Words matter to Mitch Daniels. They always have. The just-retired Purdue University president and former Indiana governor took pride in penning his speeches and other pieces of writing that bore his name. He wanted to be able to own what he said and have what he said matter. That “...”
U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Indiana, made a good point. Her leader—Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, R-California—has said he plans to prevent U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, from serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and block U.S. Rep “...”
The early skirmishing over who will be the Republican candidate for Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat in 2024 demonstrates—conclusively—that the GOP of Ronald Reagan is dead and gone. Reagan famously set forth what he called the 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of an “...”
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb took a risk with his seventh State of the State address. He dared to be boring. Holcomb’s half-hour speech read and sounded like a term paper. It was loaded—almost clogged, in fact—with numbers. At times, it seemed as if the governor were reciting “...”
Mitch Daniels likes to be courted. Nearly 20 years ago, a corps of Indiana Republicans waged a prolonged campaign to draft Daniels to run for Indiana governor. They staged events and formulated petitions designed to persuade him to seek the office. It was a desperate time for the “...”
A recent column I wrote about the Indiana Chamber of Commerce must have touched a nerve. In that piece, I took note of the brouhaha raised by the chamber’s recent report, “Indiana’s Leaking Talent Pipeline.” That report noted that the state doesn’t perform well when it “...”
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce missed a huge opportunity the other day. The chamber had a chance to transform Indiana’s bitter and unproductive battles over education into a discussion that might lead somewhere and help this state and its people. But the voice of Hoosier busin “...”
It’s time to take Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita seriously. I don’t mean that in a good way. I often have made fun of Rokita’s constant grasping for power and political advancement, his increasingly pathetic attempts to win the favor of the rabid alt-right base that h “...”
Rex Early gave me one of the greatest and, alas, most unprintable quotes of my career. It came on Election Day in 1996. In that race, Indiana Lt. Gov. Frank O’Bannon, a Democrat, ran against Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, a Republican, to become governor. Early, also a R “...”
Republican Diego Morales delivered a loud wake-up call for Hoosier Democrats in the 2022 election. Morales, the GOP candidate for Indiana secretary of state, trounced his Democratic opponent, Destiny Wells, by a double-digit margin. Morales did this even though he is perhaps the “...”