Carl Brizzi for Prosecutor

Carl Brizzi called the media in this week to talk about his opponent, Melina Kennedy.

Surprisingly, Brizzi was at state Republican Party headquarters. After all his "CSI"-like TV ads, the cynic in me expected to find Mr. Cool lurking in a dark alley, white smoke billowing around him.

Even without the smoke machines, the Republican prosecutor was in a good mood. How could he not be? Kennedy had offered up an easily exploitable issue. It can be found in her campaign "plan."

You know about campaign "plans." Every candidate for every office has one. Kennedy's is filled with dozens of proposals, including one to give "one-time prosecutorial amnesty to those young people who renounce their gangland affiliation in writing, have committed no major felony crime that could not be dismissed, and give up any and all firearms they possess."

In a race where both candidates are obsessed with being seen as "tough," Brizzi couldn't have asked for more.

"These are not the types of criminals we need to give second and third chances to," he said with typical showmanship. "What we want to do is make Indianapolis as inhospitable as possible for these guys."

The problem for Kennedy is Brizzi has effectively bashed her lack of prosecutorial experience for weeks. Her proposing "a get-out-of-jail-free card," as Brizzi called it, gave him another chance to point to that issue.

"Only someone who has never prosecuted a gang member would propose something like this," he said.

In a race this big, each candidate will have bad days. Brizzi's had a few. Monday was Kennedy's turn.

Her response was weak. She defended her gang proposal but tried to downplay it by insisting it was only a "concept." She said the "concept" was aimed at "taking down the whole gang infrastructure by trying to peel away the young wannabes" and getting them to "testify against the gang leaders."

She wouldn't say what level of crimes would be forgiven but pointed to offenses such as carrying a handgun illegally.

Reality check. How many gang "wannabes" will take the stand and testify against gang leaders in exchange for dropping a minor charge?

As for renouncing gang affiliation in writing, Brizzi compared that to naively making gangbangers "write on the blackboard 50 times, 'I will not be in a gang.' "

"Gang members," he said, "will say and do anything to get out of trouble."

Pushing back, Kennedy pointed to Brizzi's idea to let people trade in guns for Pacers tickets. (No, the guns would not be given to Stephen Jackson.) But Kennedy's comparison lacked. Guns-for-something programs have gone on for years, here and elsewhere.

Funny thing is, Kennedy's overall anti-gang plan is thoughtful and smartly aims to win back young people who haven't fully lost their way.

But all political candidates occasionally find themselves stuck with a politically hard-to-defend and easy-to-exploit issue.

This week, that candidate was Melina Kennedy.

Matthew Tully's column runs on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Reach him at (317) 444-6033 or via e-mail at matthew.tully@indystar.com

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