There are several incumbents who face primary challenges based on the incumbent’s supporting votes for Daylight Saving Time, including two in my area: House District 15 – Art Anderson challenging Don Lehe, and House District 24 – Richard Eller challenging Rich McClain. According to this letter writer, McClain promised that he would not vote for Daylight Saving Time, and yet he did.
Lehe has the classic, “I voted against it after I voted for it” defense to DST. The two votes he cast in favor of DST on April 11, 2005, are the times he had the power to kill it, so hopefully voters will recognize his later opposition was too little, too late.
From the Pharos Tribune article:
But the Daylight-saving time vote Lehe cast is one that drew much attention. His face was on the front page of the Lafayette Journal & Courier when he cast a swing vote that forwarded DST to the Indiana Senate. Lehe says people forget that he later voted against DST when the bill was sent back from the Senate, but by then, the issue was moot.
Now, the election will be held just weeks into the first period of DST in over 30 years. The decision sparked a series of issues, including a request by his own White County officials to be moved to the Central Time Zone. That request was eventually denied by the U.S. Department of Transportation. District 15 is a rarity in Indiana politics. It is a state House district in two different time zones.
“When you elect these people, you expect them to mess with their money, but they don’t expect them to mess with their lives,†says Anderson, who has served two terms on the county council and run several times for the Indiana General Assembly.
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