Ever since Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels dropped the bombshell news that he wasn’t running for president, calls from celebrity journalists to his office have plummeted.
The great gaggle of print and broadcast media who clamored for “exclusive” interviews with the wanna-be presidential aspirant has shrunk back down to near pre-speculation numbers.
Christiane Amapour, the millions-making moderator of ABC’s “This Week,” was spotted in the Statehouse midweek. But after her sit-down interview with the man who won’t be king of the West Wing, she dashed off, with an impressive entourage in tow.
The thrill is gone.
In the weeks and months leading up to the late-night revelation that he wouldn’t seek the GOP nomination, Daniels got some pretty great press. He was heralded as a wonkish fiscal genius who could outshine the dim bulbs who were his likely competitors.
On May 18, POLITICO — the must-read, multi-media news source for political junkies — ran the headline: “GOP elite see Mitch Daniels as 2012 savior.”
It was a romance that wasn’t going to last. Around the same time, different headlines were appearing in other national news venues, topping off stories with salacious details of Daniels’ divorce from his wife, Cheri. Lost in the coverage seemed to be the fact that the divorce was more than a decade ago and that the couple later remarried and raised four daughters.
It was all nasty enough that on May 21, when Daniels dispatched two of his closest friends to deliver a statement to The Indianapolis Star announcing his decision not to run, he sent a second statement along as well.
In that second statement, Daniels defended his wife, disclaiming the notion that she’d “abandoned” her children when she left him to marry another a man.
Knowing how deep into the muck the media scrutiny was sinking gives some context to the first statement he issued about his decision to drop out of the race, in which he cited his family’s worries that they’d be stripped naked of their privacy if he decided to run for president.
In that statement, he said: “What could have been a complicated decision was in the end very simple: on matter affecting us all, our family constitution gives a veto to the women’s caucus, and there is no override provision. Simply put, I find myself caught between two duties. I love my country; I love my family more.”
Here’s one more weird detail to illustrate just how tabloidish the story had become: The Indianapolis Star had the exclusive on Daniels’ announcement, and had made a deal with the Daniels’ camp on when to break it. (On Sunday morning, at 2 a.m. on The Star’s website and in the Sunday print edition.) That deal prompted some furious questions from other media sources, forcing The Star’s editor to go on record denying his newspaper had paid for the exclusive.
Maureen Hayden is statehouse bureau chief for the Tribune-Star and CNHI Indiana newspapers. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.
Indiana Legislature
STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: The tabloidish demise of Gov. Daniels potential presidential run
- Indiana Legislature
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INDIANAPOLIS — An overhaul of Indiana’s criminal sentencing laws aimed at sending fewer nonviolent offenders to prison has been approved by the Legislature.
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Budget deal calls for 5 percent income tax cut
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Revoked charters could be forgiven $12M in loans
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Indiana House set to vote on school safety grant plan
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Indiana Senate approves minimal voucher expansion
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Senate is signing off on a limited expansion of the state’s school voucher program.
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Group, bill promote natural gas fueling stations
INDIANAPOLIS — Natural gas advocates want to create incentives for building fueling stations across the state in hopes that more people will operate vehicles using alternative fuels.
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Senate OKs smaller tax cut than Pence wants
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence appears to be holding firm to his demand for a 10-percent income tax cut, despite some movement from Senate Republicans who are willing to give him a smaller slice of what he wants.
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Pence: Indiana Senate GOP income tax cut not enough
INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mike Pence says an income tax cut in the Indiana Senate’s proposed budget is a start but he’ll still push for the $500 million cut he has proposed.
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Indiana Senate leader against school guns mandate
INDIANAPOLIS — The leader of the Indiana Senate has come out against a proposal that would require all public schools in the state to have an employee armed with a loaded gun.
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House panel approves HIP expansion, strips grants
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana House panel has altered a plan that would use the state’s Healthy Indiana Plan to expand Medicaid coverage in the state.
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Bill seeks in-state tuition for some immigrants
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana lawmakers are considering rolling back the state’s two-year-old immigration law so that illegal immigrants who were attending public colleges then would again be eligible for in-state tuition rates.
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Bill for tougher Indiana abortion pill law advances
INDIANAPOLIS — A legislative committee has endorsed a proposal that would make Indiana clinics that provide only abortion drugs face the same requirements as clinics that perform surgical abortions.
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Bill to ban Indiana teacher union deductions advances
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Bill advances shifting Indiana voucher oversight
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Indiana school voucher expansion scaled back
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Pence unhappy with GOP budget, Dems seek tax vote
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Grants proposed to add police at Indiana schools
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Indiana Sunday alcohol sales ban likely to remain
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Indiana bill targets undercover video ‘vigilantes’
INDIANAPOLIS — A Senate panel has approved a bill that would make it a crime to take photographs or shoot footage at Indiana’s farms and businesses without the owner’s permission.
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Bill would give high-performing schools more flexibility
After focusing on failing schools in recent legislative sessions, some Indiana lawmakers say it’s time to reward high-performing schools with more money and more flexibility.
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Indiana Senate approves right to hunt, farm proposal
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana voters would decide in next year’s election whether to add the right to hunt, fish and farm to the state constitution under a proposal approved by state senators.
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Indiana lawmakers push for Sunday alcohol sales
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana lawmakers hoping to allow stores to sell alcohol on Sunday are facing opposition from liquor store owners, who worry the policy could put them out of business.
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Bill advances to loosen Indiana superintendent rules
INDIANAPOLIS — School superintendents would no longer have to hold an Indiana superintendent’s or teacher’s license under a bill endorsed today by an Indiana House committee.
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Bill aims to tighten Indiana laws over ‘bath salts’
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana legislators are again trying to toughen state laws that prohibit businesses from selling synthetic drugs known as “bath salts” and other nicknames.
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Cold medicines could face tighter Indiana limits
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana Senate committee has backed tougher limits on quantities consumers may buy of cold medications that can be used to make methamphetamine.
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Indiana senators seek new social networking ban
INDIANAPOLIS — Two Republican lawmakers are looking for a new way to keep registered sex offenders off social media one week after a federal appeals court found a previous ban unconstitutional.
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Indiana House OKs looser rules on selling old schools
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana House has approved a bill that would shorten the time that school districts must hold onto vacant buildings in case a charter school operator wanted to move into the building.
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Indiana lawmakers don sneakers for anti-cancer effort
INDIANAPOLIS — Numerous Indiana lawmakers and staff members are wearing sneakers around the Statehouse as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer activity sponsored by the American Cancer Society.
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UPDATE: Indiana lawmakers consider protecting right to hunt
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana lawmakers have delayed action on a proposed state constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right of residents to hunt, fish and farm.
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Top Indiana senator seeks gas plant contract review
A top Indiana senator is calling for a review of Indiana’s plans to subsidize a proposed coal-gasification plant.
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