V16, N31 Thursday, April 14, 2011 McIntosh poised for 6th CD return New maps set in motion CD, legislative dramas By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS - For David McIntosh, Muncie is still home, even though he has an apartment in Pendleton, part of the new 5th CD. But as the new maps were being debated in an Indiana House Elections Committee hearing Wednesday afternoon, the former congressman was on the phone indicating his heart and political House Elections future are in the new 6th CD next Chairman Eric Koch door. (right), Rep. Burton, “Muncie was always our Luke Messer and home,” said McIntosh, who prac- David McIntosh. tices law in Washington, D.C., but reelection campaign by U.S. Rep. Dan Burton in 2012, ends appeared poised for a comeback. “We still consider Muncie some of the mystery provoked by the maps that House our home. We’ll wait for a decision from Mike.” Elections Chairman Eric Koch ignited on Monday. The new That was in reference to U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, maps put Luke Messer’s home county of Shelby in the 6th who is expected to announce a gubernatorial run sometime CD, and thus on a collision course with his old boss, McIn- in May. If he does, it would be the impetus for the circle tosh, should he decide to run for Congress again. Burton that saw McIntosh hand off the district to Pence in 2000 gets a reprieve after Messer came within 2,500 votes of when McIntosh decided to run for governor. The McIntosh decision, along with an expected Continued on page 4 Indiana’s radical governors By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS - When it comes to moderate, centrist redoubts, there is no more cozy place than the Indiana gover- norship. “I thought the three-member “Radical” Indiana gover- districts had been abolished.” nors can be counted on several fingers. There was our Civil War - State Rep. Ed DeLaney, on governor, Oliver P. Morton, who the new district he shares with Reps. dismissed the Indiana General As- sembly after the Copperheads took Greg Porter and John Day over in 1862, took out big Wall Street loans to finance the Civil War, and earned the admonish- HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 2 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, April 14, 2011 ment of President Lincoln for his pen- abolition. Like Truth, Pence is prepared chant of executing too many enemies to hit the trails to bring life out of the of the state. There was Democrat darkness. Gov. Thomas R. Marshall, who tried When Pence speaks to Repub- to reform state and legal government lican groups, the reaction is vivid and www.HoweyPolitics.com only to earn the rebuke of the U.S. emotional. There are shouts of “amen” Supreme Court for doing so. And, to on key points. There are standing a lesser degree, there was Gov. Paul ovations. The Howard County GOP Howey Politics McNutt, the Depression-era Democrat produced a short film with Pence’s Indiana who was able to round up the ran- voice-over intonations and soaring is a non-partisan newsletter dom array of state departments and rhetoric along with aviary shots of based in Indianapolis. It was agencies and bring about some order, Indiana, in Pence’s parlance, over the founded in 1994 in Fort Wayne. thanks to the overwhelming majorities “amber waves of grain.” It is splen- from the landslide FDR 1932 election did political filmsmanship that the (getting most of it done on his first congressman is now using at other Brian A. Howey, Publisher day in office). Lincoln Day speeches he’s giving as a Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington I suppose you might in- lead up to his expected gubernatorial Jack E. Howey, editor clude Gov. Doc Bowen, but his work announcement. Beverly K. Phillips, associate was mostly confined to property tax There is no question that reform. As Speaker, Bowen almost Pence commands the pro-life, evan- editor derailed the “radical” Unigov plans of gelical Republican base, with the more L. Keith Bulen and Mayor Dick Lugar. mainstream party regulars getting Subscriptions And, of course, there’s Gov. Mitch swept up in the emotion. His sta- $350 annually HPI Weekly Daniels, who is extensively reshap- tion with Hoosier Republicans was so ing Indiana education, though, like secure that it forced Lt. Gov. Becky $550 annually HPI Weekly and Marshall, he ultimately may fail to Skillman - who in the 2008 Howey- HPI Daily Wire. bring local government out of the 19th Gauge Poll was extremely popular with 'Call 317.627.6746 Century. the GOP base - out of the race. Surveying Gates, Schricker, And this would all be well if Craig, Handley, Welsh, Branigin and a candidate could win the Indiana gov- Contact HPI Whitcomb shows all were moderate ernorship with just Republican voters. Howey Politics Indiana centrists. So were Orr, Bayh, O’Bannon While Statehouse Demo- 6255 N. Evanston Ave. and Kernan. crats are in a state of shock after seis- Indianapolis, IN 46220 Which brings me to Congress- mic losses last November that came, www.howeypolitics.com man Mike Pence. in large part, because of a national He is, unabashedly, a Chris- wave, Pat Bauer’s stacist meander- [email protected] tian, a conservative, and a Republican, ing during this legislative session, and 'Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 in that order. Watching him speak to the new Congressional and legislative 'Washington: 703.248.0909 Howard County Republicans in Ko- maps that were unveiled on Monday, 'Business Office: 317.627.6746 komo last month, really emphasized the fact is that in order to elect an to me how conservative he is. The Indiana governor, you have to win a speech seemed like something you’d majority of that 25 percent pool of © 2011, Howey Politics Indiana. expect to hear at the Vanderburgh independent voters and a slice from All rights reserved. Photocopy- Right to Life dinner. There is no ques- the opposite party. Evan Bayh twice ing, Internet forwarding, fax- tion that Pence sees himself as a won a significant slice of Republican ing or reproducing in any form, defender of life, taking God’s divine voters while dominating the indepen- whole or part, is a violation of mission. Pence will serve Him above dents. Gov. Daniels won some Demo- all. He urged all Republicans to walk crats - including an unprecedented 20 federal law without permission on the path of glory. I’m not being percent of the African-American vote from the publisher. v flip here. Taking the pro-life position - while dominating the independents. is a highly principled one. Pence has There are two elements that embraced it as much as Frederick should give pause to some Republi- Douglass or Sojourner Truth did with cans and Pence himself. One is the HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 3 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, April 14, 2011 emerging candidacy of former Democratic House Speaker the Hyde Amendment prohibits any of that money being John Gregg, who apparently is just days or weeks away used for abortion. Pence and Right to Life allies argue that from getting into the gubernatorial race. If a Democratic such federal funding frees other non-fed funding for abor- consultant could forge a dream candidate, it would be John tion. Gregg. He is larger than life (though he’s slimmed down in By late last week, Senate Democrats had opened a recent years), affable, a fabulous public speaker and sto- new front on this initial federal budget skirmish: it became ryteller, pro-life, pro-gun, calls Southern Indiana his base, a “war on women.” And Mike Pence was its General Grant. and is conservative on the social issues. A Gregg candidacy Pence’s Little Round Top defense of life and might not make too many inroads into the Pence evangeli- his willingness to shut down the government earned high cal constituency on the GOP right, but he will not be an praise from his base and the Tea Party, which didn’t think anathema to them. the final budget deal was nearly enough. But Pence already Gregg would likely has those voters. As a gubernatorial be able to bring the various candidate, he will likely be able to Democratic constituencies to- mobilize them in robust numbers. gether, particularly if he forges But his willingness to shut down a ticket with Senate Minority the government turns off a lot of Leader Vi Simpson or former independents, just as the Indiana 7th CD candidate Woody My- House Democratic walkout did. In an ers (who could probably write American Viewpoint Poll for Indiana a $2 million check to jump- Republicans, almost 70 percent of the start a campaign). independents opposed the walkout. I That brings us to the suspect a similar number would not key constituencies that are find a federal government shutdown needed to win gubernato- Rep. Pence’s Planned Parenthood issue was a topic on palatable. rial races: independents and Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show.” Watching NBC and ABC evening women. In coming election news on Friday, the man-on-the- cycles, that will also include the emerging Latino bloc. In street interviews were critical of the shutdown, particularly the October 2008 Howey-Gauge Poll, Gov. Daniels polled 57 military families, moderates and independents. All thought percent of the female vote and 64 percent of independents. the circus in Washington was crazy. Polling tended to bear In the 2008 election results, Daniels carried 20 percent of out those reactions. A CNN survey conducted over the the African-American vote, compared to 7 percent in 2004.