Ah, the primaries are behind us. Now onto the general election.
Primaries are always ugly affairs. The inexperienced always take them too seriously. It’s like a family battle royale at Thanksgiving. Most of the time, fences are mended. Sometimes they aren’t. Rarely do general elections, outside of the presidency, reach the climax of insanity you see in primary elections. Especially in smaller local races.
Well, that’s about to change.
St. Joseph County Council District I is the hotbed of attention in Michiana. The primary was ugly for Republicans. For such a small race, it was all a bit out of proportion. However, what if I told you the general election race for District I was even MORE interesting?
Tami Springer has worked for the University of Notre Dame for 42 years. She’s raised 7 children and “coordinated our annual college food drive for 19 years in a row for the St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry. I served on the Board of the South Bend League of Women Voters and I was President of the Staff Advisory Council at Notre Dame.”
Pretty vanilla political stuff. But …
She’s also the power of attorney for Joe Freakin Exotic, the Tiger King!
Yes, this guy:
The ‘that B!tc# Carole Baskin!’ guy.
Yeah, and you thought the District I primary was spicy.
In July, 2022, she went on the I Helped Make That podcast (#19) to talk about her journey getting to know the Tiger King and becoming his power of attorney.
In the podcast, she tells you how she became prison pen pals with Joe Exotic after watching the show. She thought he was innocent, was set up, and was mad he was in prison. After the fourth letter, Joe Exotic started emailing her. A few months later they started speaking on the phone. Eventually, Joe Exotic wanted an online store to cash in on his new fame. He also wanted to change his power of attorney to someone ‘he could trust.’ That person was Tami Springer. On the podcast, she says they talk on the phone every day. She became his power of attorney after season 2 of Tiger King.
An Indiana University journalism professor said that Indiana will work its way into every story. Happy, sad, good, bad. There is a Hoosier connection. Probably not all the time, but it does seem to come up that way.
Here’s the next one: “Tiger King.” Yes, that one. Tami Springer, of Osceola, manages the website store for Joe Exotic and is his executive assistant and power or attorney. “No one believes me. They think I’m crazy,” she said. It all started when she began to write to him.
South Bend Tribune
Just last year she helped Joe Exotic in a public feud with Florida Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis.
She doesn’t seem to mention this on her campaign site. I guess taking over as power of attorney for an ‘innocent’ man to help get him out of prison isn’t campaign-worthy in St. Joseph County.
Tiger King was good fun and very entertaining. I still use the memes from that show regularly. Many might think it’s a far cry from engaging in the lore of the show to actually becoming pen pals and taking over as power of attorney for a guy sitting in prison. Especially considering what his convictions are for. Let alone his other accusations of grooming young boys.
Also, Joe Exotic is accused of being pretty racist.
Accusations have been made that Tami Springer my be defrauding Tiger King fans.
Please keep in mind, I have no way of knowing if this is true or not. The whole realm of Joe Exotic stuff is shady as hell.
There are several more accusations online about Tami Springer and potential fraud. I’m looking into it further. There’s even reports that Joe Exotic himself isn’t happy with how Tami Springer always seems to be looking for media attention.
Stay tuned to this one folks. Make sure you sign up for my free newsletter.
He asked me if I would follow him as mayor, I said, by the time you’re done being mayor, Republicans will be so sick of Democrats in Goshen no Democrat could get elected.
Alan Kauffman – Former Mayor – Goshen, IN
Alan Kauffman served as Mayor of Goshen, IN for more than 18 years. Not bad for a guy who was convinced no Democrat could get elected in Goshen after Mayor Puro.
So how did Kauffman overcome the odds? How did he become mayor when he was convinced it wasn’t possible for a Democrat to get elected?
“One night I said, well if something happened that you left office, then I was caucused in and I could run as an incumbent, I’d think about it.”
Alan Kauffman – Former Mayor – Goshen, IN
Listen to the audio below.
In March of 1997, Puro resigned and Kauffman was, indeed, easily caucused in by the Democratic Party. From there, he ran for mayor as the incumbent in 1999 and won. Incumbents hold a significant advantage to be reelected. The rest is history.
Fast forward to 2015. After mentoring Jeremy Stutsman for over 8 years, Kauffman had his hand-picked successor. Stutsman would defeat Republican Mary Cripe to be Goshen’s next mayor. Kauffman said he would have run again if he felt the next mayor would be a ‘flake.’
Stutsman ran unopposed in 2019 after his opponent, Republican Terry Snyder, 77, died unexpectedly just weeks before the May 7 primary election. In December of 2022, Mayor Stutsman announced he was running for his third term as mayor of Goshen.
Goshen Mayor Jeremy Stutsman is resigning later this year to become the new C-E-O of Lacasa, Inc.
95.3 MNC
At his public announcement that he would not seek reelection, Stutsman said:
“Over the next couple of weeks, between myself, the new mayor that … uh the person that I’m hoping will be the new mayor that’s announcing …”
Mayor Stutsman
Listen to the audio below.
More on who that person is shortly.
The mayor announcing they weren’t running for reelection right after announcing that they were caused confusion about the election.
Mayor Stutsman will remain on the May primary ballot. The Democratic party will then caucus a candidate to take Stutsman’s place for the November general election.
It’s hard to say how the GOP would have adjusted their strategy and candidate selection had they known Stutsman would not be running, but it’s safe to assume they would have taken a different approach.
It’s also safe to assume that the timing of Stutsman’s announcement prevented any Democrat candidate from announcing a primary run. Especially since it was too late to replace Stutsman’s name on the May ballot.
Once again, Goshen Democrats strategized to take the choice out of the people’s hands and hand-pick their successor for Mayor.
Elkhart City Councilman Aaron Mishler thinks this is a brilliant strategy. Frankly, it is brilliant albeit very shady, and underhanded.
Goshen election officials said Democrats would caucus to choose Stutsman’s replacement after the May primary. It’s only April and we already have the heir apparent.
Mayor Jeremy Stutsman has endorsed Gina Leichty as the candidate of choice to fulfill his term and run for office in the fall municipal election in 2023.
95.3 MNC
Democrats are expected to caucus for a candidate in May. Stutsman has estimated he will be done as mayor in June. The election is in the Fall.
The strategy is simple:
Announce you aren’t running for reelection late in the cycle to prevent candidates in your own party from running against your hand-picked successor.
Negatively affect the other political party‘s strategy going into election season.
Give your hand-picked successor an almost certain win.
Rinse and repeat anytime there’s a changing of the guard.
To be clear, I’m not accusing anyone of breaking the law. The strategy is effective. Goshen residents need to decide for themselves if they feel cheated by this scheme.
Are Democrats ok with not being able to effectively run for mayor in the primary with a level playing field?
Are Republicans ok with effectively being shut out of a truly competitive electoral process by not knowing who they were running against?
Are Goshen voters ok with the electoral process being manipulated by local Democrats so that all eligible candidates don’t get a fair shot in the primary?
Afterthe transgender anti–Christian hate crime happened in Tennessee, we’ve heard this debunked lie that the leading cause of death for children in the united states is gun violence. It’s not true and the CDC’s own data shows it isn’t true.
Casey debunked this in June of 2022 when this false claim first went viral.