V22, N14 Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 Holcomb rides Trump/Pence surge In our September survey, Gregg An improbable journey to had a 40-35% lead over Holcomb. In the win the governor’s office October survey Gregg was up just 41-39%. And in the November edition, it was tied By BRIAN A. HOWEY at 42%, with the Trump/Pence momentum INDIANAPOLIS – If you take the Octo- beginning to build. The presidential ticket ber WTHR/Howey Politics Indiana Poll and the went from 43-38% in October to a 48-37% Nov. 1-3 final survey and lead over Hillary Clinton in early November. draw a trend line, what you It was a precursor to a tidal wave, end up with in the Indiana an inverse tsunami, that was agitated by gubernatorial race is a the Oct. 28 letter from FBI Director James 51-45 upset victory by Eric Comey, tearing off Clinton’s email fiasco Holcomb over Democrat John Gregg. Continued on page 4 Pence’s Trump cigar By BRIAN A. HOWEY NASHVILLE, Ind. – “Do you want to see something really cool?” Sure. I was with Liz Murphy, an aide to Vice President Dan Quayle and we were in his ornate office at “Donald Trump is going to be the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House. our president. I hope that he will We walked into an office similar in size and scope to the be a successful president for all Indiana governor’s office at the Americans. We owe him an open Statehouse. We ended up be- fore an antique colonial revival- mind and a chance to lead.” style double-pedestal desk - Democratic presidential Theodore Roosevelt brought to the White House in 1903. It was nominee Hillary Clinton in one of six desks to once occupy the Oval Office. Murphy pulled her concession speech open the desk drawer, which Page 2 was empty, save for the signatures of Today, Gov. Pence is 70 days vice presidents. away from following Marshall’s foot- There were Nixon’s, Truman’s, steps into the Old Executive Office George H.W. Bush, and of course Building. He is measuring for curtains Dan Quayle. I looked for Thomas R. in the Naval Observatory with a dinner Marshall’s, but the signature tradition there with Vice President Joe Biden didn’t begin until the 1940s. scheduled. At some point near the end Marshall served as Indiana of his term in 2021 or, perhaps, 2025, governor a century before Mike Pence Pence will sign the Roosevelt desk. took over his old second floor State- It is an incredible political Howey Politics Indiana house office. Whereas Pence was an revival. There were so many errors WWHowey Media, LLC 405 ideologue, a caretaker governor, who and shoddy staff work during the Massachusetts Ave., Suite saw the office as a stepping stone to first three years of the Pence admin- 300 Indianapolis, IN 46204 the White House, Marshall was a pro- istration that Howey Politics Indiana gressive who attempted to rewrite the described it about a year ago as the www.howeypolitics.com Indiana Constitution that would have “exploding cigar governorship.” increased the state’s regulatory pow- Pence responded by giving Brian A. Howey, Publisher ers considerably, set minimum wages, me a box of Punch cigars (one of my Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington and gave constitutional protections to favorites, by the way), in an era when Jack E. Howey, Editor unions, all things Mike Pence opposes he was still doing interviews with In- to this very day. diana media. The man had a sense of Mary Lou Howey, Editor Marshall became President humor he used to beguile those taking Maureen Hayden, Statehouse Woodrow Wilson’s veep and found exception to policy and practice. Mark Curry, photography the job stultifying. They disagreed on Many believed Pence was on an array of issues. He attended early Subscriptions Wilson cabinet meet- HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 ings but his sugges- HPI Weekly, $350 tions were mostly Ray Volpe, Account Manager ignored, so Marshall 317.602.3620 stopped going. After Wilson’s stroke late email: [email protected] in his presidency, it Contact HPI was his wife Edith [email protected] and not Marshall who Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 ran the government. In 1913, President Washington: 202.256.5822 Wilson began person- Vice President Dick Cheney signs the Teddy Roosevelt desk Business Office: 317.602.3620 ally meeting with U.S. drawer in January 2009. senators, usurping a © 2016, Howey Politics traditional role of vice Indiana. All rights reserved. presidents who acted as a conduit. the path to political extinction in 2016. Marshall would write in his memoir, “I The Religious Freedom Restoration Act Photocopying, Internet forward- have sometimes thought that great debacle essentially ended a conceived ing, faxing or reproducing in men are the bane of civilization, they presidential campaign that would have any form, whole or part, is a are the real cause of all the bitter- thrust him in the company of Trump. violation of federal law without ness and contention which amounts to He might have become “RFRA Mike” permission from the publisher. anything in the world.” in Trump insult parlance. He faced a The Marshall relationship tough rematch with Democrat John with Wilson was described as “func- Gregg, who was probing the Pence tioning animosity.” record, particularly on divisive social But the Hoosier gave us an issues, with sharpened knives. Polls enduring quote. During a Senate de- showed Pence vulnerable and polariz- bate on the needs of the nation, Mar- ing. There was Donald Trump rising as shall quipped to Sen. Joseph Bristow, a demagogue, with many in the media “What this country needs is a really fixated on a death wish march into good five-cent cigar.” Electoral College oblivion. Page 3 When dozens of prominent Republicans turned today. their backs on Trump, Pence did what Quayle did in the Alberta observes: What’s notable isn’t that a summer of 1988. He conceived, then orchestrated a life- politician would profess confidence. It’s that Pence, who line strategy to get on the ticket. This reached a dramatic describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a crescendo in early July when Pence hosted Trump at a Republican, in that order,” attributes his confidence not Columbia Club fundraiser, auditioned for him at a Westfield to the providence of God, or to the power or principle, or sports complex and dined with him that night. Mysteri- to the fitness of his party, but to the transcendent appeal ously, Trump’s gilded jet had “mechanical” issues at the of his running mate, who he says “has tapped into the Indianapolis Airport, so Trump spent the night at the Con- frustrations and aspirations of the American people like no rad, then had breakfast with the Pences as the Governor’s one in my lifetime.” This is not a façade. People close to Residence. Pence say that despite his initial distaste for Trump’s style, We now know via the reporting of the New he was awestruck by the candidate’s galvanizing effect on York Post and New York Times that the jet malfunction voters in Indiana (he won the primary with 53%). And the was a diabolical strategy in the cunning brain of then- more they talked, the more Pence subscribed to Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort political analysis: Once an avowed free-trad- to keep Trump in the company of er, and supporter of the Trans-Pacific Part- the Hoosier governor. The Trump nership, he admits that Trump transformed children and son-in-law Jared his thinking by arguing that multi-national Kushner were pushing Pence for the trade agreements are impractical and ripe for ticket. Trump wanted New Jersey exploitation. Gov. Chris Christie. We know now And, Alberta notes, Pence also began to that it was Kushner to sent the see a different side of Trump’s personality. charter flight to pick up the Pences on that Thursday. We Behind closed doors, he discovered the brash billionaire watched him disembark at Teterboro, and then came the to be hospitable, inquisitive, even “modest.” He visited news reports that an agitated Trump was fuming about Trump’s businesses and observed his breezy interactions the Trump/Pence ticket. He was angered by the leaks be with blue-collar employees. He watched Trump patrol the believed came from the Pence staff in Indiana. aisles of his personal jet, asking if the meals were suf- Mike and Karen Pence had to be twisting, twisting, ficient. He listened to Trump’s questions about Evangeli- twisting in the Trumpian winds for a night, until that Friday calism, which began at their first breakfast and have not when the ticket was finally forged and the two appeared ceased. As they grew closer personally, Pence became on a Manhattan stage the following day, though Trump certain that outsiders, and he himself, had gotten it wrong. didn’t stick around on stage to listen to Pence’s maiden This allowed his faith in Trump to blossom. veep comments. Pence could have defeated John Gregg, but it I compared our First Couple as Hansel and Gretel, was no sure thing. If he hadn’t made it on to the Trump walking into the witch’s lair. Trump is shifty and wolf like. ticket, if it were the Trump/Christie ticket instead, all three His biographers describe him as occasionally playing loyal- might have gone down to defeat. The conviction of two ists off on each other, then devouring them. It might have top Christie aides in the “Bridgegate” scandal would have careened into that zone when Trump dissed Pence dur- rendered the homestretch Obamacare premium increases ing the second debate for freelancing on a potential U.S.