Long Will Seek Redistricting Study Senate President to Politics Indiana on Wednes- Day
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V19, N28 Thursday March 27, 2014 Long will seek redistricting study Senate president to Politics Indiana on Wednes- day. “We are extremely proud seek blue ribbon of the maps we drew in the 2011 redistricting effort, commission in 2015 where the process was fair, open, transparent, and totally By BRIAN A. HOWEY compatible with the recom- and MATTHEW BUTLER mended guidelines set out by INDIANAPOLIS – Senate the U.S. Supreme Court.” President David Long will seek “However,” Long said, “we a blue ribbon commission in the are also a state that embraces 2015 budgetary session of the positive, common sense ideas, General Assembly to study the and we should be open to manner the state draws new leg- exploring the experiences islative and congressional maps. and outcomes of states who His comments come after handle redistricting differently two bills that would have estab- than Indiana. To that end, lished an independent redistricting we will support the creation commission, HB1032 and SB136, of a blue ribbon commission died this past session. in 2015 to analyze the state “Senate leadership has redistricting landscape across consistently stated that we sup- the nation to determine if port an analysis of our state’s re- there is truly a better way districting system as it compares to draw Indiana’s legislative to the rest of the country,” Long said in a statement to Howey Continued on page 3 The not-so-free press By PETE SEAT INDIANAPOLIS – White House press secretary Jay Carney’s desk is 50 feet from the entrance to the Oval Office and 50 feet from the podium of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. This is no mere coincidence. The “I have signed SEA176 into law to Office of the Press Secretary serves two bosses, the presi- give the people of Central dent and the press. Indiana the opportunity to de- That proximity to both can put the press secretary in an cide on the future of mass transit awkward position. Depending on whom you talk to, the White in the greater Indianapolis area. House is either in cahoots with Our capital city is a world class the media or the two are in a constant battle over access to destination and needs a world the president. Both of those class transit system” arguments bubbled back to the surface last week, although one - Gov. Mike Pence Page 2 part happened inadvertently. directly behind the briefing room Following an off-the-record podium or up the ramp to the press meeting of local news anchors from secretary’s desk, with a direct line of across the country with Carney, a sight to the Oval Office. reporter from Phoenix CBS affiliate That, however, isn’t the beef KPHO went on the air to tell viewers the press currently has with the White that the press secretary gets ques- House. tions from the media in advance of Many reporters have recently each day’s briefing. Well, she was called the White House “state-run wrong. After an online uproar, she media.” Instead of allowing photogra- is a non-partisan newslet- apologized for mischaracterizing the phers into meetings to capture a few ter based in Indianapolis and situation. brief images of the president with for- Nashville, Ind. It was founded Even if there was some eign leaders or other dignitaries, the in 1994 in Fort Wayne. truth, it was a well-worn credo during White House has resorted to spread- my time in the White It is published by House press sec- WWWHowey Media, LLC retary’s office that 405 Massachusetts Ave., “on a good day, you Suite 300 Indianapolis, IN predict 95 percent 46204 of questions at the briefing. On a bad day, you predict 85 Brian A. Howey, Publisher percent.” Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington The job of Jack E. Howey, Editor the press secretary Mary Lou Howey, Editor is to be in constant communication with Maureen Hayden, Statehouse the media. That means emails, phone ing news and information through Matthew Butler, Daily Wire calls, texts and tweets, an all-of-the- controlled means including their own above strategy of sorts. So if both the website and social media. Subscriptions press secretary and the media are do- In an ironic twist, First HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 ing their jobs, on any given day there Lady Michelle Obama’s trip last week will be plenty of interaction before the to China, a country that actually has HPI Weekly, $350 cameras start rolling at the daily back- state-run media, included not a single Ray Volpe, Account Manager and-forth. member of the press corps on the 317.602.3620 On the opposite end of the journey. Instead, the White House email: [email protected] scale is the question of press access. kept the public abreast of the trip via Should the media be given unfettered blog posts published on their website. access to elected officials or should An Associated Press photographer, Contact HPI there be some barriers? This has been Charles Dharapak, lamented these “vi- www.howeypolitics.com a common debate in our First Amend- sual press releases” at a gathering of [email protected] ment society, and especially in the the Newspaper Association of America Howey’s Cabin: 812.988.6520 Obama White House, as the president in Denver last week. Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 and his advisors close off more and This all helps to keep the im- more events once open to press cov- ages of the Obamas intact, but barring Washington: 202.256.5822 erage. the media from important historical Business Office: 317.602.3620 But first, it’simportant to moments is a disservice to the public. note that the White House press corps In the Bush press office, we © 2014, Howey Politics Indiana. generally has more access to govern- went out of our way to accommodate All rights reserved. Photocopy- ment officials than in almost any other the press. In one particular instance, country in the world. The office space when all the living presidents gathered ing, Internet forwarding, fax- used by network, newspaper and ra- at the White House for the first time in ing or reproducing in any form, dio correspondents is separated from 25 years, we understood the histori- whole or part, is a violation of the Rose Garden only by a wall. They cal importance of the occasion and federal law without permission can easily walk into the press office at worked to ensure that two “waves” of from the publisher. almost any time, either to the space photographers (far more than usual) Page 3 could come into the Oval Office to capture the moment. It between the White House and the press corps is good only added two minutes to the event but helped to distrib- business. ute pictures to a wider audience and helped strengthen But for Jay Carney, the issue of access doesn’t put relations with the press corps. him “Between Two Ferns,” it puts him between a rock and The current occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania a hard place. v Avenue don’t see it that way. They would prefer to put the President of the United States on “Between Two Ferns,” Pete Seat is senior project manager at the India- a comedy show with professional actor Zach Galifiana- napolis-based Hathaway Strategies. He was previ- kis, rather than in front of professional photographers. ously a spokesman for President George W. Bush, I get the strategy behind reaching niche audiences and, U.S. Sen. Dan Coats and the Indiana Republican from every indication, appearing on “Between Two Ferns” Party. He joins Howey Politics Indiana as a regular worked. I also get that a mutual beneficial relationship columnist. will continue with our joint effort to amend our state con- Redistricting, from page 1 stitution to allow for an independent commission.” Heading into the 2014 session, Bosma said, “I’ve districts.” seen what political parties can do with the process and I HB1032 passed the Indiana House on Jan. 21 think it’s appropriate in a nonpartisan or bipartisan inde- by a 77-20 margin. It had bipartisan support as House pendent commission.” Lanane said during the same time Speaker Brian Bosma, Republican Reps. Rep. Milo Smith, frame, “There was a promise that we will definitely do this Wes Culver and Dick Hamm and Democrats Reps. Dan 10 years from now and, well, we’re into 2014 and time Forestal, Terry Goodin, Justin Moed signed on as sponsors. flies, so it’s time to get that idea back out there and move The Senate sponsors included Senate Minority Leader Tim it forward.” Lanane and Republican Sen. Mike Delph. After this year’s sine die, Bosma was asked about But neither bill made it to the floor of the Sen- what happened. “Yeah, boy, well. Session’s dead, over, so ate. I believe it’s dead at this point,” Bosma Both bills would have required said. the Legislative Service Agency to pro- Why did it die? Bosma respond- vide staff and administrative services ed, “You know, these are our priorities,” to the commission. They would estab- pointing to the GOP session agenda lish standards to govern the commis- poster. “You know I personally support sion and the agency in the creation of that initiative and had my name on it this redistricting plans; provide that, if the year. We’re not going to redistrict here Constitution of the State of Indiana for awhile, so it generally wasn’t a prior- does not require the general assembly ity to get done this session.