Thursday April 24, 2003 Volume 9, Number 32 Page 1 of 8 he The Jurassic Age T of Indiana politics Howey ‘Weak sisters’ governing a lost state By BRIAN A. HOWEY in Indianapolis Back in the mid-1990s, as Mike Pence was building his radio empire with the catch-phrase “conservative, but in Political a good mood about it,” I was developing HPR, a statewide newspaper column and a news magazine. I countered Pence with the phrase, “The golden age of Report Indiana politics.” It was coined because we had just had an American The Howey Political Report is published by NewsLink Vice President (Dan Quayle), two leading statesmen (Sen. Inc. Founded in 1994, The Howey Political Report is Dick Lugar and Rep. Lee Hamilton), some rising stars in an independent, non-partisan newsletter analyzing the political process in Indiana. Congress (Reps. Ed Pease, David McIntosh, Steve Buyer and Tim Roemer), and a national party chairman (Joe Brian A. Howey, publisher Andrew). Indiana boasted several potential presidential can- Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington writer didates (Lugar, Evan Bayh, Stephen Goldsmith, Quayle). Jack E. Howey, editor Paul Helmke was president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. We were inclusive with officeholders such as The Howey Political Report Office: 317-254-1533 PO Box 40265 Fax: 317-968-0487 Attorney General Pamela Carter. There were two competi- Indianapolis, IN 46240-0265 Mobile: 317-506-0883 tive political parties with annual battles for control of the
[email protected] legislature. There were a couple of political think tanks, the www.howeypolitics.com Indiana Policy Review and the Sycamore Institute, along with nationally-recognized Hudson Institute.