Greg Ballard and Joe Loftus on Friendship within Leadership, Indianapolis and the Secretary of State Race

Greg Ballard built one of Indiana's most unlikely political careers, winning the Indianapolis mayor's race as a near-total unknown against a heavily favored incumbent. Now he's running for Indiana Secretary of State as an independent, and the coalition that helped him govern is rallying behind him again. Ballard, a 23-year Marine Corps veteran and author of "The Last Urban Republican Mayor," joins attorney and political strategist Joe Loftus for a candid conversation about how they built a city government from scratch, why Indianapolis punches above its weight on civic collaboration, and what has gone wrong in Indiana's political system. Loftus, who previously served under Mayor Steve Goldsmith and spent decades at Barnes & Thornburg, explains how he assembled a transition team, recruited talent, and handed Ballard a complete governing blueprint two days after an election almost no one expected him to win. The two discuss pre-K funding, the water and wastewater transfer to Citizens Energy, the city's long-running sports strategy, transit equity, and why cross-partisan relationships, not ideology, define effective local government. Ballard also lays out his case for opening Indiana's ballot access, ending straight-ticket voting, and pursuing a Voter's Bill of Rights as part of his Lincoln Party candidacy. For information on signing the ballot petition, visit gregballard.com or ballardontheballot.com. To get involved with Big Hearted Indy and the Citizen 7 community, visit citizen7indy.com.