TERRE HAUTE —
Last week’s decision by Democrats to switch leaders in the Indiana House of Representatives could spice up voters’ choices in the November election.
Members of the House’s minority party caucus on voted to replace longtime frontman Patrick Bauer with Rep. Linda Lawson of Hammond. Their meeting was attended by 23 of the 40 House Democrats. Those attending refused to reveal how each voted, but at least 21 votes were required to oust Bauer as leader.
With just 100 days left before the election, the shakeup pursued by disgruntled Democrats will be cast by rival Republicans as an act of desperation. Some Democrats questioned the move, too. “I worry about the message it sends to folks,” Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat, told the Tribune-Star. Kersey praised Bauer’s performance in recruiting Democratic candidates for this fall’s election.
Others worried that without a change at the top, Democrats could lose more House seats in November, further marginalizing the party. They’re already outnumbered 60 to 40 in the House, after a Republican landslide in 2010. The prospect of Republicans amassing 67 seats is quite real, and would give the GOP a “super majority,” allowing them to conduct business without any Democrats present. In other words, the underdogs’ last tool of opposition — a walkout, employed in divisive fashion during the past two Republican-dominated sessions of the General Assembly — would be gone.
The Democrats behind last week’s switch aptly sensed voters were not being won over, despite Bauer’s willingness to faceoff with the top Republicans, namely Gov. Mitch Daniels, over controversial reforms of education and labor laws. Those Democrats also expressed frustration that Bauer controlled the caucus flow of information and decision-making, and conducted few meetings. Ironically, Bauer was not at Thursday’s meeting, but after the change was made, Rep. Ed DeLaney of Indianapolis forecast a new operating style — a “polar opposite.”
“The other model says we try to get the best out of every one of our members — we may have some disagreements, but we have our team approach,” DeLaney said. To Bauer’s credit, the veteran of 42 years in the Legislature praised his successor and promised support.
The prospect of House Democrats exercising more freedom to pitch ideas and rebuild some bridges with Republican colleagues sounds refreshing. If Democrat candidates offer creative plans in the coming election season, Hoosiers may vote a more balanced slate of state representatives into office. The presence of a super majority in both the Indiana House and Senate limits the chances of active bipartisanship.
If Indiana Democrats intend to provide resolute, unique solutions to problems such as low wages and high poverty rates, they’ll need to be more dynamic inside the Statehouse. Give and take between the majority Republicans and the minority Democrats is healthy for the legislative branch of government. Such fruitful discourse has been rare during the past two General Assembly sessions. The House Democrats appear convinced that installing Rep. Lawson as minority leader strengthens their future. Let’s hope it signals better communication among all legislators in 2013.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Let’s hope ousting Bauer opens communication
Remains to be seen if cooperation between parties will grow
- Editorials
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
Good-paying jobs. -
MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
Noteworthy in the news
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EDITORIAL: Crack down on dumpers
There is a reason it’s called “illegal” dumping. It’s against the law. And there is a very good reason illegal dumping is against the law.
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Season of Day 2s arrives
Calendars in Cincinnati contain one extra holiday — Opening Day, traditionally the first Monday in April.
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