Thank goodness for my TV set. It’s now telling me what I should have realized years ago: There are still a few Indiana Republican office holders with shreds of sanity and the dregs of dignity.
Back in December, 21 of the 40 GOP Senators, a majority of the Republicans in the Indiana State Senate, voted No on a redistricting plan. They voted against the Trump’s attempt to redistrict Indiana such that the two remaining Democrat-held Congressional seats would flip Republican.
Now is the time of retribution. Out-of-state Trump money is running at least two TV campaigns in my viewing area. They oppose the renomination in the May primary of Senators Jim Buck (Kokomo) and Greg Walker (Columbus).
Did I write “oppose”? They go beyond opposition. These ads are vile, filled with misleading arguments and even touches of racial bigotry.
Jim Buck has been in the legislature for 32 years of his 80 years. He is proud of his conservative record supporting ambiguous ”legislative priorities … defending constitutional rights, lowering taxes and cutting spending, securing elections, combating illegal immigration and improving education by empowering parents.”
His district (the 21st Senatorial) is one of the most diversified in the state. It faces dramatic economic and demographic change, with major suburban growth in Westfield, stagnation in Tipton, and decades of corporate volatility in Kokomo.
Greg Walker (District 41) has been in the State Senate for 20 of his 63 years. He announced his retirement, but reconsidered to continue after the redistricting debacle.
Walker’s district is along I-65 in suburban Johnson County and throughout Bartholomew County. It is contemporary Indiana, where both addiction to single family homes and concern about international trade, would be topics for dinnertime conversation, if such togetherness still existed.
The ads against these two men depict them as traitors to Hoosier values, wild advocates of higher taxes and schemes that will benefit residents beyond Indiana’s borders. My words are inadequate to capture the virulent hostility expressed in those well-produced attack ads..
Elections are assigned by the Constitution to the states for their administration, so long as all persons have an equal opportunity to vote. The method of voting (in-person, absentee, on-line, by mail, by phone or pigeon) is subject to state law, not federal dictate.
The question here is, Should responsible Hoosier voters support these two and the others who stood up to a power-hungry political faction that seeks to destroy our federation of states? Yet, such support might mean acceptance of legislative practices that have constrained our state’s economy and maturity for generations.
In effect, are bad Republicans still better than worse Republicans, and is there any hope for a reasoned slate of Democrats for those state senate seats?
Mr. Marcus is a research economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at IU. Contact him at mortonjmarcus@gmail.com. Listen to him and John Guy on the podcast Who Gets What? at mortonjohn.libsyn.com
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Trump’s troublesome, unfaithful Indiana Senators | OPINION
Reporting by Morton Marcus, For the Herald-Times / Evansville Courier & Press
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