INDIANA PARLEY

Snow in the forecast must be gladdening the heart of Tom Hayhurst. Fort Wayne City Council Member Tom Hayhurst (4th District) is a candidate for the 3rd District Democratic Congressional nomination in the upcoming primary.

One of his campaign's services is free snow shoveling for older citizens. A person wanting their walk shoveled can call the campaign office and sign up for pleasant young people bearing shovels to visit his or her home.

There has been one problem with this idea.

It's not the crew. We haven't met all his volunteers. However, we are already impressed with one of the members of his snow crew. He's a young man destined for a great political future if that is what he decides to pursue. So having the crew come shovel your walk is not a bad thing. You could be meeting a future governor or senator.

No, the one problem has been - a lack of snowfall.

Other than the substantial snows prior to December 18th there just haven't been many opportunities for the flying snow squad to do their thing. That may be changing. Some snow flurries are in the forecast for this weekend.

In any event, Dr. Hayhurst has shown a great affinity for cold weather activities. He started off the year at the Polar Bear Plunge and now he's got the snow shoveling effort.

What we don't know is whether he is going in for other winter sports.

Back in my legislative days, there was a term for the practices of legislators who didn't want to be recorded on roll call votes on contentious issues. When the time came for a vote on an issue where they thought a green "yea" vote or a red "nay" would equally hurt in the next election, they would just happen to be out of the House Chamber when the Speaker would call the question. Some referred to it as casting a "yellow" vote. Generally, the practice was called "skating."

We haven't heard yet why Dr. Hayhurst wasn't present for the vote on the Richard administration's request to raise the Fort Wayne property tax levy two weeks ago. But if it were an example of "skating" it might lead to another winter sport: sledding downhill.