No Show Shreve: No Policy Plans, Just a Plan to Try and Buy an Election
Indianapolis Republican mayoral candidate Jefferson Shreve is releasing his first television advertisements this week, before he has even announced any public safety or gun safety plans for the people of Indianapolis.
This comes just one day after Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett released his first TV ad of the cycle, titled, “Jonas”. Mayor Hogsett’s ad champions his ability to hire over 700 new officers and increase police recruit salaries to be some of the highest in the Midwest.
“Jefferson Shreve is trying to dress like Mayor Hogsett, get the same haircut, and say he agrees with him on everything, but that can’t hide the fact that he’s a self-proclaimed ‘conservative Republican’ who’s wrong on the issues that matter to Indianapolis,” said Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Mike Schmuhl. “Both campaigns have released ads that perfectly reflect the values of their candidate. For Joe, that’s supporting law enforcement and connecting with the community. For Jefferson, that’s doing and saying anything that might get him elected. Jefferson may have an unlimited personal checkbook, but Marion County voters have the receipts.”
This advertisement is just another example of how Jefferson is hiding his record from the voters. He bragged about supporting the Mayor’s initiatives to increase police funding and vote for the balanced budgets that Mayor Joe proposed.
NRA member Jefferson has shied away from addressing gun safety for the city. To protect his pro-gun record, then-councilor Jefferson voted against a 2015 proposal, a commonsense ordinance to require the reporting of stolen firearms to the police. He voted with all 12 Republicans on the council against the measure.
In his bid for the Republican nomination for State Senate in 2016, Jefferson touted his ‘A’ rating from the NRA as he sought to join the Republican supermajority that recently passed permitless carry, despite the objections of police organizations throughout the state, including in Indianapolis. Jefferson still has not released his candidate questionnaire from the NRA to voters.
A year after the passage of permitless carry, local police departments are reporting seeing more people carrying guns who shouldn’t be, and more shootings. Jefferson has yet to answer whether he would’ve voted for the legislation if he made it to the State Senate.
Jefferson failed to show up to a City-County Council hearing on the Mayor’s gun safety plans to halt permitless carry, distribute gun locks, and invest over $150 million in violence prevention. Time and again, Jefferson refuses to tell Indianapolis voters how he would tackle gun violence. Weeks earlier, Jefferson had no problem showing up to a committee meeting to advocate for the profit margins of hotel companies in the city.
Jefferson says he’s pro-life and committed to “protecting the unborn”, and still hasn’t told Indianapolis how he would’ve voted on the Republicans near-total abortion ban passed last year.
Jefferson also wants to lead Indiana’s most diverse city, but as owner of a multi-state storage company for over 30 years, he couldn’t name a single Black individual that served in an executive role for his company.
