Bray Completes Senate Power Transition Preliminary Vote Sets Republican As Next President Pro Tem by BRIAN A
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V23, N37 Thursday, May 17, 2018 Bray completes Senate power transition Preliminary vote sets Republican as next president pro tem By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS – Senate Repub- licans entered the final sequence of the 2017-18 power shift when State Sen. Rodric Bray was preliminarily elected Senate president pro tempore. Bray’s ascension comes after the retirements of Senate Appropria- tions Chairman Luke Kenley, Tax & Fiscal Policy Chairman Brandt Hersh- man and finally in February, that of Senate President Pro Tempore David might have divided the majority caucus. The real vote will Long. Bray won a party caucus with sources saying it was occur after the Nov. 6 election when there will be at least by a single vote over Sen. Travis Holdman. four new senators replacing Long, the defeated Sen. Joe Monday’s election was a preliminary one to settle Zakas, and the retiring Sens. Doug Eckerty and Jim Smith. the GOP caucus instead of a months-long campaign that Continued on page 4 Truth, tribes & tyranny By BRIAN A. HOWEY NASVHILLE, Ind. – The fissures continue to ap- pear, the dominant topical one cracking the thin crust of Hawaii’s Big Island. In the human context and the mat- ter of whether we can keep our republic, the breaches “If our leaders seek to conceal forecast trouble, upheaval and, perhaps, cataclysm. The voices the truth, or we as people be- we’ve heard over the past several weeks should not be ignored. come accepting of alternative re- For Hoosiers, it was Pur- alities that are no longer ground- due President Mitch Daniels who sounded alarms during his annual ed in facts, then we as American commencement address. “The citizens are on a pathway to re- freedoms we take for granted, the ‘blessings of liberty’ of which linquishing our freedoms.” our Constitution speaks, are the gross exception in history,” - Rex Tillerson, former Daniels said Friday night in West secretary of state, at VMI Page 2 Lafayette. “Almost all of history has American citizens are on a pathway to belonged to the tyrants, the warlords, relinquishing our freedom.” the autocrats, the totalitarians. And These warnings and observa- tribes always gravitate toward ty- tions are not liberal bellowing, but rants.” come from moderate to conservative His remarks come two voices, titans of corporate America months after Chinese President Xi who have tapped into our common Jinping changed his country’s constitu- experience. Mark Lubbers notes that Howey Politics Indiana tion leaving him in power indefinitely. Daniels spent 450 days campaigning On March 4, speaking at his Mar-a- in every county three times in 2003 WWHowey Media, LLC 405 Lago estate, President Donald Trump and 2004 as he prepared to govern, Massachusetts Ave., Suite praised Xi, saying, “He’s now presi- mostly staying in guest bedrooms 300 Indianapolis, IN 46204 dent for life. President for life. No, where he learned in minute detail the www.howeypolitics.com he’s great. And look, he was able to intricate nature of the Hoosier condi- do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll tion. have to give that a shot someday.” Ronald Reagan tapped into Brian A. Howey, Publisher Daniels’ address Friday night Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington was not specifically aimed at Trump Cameron Carter, Editor but coming on the heels of Xi’s Joel Weyrauch, Editor power grab and Trump’s authoritar- Mary Lou Howey, Editor ian tendencies, the implication was impossible to ignore. Mark Curry, Daily Wire, photo Those who were in atten- Jack E. Howey, Editor dance say that the import of Daniels’ Emeritus poignant observation held wide sway with a rapt audience. It had a Churchillian resonance with 1930s Subscriptions gravitas. HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 Some 1,500 miles to the HPI Weekly, $350 south, another Republican, former the American worker by visiting every HPI Mobile, $5.95 monthly New York City mayor Michael Bloom- General Electric factory in places Ray Volpe, Account Manager berg, overtly had President Trump in like Fort Wayne and Decatur, where mind, citing “an endless barrage of the company’s celebrity spokesman 317.602.3620 lies” and a trend toward “alternate spent countless hours visiting work- email: [email protected] realities” that he insists pose a dire ers in their lunch rooms. Reagan kept threat to U.S. democracy. The great- detailed logs that would eventually est threat to American democracy, he shape two successful terms of the Contact HPI said, is “our own willingness to toler- American presidency. [email protected] ate dishonesty in service of party and The contrast to ponder is that Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 in pursuit of power.” if Gov. Holcomb, or Speaker Bosma, or Washington: 202.256.5822 “This is bigger than any one Mayor Tim Neese of Elkhart or Mayor Business Office: 317.602.3620 person. It’s bigger than any one par- Jim Lienhoop of Columbus lied inces- ty,” Bloomberg said after his speech. santly about items big and small, they “How did we go from a president who would likely be thrown out of office. © 2018, Howey Politics could not tell a lie to politicians who When the Department of Child Servic- Indiana. All rights reserved. cannot tell the truth?” es report comes out next month, Gov. Photocopying, Internet forward- And as this column was Holcomb has credibility. ing, faxing or reproducing in written, we learned by the president’s With the Trump adminis- financial disclosure that he lied about tration, it might as well be Alice in any form, whole or part, is a the Stormy Daniels payments, while Wonderland. We don’t know what to violation of federal law without President Trump’s first secretary of believe. permission from the publisher. state, Rex Tillerson, told graduates Further warnings came from at the Virginia Military Institute, “If Axios CEO Jim VandeHei, who writes our leaders seek to conceal the truth, that President Trump has completely or we as people become accepting taken over the Republican Party, one of alternative realities that are no where Reagan in his old-fashioned longer grounded in facts, then we as views might not be welcomed today. Page 3 “Reversing one of the basic assumptions of politics, Trump The Peru Daily Tribune, once a watchdog and advocate for has shown you can radically change a political party’s core citizenship throughout Miami County, now pitches obits, beliefs and brand overnight,” VandeHei explains. “Only police logs and school lunch menus. six years ago, the GOP’s Romney-Ryan ticket was preach- This trend is coming to television with local net- ing the evils of Russia, the virtue of free trade, the sin of work affiliates consolidating in South Bend, Fort Wayne deficits. With no debate and little resistance, Trump has and Indianapolis. The New York Times reported that dra- flipped an entire party’s core beliefs.” matic changes are on the way: “Beneath the sparkle and “We always assumed party affiliation was a pre- the canapés, the networks are also navigating a serious requisite for leading a political party, and some political advertising upheaval. Ratings are on the decline, espe- experience a must,” VandeHei continued. “Trump was a cially among young people, some of whom don’t even own liberal Democrat and he hijacked conservatism. The hun- televisions. It’s hard to keep up with the many devices and ger for something different is unmis- apps people now use to watch shows. And there is a host takable, partly because a big chunk of material from Silicon Valley that is competing for view- of voters has had it with conventional ers’ attention, including Google’s YouTube, Facebook and politics and politicians. No reason Netflix.” another exotic Republican — or third It added: “National TV ad sales peaked in party, or even a surprise Democrat — 2016, when they exceeded $43 billion, according to data couldn’t do the same.” from Magna, the ad-buying and media intelligence arm of Beyond those who hold pow- IPG Mediabrands. Sales fell 2.2% last year, and the firm er, those who convey and communi- estimates that they will fall at least 2% each year through cate are closing in on rupture. The 2022.” “Oracle of Omaha,” Berkshire Hatha- Former New York City In Daniels’ first letter to the Purdue University way CEO Warren Buffett, observes mayor Michael Bloom- community as president in 2013, he cited predictions that the contraction of American news- berg 40% of American colleges may not make it to 2050, with papers. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting, he St. Joseph College in Rensselaer the Indiana example. suggested that only the New York Times, Washington Post The politicians have taken note. When U.S. Rep. and Wall Street Journal will survive, and even then at the Mike Pence kicked off his gubernatorial campaign in 2011, cost of hundreds if not thousands of editorial positions. the official word went out via Facebook to the burgeoning “If you look, there are 1,300 daily newspapers campaign’s friends and followers. The press avails would left,” Buffett said. “There were 1,700 or 1,800 not too long wait. Six years later, brother Greg Pence ran a stealth ago. Now, you’ve got the Internet. Aside from the ones I congressional campaign in which he largely avoided most mentioned, [most of them] haven’t figured out a way to interviews with the press, winning a primary with close make the digital model complement the print model.” to 75% of the vote. There were no debates, no Q&As At the turn of the century, many Indiana cities had answered. He didn’t have to meaningfully address a $100 a Republican and a Democrat newspaper.