V21, 44 Thursday, July 14, 2016 Gov. Pence poised for Trump’s ticket Indiana governor expected to be join billionaire for Manhattan ticket unveiling By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS – Just two weeks ago, the notion of a possible vice presidential nomination was something Gov. Mike Pence’s campaign denied was in the cards. But on Friday morning, the odd alliance of the populist and profane Donald Trump is expected to be enjoined by the evangelical Chris- tian Indiana governor in Manhattan. Gov. Mike Pence was seen landing at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey late Thursday afternoon after leaving Mount Comfort Airport in Indiana. O’Bannon died in September 2003, setting off a cascade Pence is prepared to turn his resignation from of change in Hoosier politics that broke gender ceilings the ticket prior to the noon Friday deadline. The Indiana and paved the way for a governor named Mitch Daniels. Republican Central Committee will have 30 days to choose Gov. Pence ascends to the national ticket, bolting from a replacement. the gubernatorial nomination he earned from voters last It is the capstone of one of the most surreal and Continued on page 4 transformational weeks in Indiana politics since Gov. Frank Bayh emerges from ether By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS – In a chaotic year of anti-estab- lishment populism and charges of rigged systems, through the smoke and dust churned by great anxiety, fear and loathing, in walks Evan Bayh. In a stunning turn of “I think it is appropriate that events that matched Bayh’s February 2010 bombshell that I make plain today that should prompted him to retire from there be a sudden need to name a the Senate just as the Tea Party embers were flaring and an new nominee for governor, I will Obamacare vote stood just over the horizon, Democratic Sen- not present myself as a candi- ate nominee Baron Hill bolted date nor would I accept the nomi- the ticket on Monday, setting the stage for Bayh and his $10 nation if offered. ” million war chest to return to - Purdue President Mitch Daniels Hoosier electoral politics. Page 2 Hill told WTHR-TV’s Kevin reasons that so many of his Demo- Rader, “This was something I de- cratic colleagues did not like Evan cided. I hold the cards here. I’ve Bayh during his tenure in the Sen- got the nomination. I don’t have to ate was his excessive caution. The leave this race. I did this on my own. hyper-ambitious, always-privileged Nobody pressured me to do this.” and ever-calculating son of a senator But that comes from a former prep long dreamed of becoming president, and collegiate basketball star whose and he represented a conservative- competitive nature once had him leaning state. So he was perennially kidney punching Mike Sodrel before a nervous about taking tough votes or Howey Politics Indiana congressional debate. If you believe courageous stands. He often seemed WWHowey Media, LLC 405 that Baron Hill voluntarily exited this to waffle and have his finger in the Massachusetts Ave., Suite Senate race after spending more than wind. As it started to become clear 300 Indianapolis, IN 46204 a year running, and as he prepared that Democrats would get buffeted by to walk from the Michigan line to the rough electoral headwinds in 2010, www.howeypolitics.com Ohio River, then I have a Delaware Bayh announced his retirement. Yes- beach condo to sell you. terday, though, we found out that the Brian A. Howey, Publisher In the wake of Hill’s with- 60-year-old plans to try winning back Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington drawal, there were kudos in Jack E. Howey, Editor store for the next Democratic leader of the Senate, New Mary Lou Howey, Editor York’s Chuck Schumer, who Maureen Hayden, Statehouse was credited with engineer- Mark Curry, photography ing the latest switcheroo that has defined the power behind this Senate seat. Bayh denied Subscriptions there was any national influ- HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 ence (see HPI Interview, page HPI Weekly, $350 11) It is the same seat that Ray Volpe, Account Manager U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh used to 317.602.3620 author two of the 26 Consti- Evan Bayh with Baron Hill during a 1998 campaign tutional amendments and Title swing across Southern Indiana. (HPI Photo by Brian A. email: [email protected] IX. The same seat that Sen. Contact HPI Dan Coats refused to defend [email protected] with young Bayh in the wings in 1998, the Senate seat that he gave up. The Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 that commenced his lobbying career. surprise comes after Bayh rejected The same seat that Coats returned years of entreaties from leaders in his Washington: 202.256.5822 to in 2010 after Marlin Stutzman and party.” Business Office: 317.602.3620 John Hostettler failed to find money So this could be the canary traction, and the same seat that Bayh in the coal mine scenario for Trumpian © 2016, Howey Politics fled a few weeks later, setting off the Republicans. The mirage is that Trump Indiana. All rights reserved. devastating “Bayh dominoes” that trailed Hillary Clinton by a mere 3% in would force the Indiana Democratic the latest NBC/SurveyMonkey rolling Photocopying, Internet forward- Party out of its Ohio and Wabash river poll released on Tuesday, and while ing, faxing or reproducing in warrens, reducing it to a party of she leads in most swing states, the any form, whole or part, is a Lake, St. Joseph and Marion counties margins are within the margin of error. violation of federal law without and a handful of college and university But that poll came after the darkest permission from the publisher. towns. day for Clinton, her political indict- Evan Bayh had rescued ment by FBI Director James Comey the party from oblivion in 1986, and last week, and there are foreboding returned it there in 2010 to the point shadows across the GOP establish- that by 2014, the atrophy was so se- ment that Donald Trump is so far vere that only a handful of Democratic beyond the mainstream pale, that legislators and mayors existed south his campaign is so unorganized and of U.S. 50. understaffed, that he has alienated so The Washington Post re- many demographic sectors, that it’s ported on Tuesday: “One of the many only a matter of time before crust of Page 3 critical mass crumbles and the modern GOP falls into the ideology, a corrosive system of campaign financing, ger- fissures. rymandering of House districts, endless filibusters, holds Or as the Post analyzed, “Considering his disposi- on executive appointees in the Senate, dwindling social tion, (Bayh’s) decision to jump into the race in July speaks interaction between senators of opposing parties and a volumes about the growing confidence on the left that caucus system that promotes party unity at the expense of Democrats are going to have a red-letter year in congres- bipartisan consensus.” sional elections because of Donald Trump.” Ezra Klein, then reporting for the Washington Post, So Baron Hill has become, perhaps, the last and noted in 2011 that Bayh “waxed rhapsodic” about that biggest Bayh domino, exiting, sources say, after receiving interim period after he left the Indiana governor’s office a call from Hillary Clinton herself, perhaps the biggest pay- and his first Senate term when he taught in Bloomington back after Hill’s April 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama. at Indiana University. “The ‘corrosive system of campaign While HPI agrees with the Cook Political Report financing’ that Bayh considered such a threat?” Klein that this is now a tossup race, this is not a slam dunk. observed, “He’s being paid by both McGuire Woods and Bayh hasn’t been on an Indiana ballot since 2004. There was his ignomious exit from the 2008 presidential race he long coveted as Obama eclipsed his star. He didn’t return to Indianapolis or Bloomington, but instead settled into the K Street groove, making the big bucks. The Post put it this way: “Bayh is so confident that Trump is toxic for Repub- licans that he’s willing to put up with Evan Bayh (left) at Gov. Mike Pence’s inauguration in January 2013 with U.S. Rep. Todd months of attacks over his fancy lifestyle Young at right. (HPI Photo by Brian A. Howey) in D.C. and work for special interests on K Street. In the spring of 2015 Bayh purchased his second Apollo Global Management to act as a corroding agent on home in Washington, a $2.9 million Georgetown six-bed- their behalf.” room home that he described as his way of ‘downsizing,’” It’s a guarantee that Republican nominee Todd Paul Kane notes. Then there is the $3 million Florida beach Young is girding for what could be an epic showdown, with home. scores of Hoosier Republican preparing to defend the seat. The enrichment didn’t begin in 2010. According “We are not trembling,” said Young campaign manager to Open Secrets methodology of parsing Bayh’s Senate Trevor Foughty, after he spent Monday morning alerting Financial Disclosure forms between 1998 and 2010, Bayh county chairs across the state that Bayh was attempting a saw his average net worth rise from $1.54 million to $6.89 comeback. “After he cast the deciding vote for Obamacare, million, an increase approaching 350%. This was fueled Evan Bayh left Indiana families to fend for themselves so not by the senator’s $174,000 salary, but wife Susan he could cash in with insurance companies and influence Bayh’s corporate board income, inspired by her influential peddlers as a gold-plated lobbyist.