Tom Henry is the most transformative Fort Wayne mayor in my lifetime (or at least since the days of Ivan Lebamoff). The Summit City's emanating more energy and optimism than it has in decades, and that needs to continue.
People vote for change when they don't like the direction things are headed in, and I don't know anyone who thinks there's been too much growth and revitalization around town since 2007. Well, I can think of one person: Tom Didier.
Mr. Didier—Mayor's Henry's vanilla Republican opponent—settled on a head-scratching campaign slogan of Fort Wayne First. To paraphrase the Journal Gazette's observation: as opposed to what, exactly?
Personally, I think a more appropriate slogan would be something like "Had Enough Progress? Vote Didier!" The guy was so stiff as a candidate that he employed Russ Jehl as pit-bull during his press conferences.
Didier is about join a list that includes Matt Kelty, Paula Hughes, Mitch Harper, and Tim Smith among Henry's vanquished Republican foes—frustrating local GOP hack Steve Shine in his scheme for total control of the Summit City yet again.
By the way, there's a great slate of smart, accomplished Democratic women running this year, too—Porsche Williams, Patti Hays, Jennifer Matthias, Melissa Rinehart, Sharon Tucker, Michelle Chambers, Stephanie Crandall, and Audrey Davis. Fort Wayne city government would be transformed if they'd win behind a Henry victory—and afterward, Steve Shine would need to start buying Maalox in bulk.
Update—8 November 2023: I'm happy to report that Tom Henry will continue as Fort Wayne's mayor for a historic fifth term.
Despite losing the mayoral race for the seventh straight time (including two terms by Graham Richards), local GOP hack (and Emperor Palpatine clone) Steve Shine still claimed that "Fort Wayne is a Republican city."
Sorry to rain on your parade, dude, but it's pretty obvious that a fairly large number of Republicans have voted for a Democratic mayor to represent the city over the last two decades.
There's more to come in the next dispatch.
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