I just wanted to know the truth...Rob Pastore and I have a talk!

There is no truth.  Or should we say rather than truth comes in many flavors if you live in Northwest Indiana?   So I have a Leyva bumper sticker and an Eric Olson sign on my front lawn and then today I interviewed Rob Pastore.  There's no joke here, other than the idea that I am the punch line.  Slowly and surely I am coming to understand the strange beast that is Northwest Indiana Politics.

Let's kick back and have a casual look at things, shall we?  Make sure you are sitting down.  I am now asking you to vote for Rob Pastore!!!

Let me back up.  When Barack Obama got elected, I realized that our country was in serious trouble and I also realized that we had an uninformed electorate.  The typical blogger term is, I believe, "sheeple."  (Sheople?)  For every sheeple there is someone more than willing to pull the wool over their eyes.  Then they go on the lamb for awhile and...okay, stop me!!!  Ba-a-a-a-a-a-ad blogger!

But seriously, folks, there is a great deal of behind-the-scenes maneuvering in this election.  We have the RNC/SLRC/HRCC types who decide to drop down or even barf down a candidate "from on high."  We The People wanted to pick our own candidates in the primaries!  Nope, not that easy.  For instance, let's look at the District 01 House race on the Republican side.  How did so many different candidates get on the ballot?  How many of them truly expect to have a chance to win?  Probably four of them at the most.  So why so many?

Having hobnobbed with thehobnobs and the nabobs and political rallied with the Patriots and partied with the Tea Party and pubbed with the Republicans I began to get an idea of who the good guys were and who the bad guys were.  So when I nabbed an interview with Rob Pastore I was already preloaded with questions and a fair idea of which side he might be on besides his own.  After all, I like Eric Olson and he is a heck of a guy and really knows financials.  Mark Leyva has been a hard, steady hand at the Tea Party wheel and a guy who has done the hard work at gun shows and grassroots meetings all year long.  No way Pastore was going to have much effect on me but I did want to hear him out when Eric "The Candidate of No" Krieg told me Rob Pastore would love to talk to me and gave me Rob's cell number. 

Rob admits he has been maybe a little pushy sometimes this campaign season but he also defends himself because he wants to win and he does not think every opponent in the race wants to win.  He also has a small business that is not exactly bringing in big bucks so rather than spend money right now  he is just going everywhere and meeting everyone passing out cards and flyers and signs.  In truth you cannot have gone to many rallies or meetings without encountering Rob Pastore and his white stretch limo (he is in the limo business).  Rob Pastore is very enthused about Rob Pastore and very certain that only he can defeat Pete Visclosky.

I am not really a neophyte.  I was passing out Goldwater flyers when I was 12 years old because I figured LBJ would turn Vietnam into a meat grinder and that Goldwater would either win or get out.  Not bad for a kid, huh?  I used to go down and page in the Indiana Senate each year.  I worked in government with a security agency and also was a military journalist. I've been in the Congressional tunnels and cut through the parking lot and been to the offices in DC and unfortunately even the human maze known as the Pentagon.  I have a pretty good understanding of national politics.

Lake County?   I am still learning.  But Rob Pastore knows where the bodies are buried, who buried them and who saved others from a similar fate.  My first Rob Pastore experience and second and third and fourth and fifth were all fleeting as he dashed in and dashed out.   Now I had the chance to ask him the important questions.  Some of this is paraphrased.  My questions in italics and his answers in bold print.  I will make sure to correct anything Rob Pastore identifies as inaccurate but here we go:  Interviewing Rob Pastore, candidate, House 01!

Why are you running for Congress?

Because I think I know what we need in this county and in this country.  Because I am the only candidate who can win.  I have a lot of support on the North end of the County, especially around Hammond.   I have the support of the people who are not in the pocket of the Cantrell crowd.  I actually know the issues.  I understand what happened with the Cline Avenue Bridge.  I managed to get a copy of the blueprints.  They had a 1.0 safety rating built in but the bridge actually was built as a 0.3! 

I knew a guy who fell from the bridge, remember that accident when they were building it?

Did he die?

No, I worked with him for awhile, one of those guys made out of scrap iron and rocks, you know what I mean?  Harry Bunkowfist is his name but I can't spell it.  Great family, most of the guys are huge.

Yeah, they didn't follow safety codes when they were building it either.   Also, don't you wonder why suddenly they check it out and discover there is something unsafe with it now?  Very odd timing, right?  I can tell you all about what is going on with that Illiana expressway, too, who wants it built and why.  It would kill Lake County, I can tell you that!

What do you mean?  I am not necessarily for it or for the RDA either but what do you know?

I drive limo for a living, have a company.  I know they could put in two or three exchanges on the toll road and forget that bridge.  It doesn't go anywhere, the last few years you got on that thing and you were all alone.   If they build that Illiana it will just take traffic away from Northern Indiana and away from the Lake Michigan Boats and just send it all to Illinois.  Things are bad enough right now around here.

So why is it such a big issue?  Who wants it?

You have to follow the money.  A certain big business guy bought up a lot of land down south where the Illiana would go.  There is supposed to be maybe a garbage-to ethanol plant built that would be right there by the Illiana.  And that is why they want Visclosky to win this year.


Why?  They think Visclosky will guarantee that the Illiana will be built?


Look at the committees he is on...Water and Energy and Appropriations?

(Editors note:  Pete V. had at least temporarily stepped down due to an ethics investigation.  We don't expect them to actually DO anything but hem and haw and drop the thing.)  So you know what is going on around here better than most?  What else makes you the best candidate?

I am one hundred per cent right to life, I have held a twenty-one week baby in my arms and cried over that baby.  I have seen mothers and grandmothers crying over miscarried babies.  People used to throw miscarried babies into the trash.  I have seen them and I know they are babies, they are people!  I know I am proud to be endorsed by the Indiana Right To Life because it means something to me.  We have prayer groups involved with Right to Life.  I am very devoted to saving babies.  I am a Catholic but I campaign at Baptist churches and other churches and I want them to know where I stand.  I am 100 per cent for life.

I am also a gun guy, a second amendment guy.  (I almost wish they gave everyone a gun at age eighteen and taught them to use it!  That is what they do in Switzerland.)   

I hear that!  I had to go buy mine!


No, not really, not here.  In Switzerland that is their militia.  We have the military here.  But I am a gun rights guy.   The crooks and gangs are the ones that don't care about gun laws.   People should be able to own guns and carry them.  We need to protect that right.

Also I can run in the whole county.  I have a lot of support up in Hammond and places North.  I don't even put Republican on my signs, they are red.  Democrats for Pastore, I saw a few stickers like that when I ran before.  You think any Democrats will vote for the other guys?  People in my area of the county know me and they know I am for them and for what is right!  I get Democrats and Independents and Hard "R"s voting for me.  You know what a Hard "R" is?


Yes, someone who votes primaries and general for Republicans.


Well, I get the Hard "R"s and the guys who vote Democrat in the primary to try to elect the weakest candidate and also independents.  I was asked to run for Mayor of Hammond and probably would have won it but I have my heart set on beating Pete.

What about Mark Leyva?

Mark is a good guy, but he always loses to Pete.  Pete wants to run against Leyva.  Mark never gets a strong campaign together.  He is a good guy and he is doing a good job with the Tea Party but he would have a hard time winning.  Visclosky is sure he can beat Leyva.

You don't think Eric Olson is in the race?   Someone is stealing his signs?

Eric is also a good guy.  I don't think he would get the money he needs to run in the fall.  I know he is a real deal but again he is not really in the race.  Nobody on my side would be taking his signs, probably it is from somebody else's side down there taking them.

Some of the other candidates don't even really understand the issues and they cannot explain themselves.   When you look at everything I really think it comes down to Lindemulder and me.

Wait a minute.  You don't think Olson or Leyva can win?

It is either me or Lindemulder I think in the primary.  He is going to spend some more money.   His family has money.  Maybe someday he will get enthused and put his heart into it.   I am not sure he is really up to running against Visclosky yet.

So could Pete Lindemulder actually be "Pete, not repeat"?  He didn't seem terribly motivated to me.

I know I can beat Visclosky this year, I don't think anyone else can.  I am the guy with the fire in his belly, I am motivated.  I am the opposite of the same old politician!

So either you win or Pete Lindemulder wins?

Haven't you noticed the Lindemulder signs spring up?  I have been careful spending money.  I thought if I spend forty thousand he would spend fifty.  I am trying to save resources for the fall.   There is so much going on behind the scenes!   The people who were with Cantrell are trying to decide these races...(Pastore begins to give me his ideas about who has the money and why they are spending it and what they want to accomplish.  There are a lot of things in this business you hear and you keep to yourself.  But pretty much everyone I have been concerned about Pastore labeled as part of the problem).

So do you like Len Reynolds?  How about Kim Krull (these are two Lake County GOP'ers I really trust!)

Len is a good friend of mine.  Kim Krull is another good one.  Let me tell you what happened when John Curley took over as Chairman...(Rob Pastore then retold the story of how John Curley took the Republican Party in Lake County away from Cantrell and the Cantrell gang.  He had a lot to say about those who are now walking in Cantrell's shoes trying to run the show around both Lake County and Indianapolis.) 

Sounds like it was a dark day when John Curley passed away. Is Joe Hero one of the good ones?  I have seen a lot of him lately.

Yes, Joe Hero works hard.  Give Joe Hero credit, he is also one of the ones that helped change the party.  There are a lot of people trying to turn the party around but...did you see the Time's enorsements in the paper?

Oh, yeah.  I figured vote for whoever the Times doesn't like!

Exactly.  Cantrell is gone but (undisclosed name) is running things now and he is behind almost everything that is happening, him and (undisclosed name)'s ticket is exactly what the Times endorsed!

So you are a John Curley Republican candidate and you can beat Visclosky...


I think I am the only guy who can beat Pete Visclosky!   I am not fooling around!


Well sports fans, I already voted by absentee ballot.  I like Eric Olson.  I like Mark Leyva.  If I could wave a magic wand and "POOF" Porky Pete away it would be a great day in Indiana.  But he is out there lurking.  Rob Pastore convinced me that he is the guy to take on and take out Porky Pete.  To my surprise!