Kelty Courthouse Rally

Around 8:15 this evening I received a call telling me there was going to be a "We Love Matt Kelty" rally at the courthouse at 9pm. It just so happened that I was meeting Mark Garvin, Kelty campaign spokesman, right after I was finished with that phone call. I asked Mark if he had heard about the rally and he had not. No more than 1 minute after I mentioned it to him Matt Kelty called him and Mark asked if HE had heard about the rally and Kelty hadn't either. Mark informed Kelty and Kelty said he would be there. I'm not sure why I'm sharing this story other than I found it somewhat humorous that a Democrat supporting Tom Henry ended up informing the Kelty campaign about their supporters' rally. To be fair, I'm sure they would've found out anyway.

The rally had a decent turnout as there were about 80-100 people present including local bloggers Dan Turkette and Robert Rouse. Before Kelty arrived there were several chants from the crowd and the following caught my ear:

Steve Shine should resign - shame on you
Steve Shine should resign - shame on you
Steve Shine should resign - shame on you

For those that don't know, Steve Shine is the Allen County Republican Chairman. I found this chant quite strange considering Shine has been publicly behind Kelty for quite some time and even made a public statement of support today. Kelty showed up with his family and thanked his supporters. I've posted a sampling of his quotes from his speech below:

We weren't supposed to run and we weren't supposed to win.

I'm disappointed but I'm not defeated

We need to rise up and embody this great city

The process is working how it's supposed to work and we will prevail

There was nothing surprising or shocking in this speech. He just wanted to thank his supporters and let them know he's still in the game...