government in the state. The report recommended having county argument mimic state government by having a single executive act that acts the chief executive officer and a legislative body which deals with fiscal and policy matters. The report also recommended saving costs bay eliminating township governments and having other levels of government assume services currently provided by townships. It also recommended having a unified county library system within each of the state's 92 counties. It also recommended decreasing the expenses of elections by moving municipal elections from off-years to even-numbered years. The state acted on a recommendation to eliminate township assessors, merging their responsibilities with county assessors. A state law was passed allowing townships to vote on whether to retain or abolish their assessors. In October 2008, Kernan and Shepherd co-authored an op-ed urging voters to vote to abolish assessor positions in their townships in the November elections. That November, 30 townships abolished their assessors, while thirteen retained their's. In 2008, Kernan and his wife Maggie were Indiana co-chairs of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and actively campaigned for Clinton leading up to the state's May primary. Ahead of the state's April primaries, Kernan also endorsed Jim Schellinger's gubernatorial campaign. Like Kernan, Schellinger originally hailed from South Bend. In his endorsement, Kernan stated that he had personally known Schellinger for years prior and considered him a friend and a great prospective governor. Breaking with her husband, Maggie Kernan endorsed Schellinger's primary election opponent, Jill Long Thompson. Kernan endorsed Pete Buttigieg during the 2011 South Bend mayoral election. In 2014, Kernan and several other city leaders, including his mayoral successor Steve Luecke and former South Bend fire chief Luther Taylor and Republican CEO of the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce Jeff Rea, held a press conference in which complained about visible infighting on the South Bend Common Council. Kernan also cited lewd social media posts by then-5th district council member Henry Davis, Jr. to have been an embarrassment to the city. At the press conference, Kernan levied the possibility that he would work to help remove problematic members of the council from office in the 2015 election. Immediately after, in comments to the South Bend Tribune, Kernan criticized Common Council Vice President Derek Dieter as being "poison in the well", alleging that he had been "behaving like a bully". Kernan criticized the leadership of Common Council President Oliver Davis, arguing that