This analysis by Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, was originally published by the Indiana Capital Chronicle and is republished according to Indiana Capital Chronicle republishing guidelines. My family is fortunate to have a cottage in Northwest Indiana, near Lake Michigan, and I’ve come to understand that the lake plays an integral role in […]
Category Archives: Featured News
ELECTION UPDATE: Democrats, Republicans add 18 legislative candidates to Nov. 8 ballot, reducing the number of uncontested seats
At Tuesday’s noon deadline, Indiana Democratic and Republican party officials had added 18 legislative candidates to the Nov. 8 ballot, reducing the number of uncontested seats this year in the Indiana General Assembly. Party officials had the option of adding candidates in legislative districts where their parties did not field candidates in the May 3 […]
FROM THE INDIANA CITIZEN: Trying to improve turnout in Indiana’s partisan primary elections misses the point
The following analysis was written by Bill Moreau, president of the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation and publisher of its online platform, The Indiana Citizen. If you voted in the May 3rd Indiana primary elections, you participated in a taxpayer-funded process that underwrites the parties’ cost of nominating their candidates. And the two major parties have […]
FROM CHALKBEAT INDIANA: What should middle schoolers learn about history? Indiana debates civics standards
This report by Aleksandra Appleton of Chalkbeat Indiana was originally published by Chalkbeat and is republished according to Chalkbeat republishing guidelines. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters May 12, 5:48pm EDT What Indiana does and does not teach about government – such as constitutional amendments beyond the Bill of Rights – is back in […]
PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS: Few upsets among incumbent success stories in redrawn legislative, congressional districts
The dedicated voters who turned out to vote in Tuesday’s primary — the first since the 2021 redistricting led by the Indiana General Assembly’s Republican supermajorities — sent the message that previous experience in a public office is not necessarily an advantage for a candidate. Jennifer-Ruth Green defeated Blair Milo, former mayor of LaPorte, for […]
REDISTRICTING IN 2022: In a lopsided and bipartisan vote, City-County Council approves its new maps
The following report from Indianapolis Recorder writer Tyler Fenwick was first published in the Recorder, and is shared through The Indiana Citizen redistricting reporting project. The Indianapolis City-County Council voted to approve new local voting districts May 2, bringing an end to the once-per-decade redistricting process that was challenged by some but ultimately didn’t draw […]
A NEW VOICE FOR REFORM: In northern Indiana city of Goshen, mayor’s call leads to independent redistricting commission
Goshen has joined the very short list of Indiana cities that are turning to citizen commissions to take at least some of the politics out of redistricting. The northern Indiana city of 35,000 will establish a commission to redraw its five city council election districts in response to population changes in the 2020 census. Final […]
Sheila Kennedy commentary: Diagnosing democracy’s illness
A few days ago, I was in a small meeting devoted to civic education. Attendees included some very smart, very savvy individuals, all of whom were veterans of the longstanding effort to increase civic knowledge and civic literacy. But when the individual who had convened this particular group asked what should have been a simple […]
ADVANTAGE INCUMBENTS: With election commission rulings, nearly half of legislators seeking reelection are unopposed in either party
UPDATE: The list of candidates in Indiana’s May 3 party primaries grew shorter — and the list of unchallenged incumbents grew longer — as the Indiana Election Commission reviewed more than 20 challenges to ballot qualifications during a long and at times noisy meeting Friday. The meeting, which continued for nearly seven hours through the […]
RESPONSE ON INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING: State hasn’t changed the law, and ‘our council has followed state statute’
With their public hearings on the upcoming redrawing of district lines under way, Democratic leaders of the Indianapolis City-County Council are hearing renewed calls for the independent redistricting commission that they urged upon their counterparts in the Republican-led Indiana General Assembly. Council leaders have not agreed to the request. And while council policy director Brandon […]