Published: December 31, 2006 09:40 pm      

Judging a career

Ridlen looks back at nearly 30 years as an elected official

As he looks back at a career in government, Julian Ridlen sees nothing but full years behind him.

The two-term Cass Circuit Court judge left the bench Friday. He will continue to accept appointments as a senior judge appointed in some cases, but he will likely never serve in elected office again.

After serving most of two terms as judge of the former Logansport city court, two terms as state treasurer and two terms as Circuit Court judge, Ridlen leaves public life with nearly 30 years on his resume as an elected official.

He hopes to have more time in retirement to work on a book he plans to write in the next two years. He also will continue to work on the completion of long-term plans for the Family Opportunity Center and the expansion of AIM-Hi Park north of the Logansport city limits.

Early years

Ridlen succeeded Frank Tolbert as city judge, and he won election to a full four-year term in 1971. He was re-elected in 1975.

“The only thing it really did was handle the police blotter,” Ridlen said of the city court.

He recalled spending about 5 percent of his work week as a judge in the City Building. The rest he spent practicing law with his father-in-law, former Indiana Secretary of State Leland Smith.

“I think he probably gave me a fair picture of what it would be like in a county seat type of practice,” Ridlen said of his father-in-law. “He had an interesting approach toward the law, thinking about the law. I always remembered he said, ‘It is not necessarily what the law is, but what the law should be.’ There was that opportunity then for applying equitable principles to the law and considering that the law is an elastic body that is subject to change over time. I think it’s good guidance to have that approach.”

Ridlen still remembers the first case he ever handled in city court.

“It was a driving under the influence case,” he said. “The fee was $25 and I’m not sure I ever collected it.”

While he was not from Logansport, people began to know of him in part because of his wife, Sue, and his father-in-law. But when he ran for office, his name was not familiar to voters.

“They were also very aware that I was not a local,” he said. “I found that interesting because even though Decatur, Ill., was not a large place, it was large enough that people would not question a surname as to whether one was a native of the area. Here, they would say, ‘Ridlen?’ Pause. ‘You’re not from here are you?’”

Running for treasurer

After serving as a Republican during years when Democrats controlled not only city offices but most Cass County offices, Ridlen decided to run for state treasurer in 1978. His plan originally would have been to run for the same office his father-in-law held, but a series of events led him to become the GOP nominee for treasurer.

“At the time I was first approached, there were those within the party who were searching for a candidate,” he said. “I was not on the top of their list. I was not even on their list.”

He was a somewhat reluctant candidate.

“If we’d had children, I would not have run, quite frankly, knowing the financial upheaval involved,” Ridlen said. “At that stage in the practice, I was beginning to feel good about things. I had a strong established clientele.”

After a meeting at a Whitley County farm with Republicans from across the state, Ridlen’s status as a candidate was validated. He easily won a first term and began reshaping the treasurer’s office. At first, the job was less than he had expected.

“It’s like many things that you do,” he said. “It’s what you do with the office.”

What he did with the office was put forward legislation that created the Indiana Bond Bank. The bank was modeled after similar entities in New England, and it provided a way for small government entities to access the bond market.

“A friend of mine was treasurer of Maine, a Democrat, Sam Shapiro,” he said. “I flew him out here to testify before the Senate Finance Committee. On that legislation, it passed the committee unanimously. It left the Senate floor unanimously. It passed unanimously in committee. On the floor of the House, it lost one vote. To this day, I don’t understand why that legislation led such a charmed life because there were attorneys around the state who were grumbling about it because they were concerned they were going to lose fees on local financing. Local banks were upset about it because they had a captive audience.”

After the law passed, libraries, sewer districts and school corporations had bonding access they never had before. By the time he left office, nearly $1 billion in projects had been financed through the bank.

Ridlen also instituted a farm loan program for the agriculture sector, which was hit hard during the 1980s.

The Bowen years

Among the political figures of the day was another Republican with ties to the Logansport area. Otis Bowen of Bremen had lived in both Fulton and Pulaski counties. Ridlen liked him before he was governor, but wondered if he could ever be elected.

“Doc had the appearance of being pretty easy-going, but on things on which he placed his commitment, he could be hard as nails. Lord help anyone who got in the way or sought to overturn his property tax relief bill for instance. He was very easy to work with, and we literally had a team approach,” he said.

“Public speaking was not his most attractive element, but I thought then, that if he could be elected, he would be a good governor. Of course in 1972, one of the blessings of the Nixon-McGovern contest is that Doc Bowen was elected handily.”

Ridlen said the party probably made a strategic error in 1988 when it supported two Marion County candidates, John Mutz and Steve Goldsmith, to run as governor and lieutenant governor. That ticket lost to Evan Bayh and Frank O’Bannon, neither of whom was from Marion County.

Lincolnesque

Ridlen’s love of history might have peaked in the 1970s when he chaired the community bicentennial celebration. His plans for period flavor included a downtown torchlight parade.

In his retirement, Ridlen, who was born in the state known as the “Land of Lincoln,” will be finishing another project that has a Lincoln-like flavor. After buying land at the southeast edge of the city on the north side of what was once the Wabash & Erie Canal, he is building a log home.

The home will be only blocks from Lincoln Middle School.

The Ridlens have been collecting political campaign buttons for years. They might still add to the collection, but the judge has pronounced one of his final sentences for the collection.

“We’re going to do what everyone wants to do that collects things,” he said smiling. “We’re going to start a museum.”

Dave Kitchell may be contacted at (574) 732-5150, or via e-mail at david.kitchell@pharostribune.com