By SCOTT SMITH and KEN de la BASTIDE
Tribune columnists
February 23, 2008 11:12 pm
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Tony “Hvfvgpd” Zirkle
Tony Zirkle, the South Bend lawyer who proposed using the guillotine on certain convicted sex offenders, has some unorthodox views he’s more than willing to share.
But he’s not giving away — at least just yet — the secret behind his soon-to-be new middle name: “Hvfvgpd.”
Zirkle, who is seeking the Republican nomination in Indiana’s 2nd congressional district, said Hvfvgpd is an acronym he’ll be revealing, a letter or two at a time (like on Wheel of Fortune) each month prior to the May election.
Zirkle said Thursday he has a court hearing March 31 to officially make “Hvfvgpd” his middle name, and he put “Tony Hvfvgpd Zirkle” as the way he wanted his name on the ballot on a declaration of candidacy form he filed with the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office Jan. 28. Since the courts haven’t yet granted him the name change, he filed an amended form Feb. 21, asking to be listed simply as “Tony Zirkle.”
“[The Republican Party] has already tried to throw me off the ballot [in two elections],” Zirkle said, “so I thought I’d better file an amended form.”
Zirkle said the mystery acronym has something to do with the fact other Republican candidates won’t debate him, and said the second “v” stands for “versus.”
The “f,” he said, has something to do with a column written by South Bend Tribune politics writer Jack Colwell, and Thursday, he gave The Public Eye a scoop by telling us “the first two letters are what Bill O'Reilly allegedly said does not exist in America.”
A Google search returned something about O’Reilly disbelieving a claim about a homeless veteran encampment in New Orleans. Bingo, Zirkle said, “Homeless vet” is correct.
So we have “Homeless vet — f — versus — gpd.”
Self-funded, Zirkle said putting “Hvfvgpd” in his name is a way of getting free press for his campaign.
We just wonder what his family thinks about the name change bit. His real name is Frederick Anthony Zirkle.
More candidate filings
In addition to Zirkle and Goshen businessman Luke Puckett, who actually has party backing and an experienced campaign manager, a third candidate, Joseph Roush, Culver, has entered the Republican primary for Indiana’s 2nd congressional district. Roush declined a request for an interview Friday, saying he’ll be sending out a press release shortly and will only accept e-mailed questions from the press.
In Indiana’s 5th congressional district, three Democrats will vie for the chance to take on the winner of the Dan Burton/John McGoff/Clayton L. Alfred/ John Frame race on the Republican side.
Democrats seeking the nomination in the 5th District include Chester Kelsey of North Manchester; Mary Etta Ruley, Gas City; and Kenny Stall, Greenwood.
Although all three have filed for the nomination, none of the three have sent a press release about their candidacy to the Kokomo Tribune and to our knowledge none have visited the portion of Howard County in the district.
We’d like to hear from you.
Not missing in action
The Public Eye found some interesting statistics on the Government Track Web site concerning the number of missed votes in Congress by members of the Indiana delegation.
Leading the pack in the number of missed votes was Republican Steve Buyer, 4th District, who missed 620 of 7,054 votes or 9 percent since 1997. Second on the list was Republican Dan Burton, who missed 555 of the 7,054 votes, 8 percent during the same time period.
At the opposite end of the scale was Democrat Joe Donnelly, 2nd District, who missed four of 1,227 votes, less than 1 percent, since taking office in 2007.
Indiana’s two Senators Democrat Evan Bayh and Republican Richard Lugar both missed 1 percent of the recorded votes. Bayh has failed to vote 34 times of the 3,117 votes since 1999 and Lugar has missed 40 of 3,729 votes since 1997.
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