Apparently fighting incumbent U.S. Senator Dick Lugar isn’t enough for some members of the Indiana Tea Party movement, they’ve now decided to start fighting each other.   I’ve heard rumors for quite a while about growing tension in the movement dating back to their winter gathering in Tipton.  Now things are spilling over onto the Internet […]

The Indiana House of Representatives will vote today on the budget and school voucher bills.  Last night there more than 450 amendments filed  for both bills.  Here’s a breakdown according to House policy staff… HB 1001 (Budget) Filed: 349 – R-12; D – 337 Offered: 42 – R-3; D -39 Accepted: 13 – R-3; D […]

To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of referendums.   I believe that in a representative democracy you elect people to make decisions and if you don’t like it, throw them out of office and get new people.  However, the world we live in is the world we live in. Indiana lawmakers have completed […]

This is going to be my last word on the 5-week walkout that ended this week for a while.  But I thought it would be worth it to do a comparison of what Indiana House Democrats asked for when they left and compare that to the “concessions” they received when they got back. List of  […]

Yes, I’ve been waiting all day to write that one.  I’m still trying to find out how Indiana House Democrats can claim any real victory outside of “right to work” when they returned Monday to the Indiana General Assembly.   Despite that, here’s what the politicos are saying… Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels “Our pro-jobs agenda of […]

Indiana House Democrats today notified their Republican counterparts that they were ending what has amounted to the longest walkout in state history.  Democrats originally  walked out last month over issues concerning “right to work” legislation and what they called anti-union and anti-public schools.  In a news release just put out, Democrats said they extracted several […]

I know 2012 is a still a ways off, but let’s face it.  Indiana House Democrats probably won’t be back until then anyway, so we’ve got plenty of time to look at some other things, like next year’s gubernatorial race. Of course the heavyweights in the room are Indiana Congressman Mike Pence and former Speaker […]

I was having a discussion with a friend recently who opposes a statewide smoking ban.  In his rant, which involved the usual references to liberty and freedom, he also decried the pro-smoking ban proponents as Nazis.  I immediately corrected him on two counts.  First, it’s not cool to call people Nazis.  Secondly, you can actually […]

Indiana House Republicans say  a majority of Hoosiers oppose the Democrats walkout that has effectively shut down half the legislature.  They released the poll results and I’ve embedded them below. The poll shows some other interesting data such as the approval ratings of both parties as well as how many people think the state is […]

Here’s the latest gossip, rumor and innuendo coming from the Capitol.  Do with it what you will… There’s a lot of speculation about what happened in the impromptu meeting Wednesday afternoon between House Speaker Brian Bosma and Democratic leader Pat Bauer.   Bauer was in town for a “personnel issue” that involved the four legislative leaders […]