Monday, July 09, 2007

A Candid Interview with Republican Councilman Sam Talarico (Part 1 of 2)

About a week ago I sat down for an interview with Republican Sam Talarico, Jr. Sam's been on the Fort Wayne city council for 2 terms and has chosen not to seek re-election this time around. He has served this city well even if we don't always agree on the issues. He and Dr Hayhurst are going to be tough to replace.

I was originally only going to post parts of the interview followed by my comments. However, I think the interview was entertaining enough that readers will want to read the entire thing w/o sifting through my commentary. Therefore, I've decided to post the entire interview, unedited, but split into two parts. In Part1 Sam disses Angry White Boy, discusses how he got involved with local politics, and talks about consolidation among other things.

In Part2 he discusses Democratic Chair Kevin Knuth, Mayor Richard and the upcoming mayoral race - Matt Kelty in particular. So be sure to come back tomorrow for that. I've taken a couple of choice parts from Part1 and posted them below but I would encourage everyone to read the whole thing (Download Part1 Here):
Talarico: On the federal and state level I certainly do not agree with either party all the time and I’m definitely more of a moderate but I tend to agree with Republicans more than Democrats so I think I’m in the right spot.

Although when I see some of the stuff from Angry White Boy, and stuff like that, it makes me wonder. Any party that has a home for him is kind of alarming.

Pruitt: Now let me put you on the spot a little bit while we’re talking about candidates. You seem to be fairly close to Democratic candidate Tim Pape – do you support his re-election?

Talarico: Yea, I would imagine that I will contribute to Tim’s campaign. Tim has been an outstanding councilmember and I think he’s been a part of this new generation of people that have pushed things forward. I certainly like his opponent a lot, nice guy, I’ll probably get in trouble for doing it but I will probably contribute to Tim’s campaign.

8 comments:

Robert Rouse said...

Outstanding interview, Jeff!

Karen Goldner said...

That was a good interview, Jeff. Thanks (and thanks to Sam as well).

scott spaulding said...

Good stuff, Jeff. Any more interviews planned?

Jeff Pruitt said...

Thanks all. I think you'll enjoy Part2 as well.

I have one w/ Charles Langley coming up this week. I have a few more ideas but nothing set yet. If you have someone in mind then just let me know.

Charlotte A. Weybright said...

Jeff:

Great article. I am looking forward to Part II.

John Good said...

Great job; sorry for my tardiness. I DID read it on my way out the door this morning. Oh, and check out the blogroll. . .

Jeff Pruitt said...

A sign of bipartisanship?

You're getting soft John...

John Good said...

Ssssshhhhhh. . . ;)