About « Sean Patrick Feeney for Indiana

About

Sean Patrick Feeney holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and is currently studying for a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business while working full-time at Sony DADC. He has been involved with the Democratic Party since 2003 when he began canvassing for the Kentucky chapter. In 2004 he became a founding officer of the first state-chartered high school Young Democrat’s Club in Kentucky.

In 2006 as a college freshman he founded the College Democrats Club at Rose-Hulman, once one of the most conservative (yet politically uninvolved) campuses in the US. His other political actions include:

In 2002, lobbyist training in Washington, DC with ProSpace, after which he briefed the congressional staff of US Representatives Ron Lewis, Mike Pence, Don Sherwood, Dennis Moore and of Senator Mitch McConnell on space-related issues.
In 2004, elected to the House of Representatives of the American Legion’s Kentucky Boys’ State and served as Chairman of the House Committee on Labor, Education, Health and Welfare. Several of his bills passed both houses and were signed into mythical law by the elected Governor.
In 2004 he also began a Freedom’s Answer chapter at his high school and rallied students to obtain non-partisan voting pledges from family and friends old enough to vote. As School Coordinator of Freedom’s Answer, he helped organize a 9/11 Ceremony to kick-off the pledge drive and honor the local police and fire departments as well as local veterans, and later in the year he helped organize and run a “Support the Troops” drive.
In 2005 he was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by the Governor of the State of Kentucky, a commission that has become “synonymous with strength of character, leadership and dedication to the welfare of others.” He is possibly the youngest person to ever receive this commission.
In 2006 he canvassed and phone banked for the Indiana Democratic Party’s GOTV operation. His candidate received 71% of the vote in Vigo County, and 61% of the vote overall, turning a twelve-year red district into a blue district.
In 2008 he received a scholarship to attend the inaugural United States Public Service Academy (USPSA) National Youth Conference in DC. While there, he briefed Congressman Brad Ellseworth and others on the USPSA Act. Sean was the State Academy Representative for Kentucky from 2007-2010 and a leading advocate of locating the Academy in the Midwest instead of in DC.
In 2010 Sean attended the inaugural Next Generation Democrats conference in Columbus, Ohio and received training in the Democratic Party’s current technology, grassroots efforts, and campaign financing.
In 2011 he participated in one of the first MoveOn Regional Organizer Academy classes and attended Democracy for America Night School.

Experience

Sean has held many titles and offices for various organizations ranging from local community clubs to national professional associations. He is presently a board member on the non-profit Farrington’s Grove Historical District. His political resume is available here. Below is a listing of political elections that he has won and political appointments received:

(2001-2005) Holmes High School Student Government, Various Positions
(2004) Kentucky Boys State, Chairman of the House Committee on Labor, Education, Health and Welfare
(2006) Rose-Hulman Student Government, Commuter Representative
(2006, 2008) Rose-Hulman College Democrats, President/Vice President
(2008) Indiana Democratic Party, Vigo County Delegate to the State Convention
(2010) City of North College Hill, Ohio, Board of Zoning Appeals
(2010) City of North College Hill, Ohio, Secretary of Mayor’s Taskforce
(2010) Hamilton County, OH Democratic Party, Precinct Executive

Beliefs

Sean believes in restoring sanity to government operations. He is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. His deep understanding of American history and experience at home and abroad color his political views.

Lowering taxes - Through efficient government spending and regulation it would be very easy to lower many forms of taxes. On federal government taxes in particular, the disclosure of the “black budget” even as a line item rather than particular details would solve many problems in government accounting.
Transparent government - Full text of all laws should be easily available online.
Elimination of unnecessary laws to simplify law codes - Even if a ticket may not have been given for having an ice cream cone in your back pocket for centuries, the law is still “on the books.” We need to have a “spring cleaning” of “the books.” Needlessly complicated and lengthy laws serve no purpose other than the creation of an unfair subsidy for lawyers, and lead to poor understanding and therefore poor actions by the executive branch.
Full disclosure - Nothing should be hidden from the public, even if it may or may not affect them mentally or emotionally. “Public hysteria” and “mass panic” are not valid reasons: if the government did something questionable, the government needs to deal with it responsibly. Any denial or obfuscation of details of something that did in fact occur should be criminally punishable.
Limitation of Presidential powers - Things like “signing statements” stating that the President is going to enforce one part of the law but not this other part is illegal, and this should be written in stone with criminal punishment for neglecting duties. The President is elected to serve all of the people, not just some, and the Congress is where the people speak, so the President should not ignore the wishes of the Congress no matter how much he personally dislikes them. Additionally, the President should not have the right to authorize any armed forces attacks against foreign countries for a period longer than 30 days without the explicit consent of the Congress. There’s a reason the Constitution calls for the Congress to declare war and not the President. Terrorism might not have been as big of a threat when the Constitution was written, but it wasn’t nonexistent. Our founders knew what they were doing. The President does not have the power to declare someone an “enemy combatant” and deny them habeas corpus and imprison them without trial – the English did such a thing against us with impressment of Americans into the Royal Navy, and it led to the War of 1812! To deny anyone their inalienable human rights is to lose your own humanity, and is as anti-American as anything. The Declaration of Independence might not be a law, but it’s the start of the framework upon which this country was founded and should be heeded by the commander-in-chief of all people.
Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs) - Yes, the American-initiated League of Nations failed but this should not put us off from fully supporting organizations that have endured the test of time like the United Nations. No military action should be carried out that does not have the support of a great number of the international community. It’s only through international cooperation that we will be able to one day solve all of the world’s problems. Isolationism is simply not an option in the 21st century. I’m not saying that we should give up our national sovereignty to these organizations, but we should allow them to help guide our own lawmaking in a way that is mutually favorable to both the international community and the United States.
Higher education funding - If you don’t have a credit-worthy co-signer and want to attend an out-of-state school, you’re screwed in America even if you did work your butt off for scholarships in high school. In the EU, undergraduate education is free and you can cross state borders for education as you please. If they can figure out a way to make it work, so can we! One solution could be to expand the existing federal grant programs, allowing that money to follow a student throughout the nation. Or a new system could be worked out to replace inadequacies in the current grant system. Either way, Total Cost of Attendance should be met by funds not paid out of the student’s pocket, covering all costs through graduation, no matter how expensive the school is. That last clause is where the current system fails. Such a system would encourage runaway inflation of college costs, so a mechanism would need to be put in place to deal with that problem, but one-size-fits-all grants do not work since educationally excellent and therefore exclusive schools will always charge more than inclusive schools. A federal education credit would lower state taxes (as the need for state scholarships would diminish), and therefore lower the tax burden on people living in states with excellent schools. Lower taxes would be an excellent incentive for states to nurture excellence in their university systems.
Prison prevention rather than reform - In comparison to the rest of the world, we jail a good percentage more of our neighbors. There are two views on what a prison should do: punish criminals or reform criminals. Rather than spend so much time worrying about whether we’re punishing them or reforming them, we should actively work to prevent them from becoming criminals in the first place. This can only happen through a combination of education and law reforms leading to a more robust social welfare system in which the poor or simply bored are better challenged in other areas of their life. There should be no distinction between why one would steal bread because the poor should be given a better, fairer opportunity to earn their bread.
Increasing funding for police training and redefining their role in society - Our police force is staffed by our neighbors. We should not be scared of them as they should only benefit society. Instead of spending most of their time giving out tickets to the public for non-violent infractions, they should be investigating corporate crime to prevent scandals that ruin American lives. This will have to happen through open lines of communication between local, state, and federal organizations who should work in unison to ensure our safety. One proposal that makes sense is to have the executive branch simply stop enforcing certain needless non-violent laws. One example relates to property laws: As long as it does not substantially negatively affect nearby landowners, a property owner should be allowed to do whatever he or she pleases on his or her property. In short: noise/smoke/burning ordinances are good (they affect everyone’s right to peace and the pursuit of happiness, and variances for planned events are allowed) while neighborhood/property association ordinances are bad (one should be allowed to park whatever he or she pleases wherever he or she pleases as long as it is inside his or her property lines, and one should be allowed to safely make improvements to his or her property without government interference). Property value arguments are not valid since in a free market the complaining neighbors could simply make the property owner an offer on his or her property. To be clear, I am for neighborhood associations (who plan block parties, organize scholarships, etc), but against property value bloc lobbies who convince local governments to pass laws that give their own properties a subsidy of valuation increases through the destruction of someone else’s property. Often the person being complained against lived on that property long before the complaining neighbor moved in! I’m against such government subsidies for all industries, as it negatively affects the free market (housing bubble burst of 2008, anyone?).

		Join Mailing List HomeAbout SeanIssuesEndorsementsPhotosContactDonate About Sean Patrick Feeney holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and is currently studying for a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business while working full-time at Sony DADC. He has been involved with the Democratic Party since 2003 when he began canvassing for the Kentucky chapter. In 2004 he became a founding officer of the first state-chartered high school Young Democrat’s Club in Kentucky. In 2006 as a college freshman he founded the College Democrats Club at Rose-Hulman, once one of the most conservative (yet politically uninvolved) campuses in the US. His other political actions include: In 2002, lobbyist training in Washington, DC with ProSpace, after which he briefed the congressional staff of US Representatives Ron Lewis, Mike Pence, Don Sherwood, Dennis Moore and of Senator Mitch McConnell on space-related issues. In 2004, elected to the House of Representatives of the American Legion’s Kentucky Boys’ State and served as Chairman of the House Committee on Labor, Education, Health and Welfare. Several of his bills passed both houses and were signed into mythical law by the elected Governor. In 2004 he also began a Freedom’s Answer chapter at his high school and rallied students to obtain non-partisan voting pledges from family and friends old enough to vote. As School Coordinator of Freedom’s Answer, he helped organize a 9/11 Ceremony to kick-off the pledge drive and honor the local police and fire departments as well as local veterans, and later in the year he helped organize and run a “Support the Troops” drive. In 2005 he was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by the Governor of the State of Kentucky, a commission that has become “synonymous with strength of character, leadership and dedication to the welfare of others.” He is possibly the youngest person to ever receive this commission. In 2006 he canvassed and phone banked for the Indiana Democratic Party’s GOTV operation. His candidate received 71% of the vote in Vigo County, and 61% of the vote overall, turning a twelve-year red district into a blue district. In 2008 he received a scholarship to attend the inaugural United States Public Service Academy (USPSA) National Youth Conference in DC. While there, he briefed Congressman Brad Ellseworth and others on the USPSA Act. Sean was the State Academy Representative for Kentucky from 2007-2010 and a leading advocate of locating the Academy in the Midwest instead of in DC. In 2010 Sean attended the inaugural Next Generation Democrats conference in Columbus, Ohio and received training in the Democratic Party’s current technology, grassroots efforts, and campaign financing. In 2011 he participated in one of the first MoveOn Regional Organizer Academy classes and attended Democracy for America Night School. Experience Sean has held many titles and offices for various organizations ranging from local community clubs to national professional associations. He is presently a board member on the non-profit Farrington’s Grove Historical District. His political resume is available here. Below is a listing of political elections that he has won and political appointments received: (2001-2005) Holmes High School Student Government, Various Positions (2004) Kentucky Boys State, Chairman of the House Committee on Labor, Education, Health and Welfare (2006) Rose-Hulman Student Government, Commuter Representative (2006, 2008) Rose-Hulman College Democrats, President/Vice President (2008) Indiana Democratic Party, Vigo County Delegate to the State Convention (2010) City of North College Hill, Ohio, Board of Zoning Appeals (2010) City of North College Hill, Ohio, Secretary of Mayor’s Taskforce (2010) Hamilton County, OH Democratic Party, Precinct Executive Beliefs Sean believes in restoring sanity to government operations. He is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. His deep understanding of American history and experience at home and abroad color his political views. Lowering taxes - Through efficient government spending and regulation it would be very easy to lower many forms of taxes. On federal government taxes in particular, the disclosure of the “black budget” even as a line item rather than particular details would solve many problems in government accounting. Transparent government - Full text of all laws should be easily available online. Elimination of unnecessary laws to simplify law codes - Even if a ticket may not have been given for having an ice cream cone in your back pocket for centuries, the law is still “on the books.” We need to have a “spring cleaning” of “the books.” Needlessly complicated and lengthy laws serve no purpose other than the creation of an unfair subsidy for lawyers, and lead to poor understanding and therefore poor actions by the executive branch. Full disclosure - Nothing should be hidden from the public, even if it may or may not affect them mentally or emotionally. “Public hysteria” and “mass panic” are not valid reasons: if the government did something questionable, the government needs to deal with it responsibly. Any denial or obfuscation of details of something that did in fact occur should be criminally punishable. Limitation of Presidential powers - Things like “signing statements” stating that the President is going to enforce one part of the law but not this other part is illegal, and this should be written in stone with criminal punishment for neglecting duties. The President is elected to serve all of the people, not just some, and the Congress is where the people speak, so the President should not ignore the wishes of the Congress no matter how much he personally dislikes them. Additionally, the President should not have the right to authorize any armed forces attacks against foreign countries for a period longer than 30 days without the explicit consent of the Congress. There’s a reason the Constitution calls for the Congress to declare war and not the President. Terrorism might not have been as big of a threat when the Constitution was written, but it wasn’t nonexistent. Our founders knew what they were doing. The President does not have the power to declare someone an “enemy combatant” and deny them habeas corpus and imprison them without trial – the English did such a thing against us with impressment of Americans into the Royal Navy, and it led to the War of 1812! To deny anyone their inalienable human rights is to lose your own humanity, and is as anti-American as anything. The Declaration of Independence might not be a law, but it’s the start of the framework upon which this country was founded and should be heeded by the commander-in-chief of all people. Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs) - Yes, the American-initiated League of Nations failed but this should not put us off from fully supporting organizations that have endured the test of time like the United Nations. No military action should be carried out that does not have the support of a great number of the international community. It’s only through international cooperation that we will be able to one day solve all of the world’s problems. Isolationism is simply not an option in the 21st century. I’m not saying that we should give up our national sovereignty to these organizations, but we should allow them to help guide our own lawmaking in a way that is mutually favorable to both the international community and the United States. Higher education funding - If you don’t have a credit-worthy co-signer and want to attend an out-of-state school, you’re screwed in America even if you did work your butt off for scholarships in high school. In the EU, undergraduate education is free and you can cross state borders for education as you please. If they can figure out a way to make it work, so can we! One solution could be to expand the existing federal grant programs, allowing that money to follow a student throughout the nation. Or a new system could be worked out to replace inadequacies in the current grant system. Either way, Total Cost of Attendance should be met by funds not paid out of the student’s pocket, covering all costs through graduation, no matter how expensive the school is. That last clause is where the current system fails. Such a system would encourage runaway inflation of college costs, so a mechanism would need to be put in place to deal with that problem, but one-size-fits-all grants do not work since educationally excellent and therefore exclusive schools will always charge more than inclusive schools. A federal education credit would lower state taxes (as the need for state scholarships would diminish), and therefore lower the tax burden on people living in states with excellent schools. Lower taxes would be an excellent incentive for states to nurture excellence in their university systems. Prison prevention rather than reform - In comparison to the rest of the world, we jail a good percentage more of our neighbors. There are two views on what a prison should do: punish criminals or reform criminals. Rather than spend so much time worrying about whether we’re punishing them or reforming them, we should actively work to prevent them from becoming criminals in the first place. This can only happen through a combination of education and law reforms leading to a more robust social welfare system in which the poor or simply bored are better challenged in other areas of their life. There should be no distinction between why one would steal bread because the poor should be given a better, fairer opportunity to earn their bread. Increasing funding for police training and redefining their role in society - Our police force is staffed by our neighbors. We should not be scared of them as they should only benefit society. Instead of spending most of their time giving out tickets to the public for non-violent infractions, they should be investigating corporate crime to prevent scandals that ruin American lives. This will have to happen through open lines of communication between local, state, and federal organizations who should work in unison to ensure our safety. One proposal that makes sense is to have the executive branch simply stop enforcing certain needless non-violent laws. One example relates to property laws: As long as it does not substantially negatively affect nearby landowners, a property owner should be allowed to do whatever he or she pleases on his or her property. In short: noise/smoke/burning ordinances are good (they affect everyone’s right to peace and the pursuit of happiness, and variances for planned events are allowed) while neighborhood/property association ordinances are bad (one should be allowed to park whatever he or she pleases wherever he or she pleases as long as it is inside his or her property lines, and one should be allowed to safely make improvements to his or her property without government interference). Property value arguments are not valid since in a free market the complaining neighbors could simply make the property owner an offer on his or her property. To be clear, I am for neighborhood associations (who plan block parties, organize scholarships, etc), but against property value bloc lobbies who convince local governments to pass laws that give their own properties a subsidy of valuation increases through the destruction of someone else’s property. Often the person being complained against lived on that property long before the complaining neighbor moved in! I’m against such government subsidies for all industries, as it negatively affects the free market (housing bubble burst of 2008, anyone?).
		On The Map Vigo County Council Districts Paid for by The Committee To Elect Sean Feeney. Not all content authorized by Sean Feeney, especially comments and other content uploaded by the public.

About

Experience

Beliefs

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