Associated Press journalist, Mike Smith has a good recap of the time zone process that has taken place to date. He quotes retired Indiana University economist Morton Marcus as Marcus dubs the counties seeking to switchback to Eastern Time the “seesaw six.”
Smith leaves out a number of details, but in the limited space available to a print journalist, it would be impossible not to. Still, I thought the summary was well done. Smith also offers this observation about Troy “I’ll Never Vote For It” Woodruff and the upcoming elections:
Many already were upset with state Rep. Troy Woodruff, R-Vincennes, for casting the needed 51st vote for the daylight time bill’s passage after promising constituents he would never support daylight time. This latest chapter is sure to remind voters of that in November, when House Democrats try to regain control of the narrowly divided chamber.
. . .
House Democrats hope people are angry about the time changes and will take it out at the polls. All but a handful of House Democrats voted against the bill that led to the changes. There could be more changes if the federal government grants the reversal requests. And more counties might seek switches in the future, keeping the saga alive.
House Democrats are doing a lot of hoping this fall. Witness Pat Bauer’s latest trial balloon to move the BMV under the Secretary of State.
Yup. Not that that’s a horrible idea necessarily. Currently the Secretary of State strikes me as basically the State’s premiere notary public.
As the Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State, I can’t fully agree. SOS certainly isn’t legislative, but it has executive functions, such as the oversight of elections, corporate governance, and yes, the notaries.
The idea of putting BMV under SOS is a pretty decent one. It would make the BMV chief more directly accountable, and that would a good thing.
It’s odd that Bauer is proposing this, though. Far as I can tell, Bauer isn’t running for Secretary of State.
of course, the BMV was under the Secretary of State here in Illinois, and it led to that weensy licenses-for-bribes scandal. It is years later and the fallout still continues. George Ryan (former Secretary of State and former Governor of Illinois) was just convicted of racketeering in federal court.
Scandals of that nature speak more to the nature of the person convicted of a crime than anything. One way or the other, the state is administering a BMV. It’s worthwhile to consider the best way to deliver the BMV’s services to the state.
lawgeekgurl: you are right, but also don’t forget the BMV was already under the Secretary of State when Paul Powell had the job. Make your check out to Paul Powell! Got an extra shoebox?!
I am a Rep. but this year I am going to vote for the Dem. because of the way the Rep. has screw up our county with the time. The US post office won’t even stay on the time that our officials put us in. Starke county is a county that these officials has divided in half. Half of the county goes on one time and the other half on a different time. I am a firm beleiver in we need to DITCH MITCH.