous repairs to the ship and sailed her the 6,500 miles back to the United States in January of 2001. In 2003, the USS LST-325 toured the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and spent 10 days in the City of Evansville, where over 35,000 people toured the ship; and

WHEREAS, the City of Evansville has a deep connection to the USS LST-325, as the City’s riverfront during World War II was a 45-acre shipyard producing LSTs. At its peak, the Evansville Shipyard employed over 19,000 and was the largest inland producer of LSTs in the nation. 167 LSTs and 35 other vessels were built at the Evansville Shipyard; and

WHEREAS, the USS LST-325 is one of the last navigable LSTs in operation in the United States and was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on June 24, 2009. The ship has been ported in the City of Evansville since 2006 as a memorial museum to LSTs and the City’s war effort; and

WHEREAS, the USS LST-325 welcomes approximately 10,000 visitors every year to the City of Evansville and is an integral part of the community’s history and local economy; and

WHEREAS, the contract between the City of Evansville and USS LST Ship Memorial expires in 2015, and it is in the City’s best interest to secure a renewal of the agreement; and

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED:

The Common Council of the City of Evansville, Indiana hereby urges Mayor Lloyd Winnecke to make renewing the contract with USS LST Ship Memorial a top priority for the City of Evansville and resoundingly congratulates the USS LST Ship Memorial on being an outstanding member of our community and an integral part of generating tourism dollars in our local economy.

PASSED BY the Common Council of the City of Evansville, Indiana, on the 27th day of January, 2014, and signed by the President of the Common Council and attested by the City Clerk.

John E. Friend, President of the Common

Council, City of Evansville, Indiana

STATEHOUSE – House Bill (HB) 1286 authored by State Representative Holli Sullivan (R-Evansville) passed out of the Roads and Transportation Committee today with a unanimous vote and will now go to the full House for further discussion.

HB 1286 requires the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), the Indiana Finance Authority and Purdue University to provide annual reports to the joint study committee on transportation and infrastructure assessment and solutions.

“This is a simple bill, centered on government transparency,” said Rep. Sullivan. “The information gathered from these reports will give legislators on the study committee better insight into the needs of our transportation systems in Indiana. To great effect, this was practiced in last year’s summer study committee with the BMV and INDOT. I’m pleased to see this legislation garner bipartisan support in the committee, and I look forward to moving this bill through the House. ”

According to the Build Indiana Council, this bill also gives the agencies mentioned a better idea of what information could be most useful to the study committee.