Seen all the hubbub? Jackie Green told A Kentucky Newspaper that Greg Fischer’s campaign offered him a job in exchange for dropping out and endorsing him. He’s shared similar details with Phillip Bailey. The Fischer camp is telling two different stories, though.
So what’s news? Jackie Green totally wussed out and sold out, endorsing Greg Fischer while dropping out of the race.
Here’s his release:
LOUISVILLE (Oct. 14, 2010) — Saying that Greg Fischer is the best candidate to lead Louisville into the future, leading Independent candidate Jackie Green announced today that he’s withdrawing from the mayor’s race and endorsing Fischer.
“Fischer’s vision for a sustainable Louisville represents our community’s best chance to improve our environment, support renewable energy and improve public transportation,” Green said.
Fischer welcomes Green’s endorsement, saying he brought important issues to light in the mayor’s race.
“Jackie represents an important and growing voice in our community. I appreciate his support, and I look forward to his continued input,” Fischer said. “I want to establish Louisville as one of America’s greenest cities and Jackie Green – and his many passionate supporters — can help with that vision.”
Fischer has announced plans to create the Office of Sustainability, a Cabinet-level department that reports directly to the mayor and works to make Louisville a greener city. Fischer said he will consult with Green to provide significant input to help structure that office.
“Green can bring a very valuable perspective to the office,” Fischer said.
What was that, again, about Jackie Green not being eye roll-worthy?
UPDATE ON SATURDAY:
Haha – someone from the former Green “campaign” sent this email to the press list at 3:43 A.M.
Subject: Green Campaign Email was compromised.
I’m so sorry for the confusion guys. Apparently a prankster got ahold of my email address and sent out a press release Friday afternoon claiming that I had endorsed Greg Fischer for mayor. Please disregard communication from that email address henceforth as it’s obviously been compromised. I apologize for not having a tighter control on my password. As y
As I said in my interview Thursday with WHAS 11, “Vote your vision, vote your dreams. Don’t vote your party, or your fears.”Jackie Green
Louisville’s Independent Mayoral Candidate
Louisville’s only sustainable mayoral platform
It’s funny. But next time, folks, remember that the Fischer campaign sent the same release Jackie sent.
And here’s the response from the Heiner camp:
If Greg Fischer has such poor judgment that he believes it’s acceptable to sell a city department of government in exchange for a political endorsement he is clearly unfit to be mayor.
Ouch.
28 responses so far ↓
1 Steve Magruder // Oct 15, 2010 at 7:04 pm
A few thoughts:
1) Green’s supporters are very thoughtful people, and I suspect that they will very carefully consider who to support, outside of their candidate’s endorsement.
2) Fischer is not quite the green candidate that Green is suggesting, with Fischer’s support for the un-green two-bridges boondoggle, not to mention that he’s even more greenfield-developer-friendly than Heiner.
3) I would really like to know how Fischer is able to gain people’s allegiance — It has to be more than his ideas, much of which are copied from Heiner. I want to suggest what it is, but I don’t like to come off as crass. Heh.
2 James // Oct 15, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Wow. This is big news. Greg Fischer may have just won the mayor’s race.
3 Big Daddy // Oct 15, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Also a FELONY for selling out in thsi case!
4 Curtis Morrison // Oct 15, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I need a Hal Heiner sign in my yard, RIGHT NOW.
5 David Crowell // Oct 15, 2010 at 10:06 pm
I am surprised with this. I assumed Jackie would follow this through to the end, and get 1% of the vote.
6 C. Herron // Oct 15, 2010 at 10:57 pm
This is what Green had to say about the people trying to get him to leave the race in support of Fischer – “Ultimately, they’re selling themselves short and selling out to power rather than staying true to their principles…” It appears Green is eating his own words. Hope it works out for us all…
7 Bamboozled // Oct 15, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Any person with an iota of common sense knows that you make big political announcements (i.e. endorsements) at a strategic point in the news cycle (i.e. not on a Friday night when the entire community is watching the local college football game). So, why was this announcement made tonight?
8 Dino // Oct 16, 2010 at 12:05 am
Green has railed for a year about the “establishment” and against cronysim in Metro Govt. He then pulls this tonight. I have lost all respect for Green who I thought had run a good race up to today
9 James // Oct 16, 2010 at 7:05 am
I’ve been thinking about this all night. It seems to me the big winner here is Jackie and those of us who support his ideas. Instead of losing big on Nov 3 and fading into oblivion, Jackie can now have some input in green initiatives for Louisville, if Fischer wins. I’d say Jackie played this out very very well. This is also bad news for Heiner because, like it or not, Fischer has the momentum leading into the election
10 Eden Springs // Oct 16, 2010 at 7:56 am
I think this will backfire on Jackie-O as I predict his supporters aren’t going to follow his flip-flop. As for Fischer, if the deal did involve a job, I’m sure he’ll take credit for having instantly made Louisville “Jackie Greener” and tick it off his campaign promises list.
11 blowin' in the wind // Oct 16, 2010 at 8:59 am
No guts, no glory.
12 Steve Magruder // Oct 16, 2010 at 8:59 am
James seems to be using language given to him by the Fischer campaign. The reality is that we really don’t know how this will play out. It could even backfire.
13 fAe // Oct 16, 2010 at 9:45 am
I thought what Fischer did was illegal???? I can’t believe this. Shouldn’t he get in trouble for this?
14 James // Oct 16, 2010 at 9:47 am
I speak the truth. Jackie is the big winner here, no matter how you look at it.
15 jake // Oct 16, 2010 at 10:24 am
I don’t see how anyone could say Greg Fischer has the momentum when he’s just a couple points ahead of Hal Heiner. How’s that work?
In a neck-n-neck race, it seems they’ve got about equal support across the city.
Most of Jackie’s supporters were anti-bridges/anti-tolls folks. They’re the types who are on these google tubes 24/7, paying hyper-attention. There are so few of them that even if half of them went Jackie’s way, I’m not sure it’d give Greg much of a boost.
Just about everybody I hear from in his camp seems split.
16 East Market Resident // Oct 16, 2010 at 10:27 am
Should Fischer win I seriously doubt that he will pay any attention to Jackie Green. Jackie has just been made a fool of.
17 cindy lamb // Oct 16, 2010 at 10:45 am
Strangeness all around. Lack of character, lots of cash. Indeed, we are all “flawed” but we’re not clueless. Best of luck to all in this race for city hall–just stay on yer damn horse.
18 blowin' in the wind // Oct 16, 2010 at 10:50 am
It is really not that surprising when you realize who is in the “power” group of environmentalists in town: the Metro/U of L/JCPS alliance for a green Louisville (Russ Barnett from UofL, David Wicks, the Mayor’s office, etc.) and Gil Holland, son-in-law of Christy and Owsley, the River Fields group that started out primarily as an environmental group. The bridge issue and public transportation are what divide the environmentalists here. Perhaps we might think of them as as the “soft” environmentalists and the “hard”ones: the hard ones understanding that all the parks and green roofs in the world won’t help in the long run of we do not do something about oil dependency.
19 what? // Oct 16, 2010 at 11:33 am
As I have said before, Jackie has accomplished most of his goals in the race. Get his platform concerning sustainability out there. Move the other platforms. Triangulate in a tight race and then endorse with conditions pertaining to his passion. All executed quite nicely I might add. It will be very interesting if Fischer wins…
20 Steve Magruder // Oct 16, 2010 at 12:09 pm
That’s funny. I thought this race was about the future of our beloved city rather than the fortune of one man.
21 Stunoland // Oct 16, 2010 at 1:01 pm
If Jackie Green endorses a pro entire ORBP candidate then most of his platform goals will be unattainable. If Louisville allocates all of its federal and state transportation dollars on a terribly designed highway that will define the city’s image for the next 1oo years the city will be unable to attract and retain the type of people who would support Mr. Greens platform. As young profesionals locate elsewhere, the city’s cultural offerings will erode along with the tax base that supports many of the issues that Mr. Green cares about. Based on my conversations with Mr. Holland he despises the downtown ORBP as much as anybody in this city. It is time for those with influence in this city to speak up about the catastrophic consequences of Louisville making the biggest urban planning mistake of the 21st century.
22 Rico // Oct 16, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Tandy, King and now Green – all endorsed on a Friday afternoon when no one was watching….
23 Green's on the Ballot // Oct 16, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Jackie’s name will still be on the ballot and I’m gonna vote for him. I’m not the only one. Maybe we all should. It’s obvious that if we don’t, the same people running the city will keep running it. Fischer joked himself last week that it’s “only a technicality” that he’s not mayor already.
What do we have to fear if Fischer is elected? More of the same:
When it floods in the West end, no ones going to clean it up. We won’t have money to keep up our TARC routes, but we’ll have money to build a world-class arena. We’ll have more deals with Cordish. We’ll continue to ignore our homeless population and our crime problems. When LG&E wants to raise rates, so what. When there’s a poisonous gas leak in Chickasaw- where’s Chickasaw?
Time to take off the rose-colored glasses folks and see Fischer for what he is. More of the same…Vote Jackie Green on November 2, 2010.
24 Dino // Oct 16, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Green does not deserve a vote after this crap today. He railed for a year about being included in the mayoral race and in the end he took himself out. Again, he does not deserve a vote. He quit.
25 JTT // Oct 16, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I’ll say again, we do NOT need a Mayor that needs OJT just to find the office, and who is clueless on the day to day operations and responsibilities of the Mayor. I have no faith in his ability to take charge in an emergency, which is something he cannot really delegate.
26 The Highlander // Oct 16, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Steve Magruder asks the pertinent general question. UNLESS Fischer can convince me between now and election day that he will be HIS OWN MAN AND NOT HAPPY PANTS’ LACKEY, I cannot vote for him even though I’m a life-long Democrat. We, simply, can stand any more narcissistic ego-driven leadership around here. We require a REAL leader who will put NEW FACES around him WITH EXPERIENCE. There are many of them who are watching, willing and waiting to be asked. They DO NOT INCLUDE THE TIRED BUNCH OF ABRAMSON SYNCOPHANTS.
17 days to go Greg to SAY AND PROVE you’re your OWN MAN and not a lackey.
27 East Market Resident // Oct 17, 2010 at 12:44 am
Fischer has surrounded himself with the most ignorant people from the Abramson administration. Expect nothing else should he win.
Hal Heiner must be our new Mayor to save the city.
28 Republican but its no different than being a minority, no reason for people to hate based on that alone.... // Oct 18, 2010 at 5:45 pm
I am deeply saddened by Jackies actions. To say a person is part of “the administration” only to turn around and support it?? And whats this with him saying that Fischer is the best person in reagards to the environment and public transportation? I thought thats all that Jackie was running on? Wouldn’t that make Jackie the best person for teh job or was he lying? Maybe this was Jackies plan to help defeat the Fischer race by getting them to commit a crime.
Either way, Jackie really has ruined it for the future independents that will run. He did so well running, gaining support, being heard although there were roadblocks preventing him from being heard easily. Sad to have done so much only to throw it away. i heard that it was going to happen Wednesday, wrote a letter to Jackie pleading with him not to do it and sent an e-mail to heiners camp. I received an email from Jackie but never did hear from Heiners people.
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