Messer's Pitch to Trump/Pence Base
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V23, N29 Thursday, March 22, 2018 Messer’s pitch to Trump/Pence base INSen candidate is telling describe the concept of defeat. But it can also be GOP primary voters he prelude to victory before champagne is uncorked. will be backing the president Two women stood on the corner carrying anti- By BRIAN A. HOWEY Trump and pro-Dreamer ANDERSON – The classic mom-and- placards. Bounding in just pop joint in downtown was called the Toast a few minutes behind Cafe, potentially a danger- schedule was U.S. Rep. ous place for a U.S. Senate Luke Messer, wearing candidate to show up for a corduroy pants and a dark meet-and-greet with voters shirt. heading into a competi- tive primary. It’s a term Hoosiers often use to Continued on page 4 Rural broadband advance By BRIAN A. HOWEY NASHVILLE, Ind. – Last Wednesday afternoon before bedlam overtook the Indiana General Assembly, a hallway friend of mine texted me: “Have you been drink- ing?” This came after word from the Statehouse that “Half the soybeans grown in HB1065, a bill to establish gov- ernment grants for rural broad- Indiana are exported to China. band access, was going down. Nashville Town Man- Honeywell makes brakes and ager Scott Rudd, who worked in avionics in South Bend that go tandem with Advance Indiana Municipalities and the Office to Boeing airplanes. China is of Community and Rural Af- threatening retaliation against fairs, sounded the alarm. It was quickly confirmed by sources in both.” the lieutenant governor’s office. What should I do? Then I - U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski thought, so what would President in House Ways & Means Page 2 Trump do? ary revealed that rural Indiana resi- So, I tweeted: “We’re hearing dents are lagging behind all adjacent AT&T is trying to kill off HB1065, the states in high-speed internet access: bill that would help companies and Indiana 58.5%, Kentucky 68.8%, Illi- REMCs bring high speed broadband to nois 63.5%, Michigan 66.4% and Ohio rural areas. Hell to pay if this is what’s 71.1%. happening. Time for rural legislators Rudd observed, “868,013 to step up and fight for their econo- Hoosiers that lack high-speed internet Howey Politics Indiana mies and constituents.” are one step closer to starting the A few minutes later, I tweeted process of building out” with HB1065. WWHowey Media, LLC 405 some more: “On AT&T snuffing In the past couple of Massachusetts Ave., Suite HB1065, the bill allowing REMCs months, REMC’s, which came into ex- 300 Indianapolis, IN 46204 and small companies to extend rural istence to extend electrical service to www.howeypolitics.com broadband to our rural Hoosier broth- the proverbial last mile, were interest- ers and sister, my weekly column ed in extending such service. HB1065 runs in Churu- was the vehicle to Brian A. Howey, Publisher busco, Elkhart, begin the process. Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington Lawrenceburg, State Sen. Cameron Carter, Editor Hendricks County, Erin Houchin au- Joel Weyrauch, Editor Logansport, Ko- thored SB356, which Mary Lou Howey, Editor komo ... there will was later combined be HELL TO PAY if into HB1065 that Mark Curry, Daily Wire, photo 1065 dies.” would create a state Jack E. Howey, Editor I forgot to grant program em- Emeritus add the Trumpian phasizing the build- “SAD!” out of broadband And a few infrastructure. The Subscriptions minutes after that, legislation had the HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 a source in the LG’s support of REMCs, HPI Weekly, $350 office reported my State Sen. Erin Houchin revived a falter- Comcast and several HPI Mobile, $5.95 monthly tweets were hav- ing HEA1065 before chaos overtook the broadband innova- Ray Volpe, Account Manager ing an impact. General Assembly. (HPI Photo by Mark tion groups. “They Shortly Curry) reached out and 317.602.3620 thereafter, I got said, ‘Let us help email: [email protected] a call from AT&T Indiana President craft something we can support’,” Bill Soards, who insisted he and his Houchin told me on Monday. “That company weren’t opposed to HB1065. was the first time that had happened.” Contact HPI He was only doing what anyone in his AT&T took a pass, indicating [email protected] position would do, which is to work that the “return on investment isn’t Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 to protect his company’s interests. He there.” Houchin explained, “AT&T was Washington: 202.256.5822 explained, “We aren’t trying to kill it. not at the table. They never came to Business Office: 317.602.3620 We continue to try and make it tech the table.” neutral.” By that, Soards was seeking What roused AT&T’s interest to make sure the operational costs was that at various stages of the bill’s © 2018, Howey Politics would be there for all providers. evolution, the REMCs were excluded Indiana. All rights reserved. My interest in HB1065 (and then written back in) along with Photocopying, Internet forward- stemmed from my service on the AT&T and other cellular companies. ing, faxing or reproducing in Brown County Broadband Task Force, “I did not want to exclude anyone,” which was founded by Rudd and Houchin said. “I want everyone to any form, whole or part, is a includes members from the county participate in the grant.” She asked violation of federal law without school corporation, highway depart- retiring State Rep. David Ober, who permission from the publisher. ment, community foundation, citizen chairs the conference committee on activists and smaller internet compa- the bill, to prevent any exclusions. nies. The goal has been to expand AT&T then wanted the legisla- access to that “last mile.” tion written so that the grant program A Federal Communications would allow operating expenses to be Commission report released in Febru- paid out. Houchin explained, “If you Page 3 allow operating expenses, it would drain the fund.” She People are gradually moving to urban and suburban areas, wanted it to be used for capital build-outs. Ober put the a trend that began more than a century ago as manufac- operating expense provisions in. When Houchin pressed turing provided more jobs than the farms. him on the matter Tuesday night, his response was, “I Some believe it’s a waste of money to try and save guess your bill is dead.” rural Indiana. For others, like Rudd and Sen. Houchin, they Houchin is from Salem and represents rural areas view universal high-speed internet as a key component in Washington County and adjacent counties. Ober is to keeping many rural areas relevant. Some rural Hoosier from Albion in Noble County, representing lake country. communities will fail, but others which innovate will make Folks will tell you how fitful it is to get reliable, high-speed it. broadband in both locales. Others point to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX Houchin redoubled her efforts beginning at 6 company, which launched two satellites on the Falcon a.m. Wednesday, reaching out to State Rep. Sharon Negele, who represents a rural western Indiana dis- trict. Rep. Negele subsequently helped get the operat- ing expenses out. A conference committee report was forged by 3 p.m., just prior to the chaos that would break out a few hours later, killing a slew of other bills. Houchin spent the next five hours seeking the conference report signatures from Sen. Lonnie Ran- dolph of East Chicago and State Rep. Ryan Hatfield of Evansville, both representing very urban districts. It was curious that Democrats seeking to make inroads in this year’s elections had urban legislators as conferees, Tesla’s Elon Musk and his SpaceX Starlink concept. but Houchin successfully made her case, with Hatfield the last to sign. Ober filed the signed report later in the evening. Less than a week later, Gov. Eric Holcomb ap- Heavy rocket launch in February to test a program called pointed him to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. Starlink. Business Insider reports that Starlink will “bathe Gov. Holcomb signed the bill on Wednesday, Earth in high-speed internet access. The Starlink plan calls though he did not release comments. Lt. Gov. Suzanne for nearly 12,000 interlinked satellites — many more than Crouch, who oversees OCRA, lauded HEA1065, saying, currently orbit Earth.” “I’m especially pleased to see that we are making progress “The common challenges associated with on ensuring equal broadband opportunities across rural siting, digging trenches, laying fiber, and dealing with Indiana.” property rights are materially alleviated through a space- As for broadband speed, there are three tiers: based broadband network,” Patricia Cooper, SpaceX’s vice Areas with no access; areas with 10/1 megabites per president of satellite government affairs, said in written second (Mbps); and those with less than 25/3 Mbps. The testimony to a Senate committee in May 2017. speeds outlined in HEA1065, were kept at 10/1 megabites Musk adds, “We’re really talking about something per second instead of the FCC advised standards of 25/3 which is, in the long term, like rebuilding the internet Mbps. Houchin explained, “If we set it at 25/3, the re- in space. The goal will be to have the majority of long- sources could go to Carmel and other areas with speeds distance internet traffic go over this network and about greater than 10/1.” 10% of local consumer and business traffic. So probably Thus, the legislation is aimed at areas lacking the 90% of people’s local access will come from fiber, but we’ll high speeds. do about 10% business to consumer direct and more than Justin Schneider, director of state government half of the long-distance traffic.” Relations for the Indiana Farm Bureau, calls HEA1065 The topic of what kind of technologies will come “a good first step,” adding, “That’s critical because now to the fore has been discussed extensively on the Brown (that) we have the program in place, we have a mecha- County Broadband Task Force.