People's mayor looses third term bid.

In one of the most unbelievable and shocking events in the history of politics, the much favored mayor of Indianapolis Mr Bart Petersen lost the bid for the third yesterday. Petersen a charismatic man was for the first time out of words. Six months ago no one would have believed that Greg Ballard could win the election against such a political heavy weight. He was the only one who believed. Mr Ballard who has never run for an public office before will have to face many challenges ahead. Among them is crime. Without doubt the people of Marion County were hard hit by the property tax mess up. This would have seen home owners paying up to $12,000 a year at least. This also was worsened by the plunging housing markets. Marion county or the city of Indianapolis leads in fore closures.

It said that Petersen will be the first incumbent mayor in 40 years to loose a third term bid. It was like David and Goliath fight. It does not sound good for immigrants especially the non documented ones seeing the Republicans have no tolerance whatsoever. Mr Ballard like every Republican might use the illegal immigrants as scape goats for mobilising and reviving the political base. Indianapolis has always been a friendly city to all. The change that Mr Ballard talked about will be felt sooner than later. With the failure of the Congress to address the immigration issue, the city Mayors are now dealing with it in their own way. The USA today probably the largest and widely reader newspapers in the country reported that some major cities are now issuing illegal immigrants drivers, licenses while some are going the extremely opposite direction arresting and deporting them.

Families have been split in the process. Indianapolis had not yet had cases like that before. Most of those who will be African and Mexican immigrants. Just two weeks ago the outgoing Mayor had a meeting with the African community encouraging them to get involved in sharing the Indianapolis cake. It remains to be seen if Greg Ballard will be elected into the second term.