Abdul-Hakim Shabazz: Here’s why I ran for mayor of Indianapolis

My wife (the lovely Mrs. Shabazz) is the happiest woman in Marion County.

She is happy because she has her husband back, and things in our household are on the road back to normalcy. Or as normal as things can get with all our jobs and two dogs.

As you are aware, we lost the municipal primary. We came in second with about 26% of the vote. We lost to former City-County Councilor Jefferson Shreve, who spent about $2 million of his own money to win. I have to give credit where credit is due on his victory. As far as I know, this is the first time anyone has spent that kind of cash on a municipal primary in Indiana. And I wish him the best of luck going forward.

So why did I decide to throw my hat into the ring?

Well, the answer is pretty simple: I was not crazy about the direction the city was heading.

I always felt Indianapolis was a bit adrift and that malaise was hanging over the city’s head. And then came the George Floyd riots in 2020.

I will give the city the first day of the disturbances, but there was no excuse for the second day.

I was upset that city leadership (not IMPD) basically let the city burn. I was even more upset that no one on the 25th floor responded to the governor’s request to send in the National Guard. From what I was able to gather, people from the Governor’s Office made numerous calls to the Mayor’s Office to offer assistance, but no one got back to them, so they sent in troops to protect state property.

I still wonder to this day where Joe Hogsett was, and I intend to find out.

Nonetheless, it got me thinking that maybe it was time to stop talking about the city’s problems and start doing something about it.

So I scraped together a few bucks and did some polling, and here are the three numbers that were most revealing: Only 22% of voters thought the city was on the right track. Only about 33% thought Hogsett should get a third term, and only about 42% of Democrats said at that time they would vote for him.

That 33% number was most intriguing. Why? Hogsett got more than 28,000 primary votes, or 36% of the total votes cast. Two things to take away from that. First, 64% of voters (Republicans and Democrats) chose someone else; more important, that 36% aligns with our polling. The last time I saw numbers like that was back in 2007, Bart Peterson vs. Greg Ballard. And we know how that ended.

So with that data—throw in crime and our ridiculous murder rate, along with property taxes—and the fundamentals were there for an upset. The trick was to win the primary and convince independents and thoughtful Democrats that they should vote for yours truly.

What’s the phrase—“the best-laid schemes of mice and men”?

So I put together a team, and we gave it a shot.

Unfortunately, we fell short of our goal. But it wasn’t a total loss.

I met a lot of great people along the way, and it was fantastic to see the excitement generated by my candidacy. Second, now having had the experience of being a candidate, I can be an even better commentator and political analyst.

Am I somewhat disappointed in the results? Yes. Am I upset that I ran? Not at all.

It gave me an opportunity to share my ideas regarding public safety, public works and public trust.

And for that, I am very grateful.

Now it’s back to punditry and taking better care of myself.•

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Shabazz is an attorney, radio talk show host and political commentator, college professor and stand-up comedian. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.

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