Mike Pence (2013 – 2017)

Mike Pence will move from presiding over Indiana’s 200th anniversary on December 11, 2016 to being the sixth Vice-President from Indiana – following in the footsteps of Schuyler Colfax, Thomas Hendricks, Charles Fairbanks, Thomas Marshall, and Dan Quayle.

He was born in Columbus, Indiana and graduated from Columbus North High School before going to Hanover in 1977. His home life was not politically charged. His father was an executive in an oil distributorship who, according to Pence, did not much care for lawyers or politicians. Pence apparently voted for Jimmy Carter, who was a good Christian and not a movie star. But Pence’s politics shifted to the right in college as his religious beliefs underwent a born-again transformation, and he had a history professor who opened his eyes to Reagan’s merits.

Pence graduated from Hanover in 1981. His LSATs were too low to get into law school, and so Pence served as an admissions counselor there for Hanover. He credits this as an opportunity to see the state as he served as a representative of the school during recruiting missions. Pence had better test scores the second time around and  went to law school at IU-Indianapolis which he graduated in 1986. (He apparently did not like it there, saying he wouldn’t wish law school on a dog he didn’t like.) After that, he got a job with a smallish law firm in Indianapolis where he did a little of everything, but the resume version is that he practiced corporate law. His legal career does not seem to have been a big part of his life. In 1988 and 1990, he ran against Representative Phil Sharp for a Congressional seat. He did fairly well in 1988, getting 47% of the vote but got shellacked in 1990, getting only 42% of the vote. He seems to have done some mud slinging in that second run for which he apologized after. One of the ads he ran reminds me of the World Wrestling Federation’s habit of having one of its heels being a caricature of the enemy du jour. In this case, the Iron Sheik: “an actor, dressed in a robe and headdress and speaking in a thick Middle Eastern accent, thanked his opponent, Sharp, for doing nothing to wean the United States off imported oil.”

Electoral success not having been in the cards, Pence went to work for the “Indiana Policy Review,” a conservative think tank where he worked for several years until his desire to have the group take more of a role in advocacy was at odds with its chairman. At that point, Pence had landed a radio show, “The Mike Pence Show” where he was able to take advantage of the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of conservative talk radio.

While Pence was doing radio, Phil Sharp stepped down and was succeeded by Republican David McIntosh. In 2000, McIntosh left that seat to unsuccessfully run for governor against Frank O’Bannon. Pence decided to run for that seat and beat Bob Rock. (During this campaign, he suggested there was not a causal link between smoking and lung cancer.) For the twelve years, Pence was in Congress, he had little success in moving legislation. He sponsored 63 bills, the majority of them during his first term. None passed. However, his media background served him well, and he was often a spokesman for conservatives during this period.

In 2012, Pence stepped down from Congress to run for governor. In one of Indiana’s closer races, he beat out former Speaker of the House John Gregg by 80,000 votes – 49.6% – 46.4%. As an administrator and executive, he was not as effective as his predecessor, Mitch Daniels. While he shared a political party with the Indiana House and Senate, which were also dominated by the Republicans, friction due to poor communication was not uncommon.

Pence was opposed to labor and wage laws and he expanded the state’s educational voucher program. Originally vouchers had been billed as a way to give options to poorer students in bad schools. Under Pence, voucher money was made available to families of greater means and even if their students had never attended public schools. This voucher funding was increased even though public schools had never been restored to the funding levels they had enjoyed prior to the 2008 market crash.

Mike Pence signs Indiana’s RFRA legislation.

The biggest news for Pence during his tenure was the Religious Freedom Restoration Act debacle. Defenders claimed that the bill was merely an extension of long-time federal legislation to the state level in order to preserve religious rights. Detractors saw it as Pence and religious conservatives using it to attack gay people in the culture wars.

The rhetoric accompanying the recent push lends support to the proposition that there was discriminatory intent, at least in some circles. Governor Pence said, “this bill is not about discrimination, and if I thought it legalized discrimination in any way in Indiana, I would have vetoed it.” But the fact remains that supporters of the bill voted against amendments that would have provided clarity on the issue of discrimination.

There was a public backlash over the bill and Indiana made national headlines. Businesses urged repeal. In a move that did not really satisfy anyone, the uproar prompted the legislature to sign a “fix” that moderated the legislation somewhat.

After that, it looked like Pence’s obvious ambition for national office would be unrealized. However, the unlikely Trump Presidential campaign scrambled the national political landscape. Pence was facing an uphill re-election battle in a re-match against John Gregg, and prominent Republicans were distancing themselves from Trump, feeling that he would go down to defeat. Pence gambled by dropping out of the governor’s campaign to run as Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. The gamble paid off for him, and he will be our next Vice-President.

In another unlikely turn of events, Pence had pushed out his former lieutenant governor, Sue Ellspermann, who had been reportedly disagreed with Pence on LGBT issues. Pence replaced her with Eric Holcomb who had been running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Dan Coats. Holcomb had been an advisor to Mitch Daniels, chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, and chief of staff to Coats. Catching a Trump wave in Indiana, and perhaps benefiting from not having Pence’s baggage, Holcomb beat Gregg by a wider margin than Pence had in 2012.

And that, my friends, brings us to the present day. We’ve gone from John Jennings to Eric Holcomb. On Sunday, December 11, 2016, I’ll wrap this up with some closing thoughts to celebrate our bicentennial.

<b>Update (01/24/2017):</b> I’m just updating this entry to drop a link to a pretty deep dive by Rolling Stone entitled, “The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence”

Mitch Daniels (2005 – 2013)

Mitch Daniels was born in Pennsylvania, and the family moved to Indiana for his dad’s job with a pharmaceutical company. He graduated from North Central High School with honors and went to college at Princeton. While there, he got into a legal scrape involving drugs. These days that incident might have seriously derailed his future prospects, but it was the early 70s, Nancy Reagan had not yet told us to “just say no,” and so he got through it with two nights in jail and a $350 fine.

Daniels’ entry into politics highlights a recommendation I would make to anyone. Get involved with group efforts. It leads to social connections that can lead to other positive things in your life later on down the line. Now, in Daniels’ situation, this happened on a grand scale, but I think it works the same for all of us in a kind of fractal way throughout our lives. In Daniels case, he participated in the campaign of William Ruckelshaus to unseat Birch Bayh in 1968. This was an unsuccessful campaign, but it led to Daniels serving as an intern in the office of then mayor Richard Lugar. Lugar went to the U.S. Senate, and Daniels went with him. He eventually became Lugar’s chief of staff which, in turn, led to him becoming executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a political advisor to Ronald Reagan.

In 1990, he followed in his dad’s footsteps to some extent and took a job in the pharmaceutical industry where, it sounds like, he made a pile of money.

In 2001, he returned to the government, serving as the the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was nicknamed “the Blade” for his ostensible skill at cutting budgets, but during his tenure, the federal budget surplus turned from $236 billion to a deficit of $400 billion. It’s probably not fair to lay that at his feet. The Bush administration pushed tax cuts first without worrying too much about the spending cuts. Daniels also got egg on his face by estimating in 2002 that the Iraq War might cost on the order of $50 to $60 billion, characterizing an estimate of $100 to $200 billion as “much too high.” The actual cost has been more like $2 trillion.

In 2004, Daniels left the federal government to run for governor. His main primary opponent was Eric Miller who advocates for legislation of conservative morality. Daniels had more of an economic message and beat Miller handily in the Republican primary. He went on to face Joe Kernan. Daniels won by about 190,000 votes. In 2008, Daniels would run again, beating Jill Long Thompson in a walk — winning by almost 500,000 votes.

Going from memory, the three biggest initiatives during the Daniels years were the movement of Indiana onto Daylight Saving Time, the sale of the Indiana Toll Road, and the shift from property taxes (with tax caps) to sales and income taxes. (Also notable was the rise of a small but scrappy blogging institution out of west-central Indiana.)

Daylight Saving Time had long been an issue in Indiana. Moves to adopt it like the majority of the country were a perennial source of bills in the General Assembly. Traditionally, about half were for it and half against it, but the pro-DST crowd was generally split between Central and Eastern Time enthusiasts. But, with some major arm twisting, this time the bill to adopt DST squeaked through each stage of the process; culminating in an aye vote by Rep. Troy “I’ll Never Vote for It” Woodruff — who had pledged never to vote for it — that pushed DST over the finish line. Woodruff would be voted out of office, then find work in the Daniels’ administration with the Department of Transportation where he again found himself in the headlines.

The Indiana Toll Road was something of an anachronism because building on it began before the passage of the Federal Highway Act. So, it wasn’t funded in the same way. The State lacked the political will to raise tolls, so maintenance was an issue and the bonds weren’t retired to make it a free highway. Gov. Daniels’ saw opportunity here, and, in 2006, sold it to a foreign consortium for 75 years in exchange for an infusion of cash. The consortium could raise tolls on the motorists of Northern Indiana without worrying about voters, and the rest of the state would get money to fund transportation projects. The money lasted for about six years and was almost gone in 2012 with about 69 years remaining on the lease. The roads funded by the project remain, however. Critical as I have been about the deal, I can’t deny that I enjoy the fact that the Hoosier Heartland has been completed, and travel from Lafayette to northern Ohio is much easier than it once was.

The property tax issue has a long and complicated history. I am no fan of the tax caps written into the Constitution, they have numerous unintended consequences, but I also recognize that the problems and solutions surrounding that issue can’t be laid at the feet of any one politician or political party. For his part, Daniels viewed the problem during his term as being similar to that faced by Doc Bowen during his term and, consequently, he looked for similar solutions. Property tax freezes were offset by an increased sales tax and the potential for local government to increase local income taxes. Another part of the solution was the State taking control and responsibility over school funding. (This, in turn, created more opportunity for the “school choice” crowd to cash in on the privatization of schools.)

At the end of Daniels’ term as governor, he appeared poised to make a run for President in the 2012 campaign, but it never transpired. Ultimately, he was selected by the Purdue Board of Trustees (many of whom he appointed) to be the President of Purdue University and has served in that capacity since 2013.

Frank O’Bannon (1997-2003)

Frank O’Bannon was born to a long time political family out of Corydon, Indiana. O’Bannon’s grandfather Lew O’Bannon was the chairman of the Indiana Historical Society’s committee on publicity for the state’s Centennial events. In 1924, Lew was a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. However, he and Carleton McCulloch lost to the Klan candidacy of Ed Jackson. Lew also purchased the Corydon Democrat, a newspaper that became the family business. Lew’s son — Frank’s father — Robert O’Bannon served in the Indiana Senate for 26 years until he was replaced by Frank in 1969.

Frank O’Bannon attended school in Corydon, graduating from Corydon High School in 1948 as the class president. He then earned a degree in government from Indiana University in 1952, after which he served for two years in the Air Force. After leaving the military, O’Bannon earned a law degree at IU, opening a private practice in Corydon in 1957. While he worked as a lawyer, O’Bannon maintained his connections to the family newspaper, working as a journalist and photographer.

O’Bannon was a conservative Democrat, favoring the death penalty and installing the 10 Commandments on the Statehouse lawn. In the Senate, he was floor leader for the Democrats for 11 years, developing a reputation for being able to work in a bipartisan fashion. In 1988, he explored a run for the governor. Despite the feeling among some that O’Bannon’s seniority should carry the day over the young Bayh, O’Bannon abandoned his gubernatorial efforts and threw his support behind Bayh. He became lieutenant governor for the eight years of the Bayh administration, then ran for governor in his own right in the 1996 campaign.

In 1996, O’Bannon was considered an underdog against Steve Goldsmith. Goldsmith had been Marion County Prosecutor, Indianapolis mayor, and the lieutenant governor candidate alongside John Mutz during Mutz’s unsuccessful campaign against Evan Bayh. Republicans had been out of the governor’s office for eight years in what has, particularly for the last century, been a mostly Republican state. Goldsmith’s pro-business, privatizing vision of government ended up being a little tough to sell, however, in the face of accusations of influence peddling and claims that his cuts to government had left it unable to perform essential functions. O’Bannon was able to point to his long years of service, his deep Indiana roots, and the very popular Bayh administration. Additionally, O’Bannon was personally very likable. As another opponent, David Macintosh would say, “How are you going to run against someone who is everyone’s grandfather?’”  

My one encounter with Governor O’Bannon was unimpressive on my part. He was governor for most of the three years when I worked at the State House (1996 – 1999) One day, I was rounding a corner, heading back from lunch, only to find myself face to face with the governor. I was surprised and a little stunned, and all I could get out was a nod and a “hey.” For his part, he smiled and said, “hello.”

I had better success with his lieutenant governor, Joe Kernan. The lieutenant governor’s office is on the same floor as the Legislative Services Agency. So, on two or three occasions, I found myself taking an elevator with Lt. Gov. Kernan. He engaged me in brief, pleasant small talk on those occasions which left me. Nothing significant, but those pleasantries left me with a very favorable impression of Mr. Kernan.

O’Bannon’s campaign against Goldsmith was successful. He won by about 4% and 100,000 votes. The late 90s were pretty good economically. The Internet was starting to grow, employment was strong, and the State’s treasury was full. The Senate remained firmly under the control of the Republicans and Bob Garton, but in 1996, the House was equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. After a previous even split in 1988, the General Assembly had adopted a provision whereby the party that had won the top race on the ticket (Governor or Secretary of State depending on the year) would get the Speaker’s office in the event of a 50/50 split. So, O’Bannon had a Democratically controlled House to work with. The Democrats improved their lead in 1998.

“O’Bannon was able to cut taxes by $1.5 billion, hire 500 more police officers in the state and win increased funding for schools and extended health insurance for poor families.” The Office of the Public Access Counselor was created after a group of newspapers noted obstacles to obtaining public records in Indiana.

In 2000, Governor O’Bannon ran again. This time, his Republican opponent was David McIntosh, a lawyer and member of Congress from Kendallville. He had been an advisor to Dan Quayle among whose notable positions — if Wikipedia is to be believed — was as an advocate for rolling back environmental protections, allowing businesses to increase pollution without notifying the public. As a Congressman, he apparently fought to get rid of regulations in the food and health industries. McIntosh was not successful against O’Bannon. He lost by 15%. McIntosh promised a 25% reduction in property taxes while O’Bannon stressed education and argued that the property tax cut would harm education in Indiana.

Times were tough for everyone after the attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent market downturn. “Indiana lost 120,000 jobs, tax revenues dropped, and O’Bannon had to cut social services and other services in order to spare education.”

On September 8, 2003, Governor O’Bannon suffered a stroke while in Chicago and remained unconscious. On September 10, the Speaker and President pro tem sent a joint message to the Indiana Supreme Court that Gov. O’Bannon was incapacitated. Lt. Governor Joe Kernan became acting governor.  Gov. O’Bannon did not recover and passed away on September 13, 2003. Joe Kernan was sworn in as governor in his own right.

Joe Kernan (2003-2005)

In case anyone was wondering, I was somewhat more articulate in my few encounters with Joe Kernan than I had managed with Gov. O’Bannon. As Lieutenant Governor, Kernan’s offices were down the hall from Legislative Services when I worked there. He was always extremely pleasant, and I was struck by what an approachable guy he was.

But, even though I liked him, I’ll keep his entry brief. Kernan was born in Chicago but moved to South Bend. He went to college at Notre Dame and graduated in 1968. He entered the Navy in 1969 as a Naval Flight Officer and, in February 1972, he was shot down over North Vietnam while on a reconnaissance mission and held as a prisoner of war for 11 months. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Purple Hearts, and a Navy Commendation Medal.

Before serving as Lieutenant Governor, Kernan was mayor of South Bend from 1987 to 1997. Initially, Kernan had not intended to seek the governor’s position, but when Gov. O’Bannon passed away and Kernan became governor, he decided to run in 2004. His run against Mitch Daniels was unsuccessful, and he became a private citizen after that.

One notable effort with which he was involved after leaving the State House was a joint study with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on local government reform.

Evan Bayh (1989 – 1997)

Evan Bayh is, of course, the son of Birch Bayh. It would seem that being the son of a Senator gives a guy a leg up. Birch was senator from 1963 to 1981 when he was beat by Dan Quayle during the Reagan wave. Evan was born in 1955 and went to grade school in Washington D.C. then to undergrad at Indiana University and law school at the University of Virginia. At the tender age of 30, he ran for and was elected Indiana Secretary of State.

In 1988, at the age of 32, he was elected governor and took office at the age of 33, making him the youngest governor in the country. He was a popular governor. His first election was against Robert Orr’s lieutenant governor, John Mutz. Mutz’s name sticks with me because I was in high school when he was in the Orr administration. My civics teacher, Jerrel Brooks, had us pay attention to the newspapers. One thing he pointed out was that, as we were approaching the time for campaigning, the Orr administration would give Mutz the big, happy announcements — factories opening, jobs relocating to Indiana, that sort of thing. He said, that’s one way we could tell he was going to be running for governor. Those tricks of the trade were not enough to get Mutz the job, however. Bayh beat Mutz by 6.5% of 2.1 million cast. In fact, Bayh turned one of Mutz’s successes against him. Mutz had had a leading role in convincing Subaru to locate a plant in Lafayette. Bayh criticized the subsidies, claimed that it was a bad deal for Indiana, and played upon anxieties about the Japanese that were prevalent at the time.

I have, frankly, had trouble finding good resources on the history of the Bayh administration. My search has not been extensive, but searches tend to turn up more of his activity as a U.S. Senate and his current campaign efforts than a lot of detail about what he did while he was governor. So, I’ll just mention some of the other stuff happening in Indiana during 1989 and the early 90s.

First of all, this probably marked the first time since the 1850s or 1860s that Indiana did not have a Masson from my family living in it. My father had moved to Colorado in the 1970s, his mother passed away in the early 80s, my sisters left for college a few years before me, and I left for Ohio to go to school.

President pro tem, Bob Garton

During the 1980s and 90s, the Indiana Senate was dominated by President pro tem Bob Garton and his allies, Senators Larry Borst, Joe Harrison, and Morris Mills. Garton was a marine who worked first for Procter and Gamble, then in personnel for Cummins Engine in Columbus, then for himself as a management recruiter. After an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1968 against Lee Hamilton, he was elected to the Indiana senate in 1970. In 1980, he became President pro tem of the Senate. His predecessors, Phil Gutman and Mark “Chip” Edwards had been convicted on bribery charges. Their  conviction arose out of a scheme whereby railroad lobbyists gave a few Senators monthly payments for three years in exchange for their support on favorable legislation.

In the wake of the scandal, the leadership position was open. Garton and Harrison, in particular, seemed to be running hard for the spot. Ultimately Garton won, and Senators Garton, Harrison, Borst, and Mills would control the Senate for something like a quarter century.

The corruption scandal led Garton to make some important reforms to how business was done in the Senate. It also led to implementation of lobbying regulation (though that regulation was gutted in 1992 after Attorney General Linley Pearson issued an opinion on the the law that legislators felt was too strict in requiring lobbyists to disclose their expenses.) Garton was a stickler for the Senate rules. During his tenure the Senate was much more observant of the requirement that bills address one subject and about posting the dates and times of committee hearings in advance.

This power structure was one with which Governor Bayh had to contend. Senator Borst recalled Bayh’s term as governor as one that was popular with the public but was skeptical of the actual accomplishments. Bayh immediately implemented a Task Force to trim government waste and reduce its size but, according to Borst, “the savings claimed were dubious.” Similarly, Bayh forbid state employees from accepting “so much as a cup of coffee,” but, he said, that was never really enforced. He allowed the unionization of state employees but never entered into a meaningful contract with them. That said, Borst concluded, Bayh’s “don’t rock the boat” philosophy was good for the state at that time, and he had capable, honest staff members.

Bayh would go on to retire from the governor’s position with an 80% approval rating and a virtual coronation into his father’s old U.S. Senate seat. He held that seat until 2010 when he stepped down at an inopportune moment for his fellow Democrats, leaving them scrambling for a replacement in a tough election year for Democrats. After a finger-wagging departure speech in which he bemoaned partisanship, special interest influence, and a lack of public spirit, Bayh proceeded to take post-Senate jobs with the highly partisan Fox News and with a lobbying firm that made a lot of money promoting dubious interests.

For his part, Garton would continue to preside over the Senate until 2006 when he was beat by a primary challenge from the right. The motivation for the challenge seemed to be over abortion, but the media attention given to the challenge came from what was perceived as a sweetheart health care deal provided to retiring legislators.

In 2016, sitting on a campaign war chest and looking at better electoral prospects, Bayh entered the race to take back his old seat which had been occupied by North Carolina lobbyist and former Indiana Senator, Dan Coats. This was not to be, however. Bayh’s cozy connection with lobbyists and thin connection with Indiana came back to haunt him. He was the recipient of relentless coverage of the fact that he did not live here — something that was more muted when Coats ran for the same seat.

Robert Orr (1981 – 1989)

Robert Orr was not the star defenceman for the Boston Bruins. Rather, he was the son of an industrialist from Evansville. He mostly went to public schools but then enrolled in Yale where he received his bachelor’s degree before enrolling in Harvard Business School in 1940. However, World War II broke out, and he did not complete that degree. He joined the Army and served in the Pacific theater, eventually rising to the rank of major.

During his service, he met a girl, and after the war, they returned to his home in Evansville, and he joined the family business — primarily held in the Orr Iron Company.

The transition away from a wartime economy created opportunities for Orr. With implements of war no longer needed, several companies were forced to close. Orr purchased, refurbished, and sold some of the factories. He became part of an economic development committee and involved in Republican politics. “His business and holding expanded rapidly and by 1953 he was on the board of twenty local businesses including Erie Investments, Sterling Brewers, and Grand Junction, and was director of twelve other companies.”

Beginning in the early 50s, Orr held a variety of positions in the Evansville and Vanderburgh County Republican Party apparatus. He was elected to the state senate in 1968 and served for five years until he was chosen to run as Gov. Bowen’s running mate. As lieutenant governor, he was in charge of the department of agriculture and department of commerce. Two of his initiatives during this time were creating Ohio River ports at Mount Vernon and Jeffersonville (the third Indiana port is up north at Burns Harbor).

In 1980, Bowen supported Orr’s nomination for governor, and he ran unopposed for the party nomination. In the general election, the Democratic challenger was John Hillenbrand. Bowen had been popular, and Orr ran on that popularity (with the slogan “Let’s Keep a Good Thing Going”), citing among other things, Bowen’s efforts to lower property taxes. The Kokomo Tribune described both men as trying to take advantage of Bowen’s legacy — Orr as the lieutenant governor, Hillenbrand as Orr’s chairman of the Department of Natural Resources. (The Tribune also described Orr as “a 62-year-old millionaire Evansville businessman” and Hillenbrand as “a 48-year-old millionaire businessman from Batesville.) Orr got much the better of that battle, defeating Hillenbrand by over 15% and 300,000 votes of 2.2 million cast.

Orr won a second term in 1984 by a closer margin than his first election. He ran against Democrat Wayne Townsend. Townsend was a state senator and the grandson of former governor, Clifford Townsend who had been governor from 1937-1941. Townsend lost by 5% in a year when Ronald Reagan had a landslide win over Walter Mondale. (Out of 2.2 million votes cast in the election, Townsend did about 200,000 votes better than Mondale, but still lost to Orr by 110,000.)

During his term, Orr took action to remove the state’s license branches from political control — undoing a piece of what had been an extensive patronage system in the state. Orr also oversaw an overhaul of the state’s educational system:

Mr. Orr’s major achievement was passage of a sweeping educational overhaul package in 1987. The ”A-Plus” package required student achievement exams, a new school accreditation system based on performance and rewards for schools that showed improvement.

Shortly after the end of the 1987 session of the General Assembly, the Chicago Tribune described the passage of the educational proposal:

Orr had championed education reform this year as critical to improving the lackluster performance of Indiana`s public schools and ensuring future economic growth. He proposed a $400 million plan in January that called for 10 more school days and 30 other initiatives designed to inject incentives and accountability into the education system.

The package received a chilly reception in the legislature, prompting Orr to launch a direct mail campaign to nearly 200,000 parents in the state. Ten thousand responded to the governor`s call for assistance.

In addition, leaders of some of the largest businesses in the state spent $300,000 on a media campaign to tell the public about Orr`s program.

The legislators eventually passed the governor`s $550 million, two-year program. They also added $81 million for other programs to increase state spending on primary and secondary schools by 9.3 percent in 1987-88 and 12.8 percent the following year.

The measure adds five more days to what has been the shortest school year in the nation, requires comprehensive testing of students and evaluations of teachers, offers financial rewards to schools that improve the most, and imposes financial penalties on schools that promote students who have not met achievement goals.

Students who fall behind will have to attend summer school, and school days lost due to bad weather will have to be made up.

The legislature also gave Orr some things he did not ask for, including a $20 million grant program for students at risk of underachievement because of poverty, broken homes and uneducated parents.

The session saw a significant increase in taxes to pay for $754 million in additional spending. The personal income tax was raised from 3 – 3.4%, the state cigarette tax was raised by 5 cents per pack, and a 15% increase was imposed on other tobacco products. This was the second major tax increase during Orr’s tenure. In 1982, to cope with the recession, Indiana raised income and sales taxes. 1987 also saw legislation to increase the speed limit from 55 to 65 miles per hour, sharp restrictions on smoking in government buildings, and approval of a referendum on whether Indiana’s ban on lotteries should be lifted.

Orr appointed Chief Justice Randall Shepard (of Evansville) to the Indiana Supreme Court in 1985 and Justice (later Chief Justice for a relatively brief period) and Brent Dixon (of Lafayette) in 1986. These two men were very influential jurists. Shepard served for 27 years and was active in reviving the Indiana Constitution into something more than an afterthought as compared to the U.S. Constitution, and in asserting authority over trial courts and making them more part of an independent judicial branch and less part of county government. Justice Dixon served for 30 years and became the second longest serving Indiana Supreme Court Justice after Isaac Blackford (who served from 1817 to 1853).

After Orr’s term of governor came to an end, he was appointed by President Bush to the post of ambassador to Singapore which he held until 1992. In 2000, he divorced his wife of 54 years and, in 2001 — at the age of 82 — he was remarried. He would die in 2004, at the age of 86.

We’re really getting into recent memory here, so I’ll just be hitting some highlights here as I finish reviewing the national scene and the Presidents.

George W. Bush (2001 – 2009)

George W. Bush was, of course, the son of George H.W. Bush. If the spoon in H.W.’s mouth was silver, I guess that makes W’s spoon platinum or something. Nevertheless, he was able to campaign as an aw-shucks Texan to some degree. The commentariat was maybe tired of the Clinton years to some degree because they pounded on his opponent, Al Gore, for nonsense like wearing earth tones and sighing during a debate and insisting on using math. In the end, Gore was the people’s choice, but Bush was the beneficiary of the Electoral College’s affirmative action for voters in less populous states. And he had the advantage of having his brother oversee the election in Florida where Bush won by an apparent margin of 537 votes. However, the United States Supreme Court stopped the recount, so whether that was the true margin is unknown.

Eight months into Bush’s term, the U.S. was attacked by Osama bin and his group, al-Qaeda when four planes were hijacked. Two were flown into the Twin Towers in New York, one into the Pentagon, and one crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 3,000 people, but — as is the intent of terrorist attacks — the psychological impact outstripped the actual loss. The divided country rallied around the President in the aftermath, and the Bush administration reacted by invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan had a relationship to the attacks. Iraq did not.

In 2004, Bush once again won the electoral college. And, in what is becoming a rarity for Republican Presidential candidates, he won the popular vote over John Kerry by 2.4%. As we know because of our recent 2016 election, that 2.4% majority will represent the only such popular vote victory for the GOP for a period spanning 30 years. However, the goodwill strengthened by post-9/11 unity would not last. In the midterm elections of 2006, Democrats took control of the House, the Senate, and the majority of governor’s seats. That momentum would largely continue into the 2008 elections.

During the Bush administration, deficit spending resumed after a brief hiatus during the Clinton administration. The stock market stagnated. In 2008, the market collapsed in the biggest recession since the Great Depression. However, its effects appear to have been mitigated by spending measures implemented at the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration.

Barack Obama (2009 – 2017)

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. He became our first black president. Obama’s father and mother split up soon after he was born. When Obama was 3, his mother remarried a man from Indonesia. Obama lived in Jakarta from age 6 to 10. When he was 10, he returned to Hawaii and lived with his maternal grandparents. After high school, he moved to the continental U.S. and, among other things, attended college at Columbia, became a community organizer in Chicago, attended law school at Harvard, and taught constitutional law at the Chicago Law School. From 1996 – 2004, he served in the Illinois state senate. In 2004, he decisively won a crowded Democratic primary field for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat. The anticipated Republican opponent, Jack Ryan dropped out of the Senate race due to the breaking of some scandalous news related to his divorce from actress Jeri Ryan. Instead, Obama ended up facing conservative activist Alan Keyes and won easily. His Senate victory and his well-received keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention made him a rising star. He soon made the decision to run for the Presidency in 2008.

After a long and contentious primary battle, Obama beat Hillary Clinton who had been the frontrunner. In the 2008 election, he went up against John McCain who was fighting some pretty serious anti-Republican headwinds following the Bush administration and exacerbated by the collapse of the financial markets due to sketchy housing market practices on Wall Street. Obama won that race decisively.

Using the Democratic control of Congress and the Presidency, Obama passed a stimulus bill that did much to mitigate the financial collapse. He was also able to pass a healthcare bill modeled on the Massachusetts program passed by future GOP candidate, Mitt Romney. Republicans were united in political opposition to a health care success by Obama and did not participate in meaningful negotiations for their votes. Conservative Democrats also gummed up the works; the upshot being what is, by almost all accounts, an unwieldy system. However, it did result in  the availability of health insurance for 11.4 million more Americans and has, in particular, been beneficial to those Americans with pre-existing medical conditions.

On May 1, 2011, an operation under the Obama administration was successful in killing Osama bin Laden.

In 2012, Obama was able to defeat Mitt Romney by a smaller margin than in 2008, but still with 51.1% of the popular vote and 332 electoral votes. He appointed two Supreme Court Justices – Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotamayor. A third vacancy opened up upon the death of Antonin Scalia, but the Senate Republicans blocked consideration of his appointment for a year, using the specious argument that 25% of a Presidential term was too close to the end to allow his nominee to receive consideration.

During Obama’s second term, significant progress was made in recognizing that gay Americans should not be second class citizens. The Supreme Court recognized their right to marry.

In 2016, the Republicans nominated reality star and alleged billionaire Donald Trump to represent them. As in 1876, 1888, and 2000, the Republicans won enough electoral votes to win the White House but did so with a minority of the total votes. What this means for the future of the country remains to be seen.

Bill Clinton (1993 – 2001)

Bill Clinton was born to modest circumstances in Hope, Arkansas. His father died before he was born. His mom went off to nursing school and left him with his grandparents. When his mom returned, she married Roger Clinton, Sr., an alcoholic gambler who apparently beat his mom and step-brother. He got a scholarship to Georgetown, then a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and then went to Yale Law School. He was sharp. While at Yale, he met Hillary.

He returned to Arkansas and became a law professor for a time. He ran unsuccessfully for Representative in 1974 but put up a good fight. In 1976, he successfully ran for Attorney General. In 1978, he was elected governor then lost again in 1980. He joked that he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation’s history. In 1982, he was re-elected and kept the job for 10 years. He became part of the Democratic Leadership Council — a group of economically more conservative Democrats who sought to move away from liberal positions they felt contributed to Reagan’s large victories.

In 1988, he considered running for President, but ultimately endorsed Dukakis. He gave the keynote address which was, as he’s known for, a bit of a stemwinder. In 1992, he got into the race. He lost the Iowa race and was behind in New Hampshire, suffering from talk about his extramarital affair. He and Hillary gave an interview after the Super Bowl that got the media talking about “momentum.” That let him hang on until Super Tuesday where he won some southern states. Jerry Brown gave him competition, but he won New York and Brown couldn’t keep up.

Initially, Bush seemed too popular to beat. But, his “no new taxes” broken pledge, the souring economy, and the lack of communism as a unifying issue caused Bush’s popularity to plummet. Then populist billionaire, Ross Perot entered the race and all bets were off. The Cold War no longer had the same strength as an energizing issue, and the Republicans – nodding to the influence of the Buchanan wing of the party – turned to Christianity as a unifying issue. This was alienating to some sectors. Meanwhile, Clinton pointed to his “New Democrat” approach in Arkansas to attract the “Reagan Democrats” who had defected in the 80s.

Ultimately, Clinton won the election by 5% and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Clinton passed a budget that reduced taxes on small businesses and most Americans but raised taxes on the wealthiest 1% of the country. A well-organized opposition from conservatives defeated Clinton’s attempt to pass universal health care legislation. Conservatives also began their persistent investigations into Clinton. These investigations amplified after 1994 when Newt Gingrich helped engineer sweeping midterm electoral success for the Republicans. The investigations were mostly a waste of time that fed the relatively new 24 hour news channels, but one of these investigations ultimately hit pay dirt in the form of discovering marital infidelity. This was used to force him into an embarrassing deposition which, in turn, was used as a pretext to move for his impeachment. On a personal note, that disingenuous abuse of power by Congressional Republicans is what started me voting for Democrats in the Presidential elections.

Clinton adopted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military, allowing gay people to serve so long as they did not talk about their sexuality. As regressive as that sounds today, it was a step forward at the time. In 1994, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which had a mix of support and opposition. The DLC and pro-commerce Republicans supported it while it was opposed by a mix Republicans, Democrats, and Perot supporters. It has long been criticized as an important reason for the decline of manufacturing in the U.S.

The Internet, which had its roots in ARPAnet — launched in late 1969 — started to explode in the mid-90s during the Clinton administration. It was aided significantly by the development of the Mosaic browser, launched in 1993. The browser had been developed with funding by a federal initiative initiated by Al Gore when he was a Senator. Gore’s chances of becoming President in his own right would be hindered by his opponents’ false characterization of one of his statements which they argued represented him claiming to invent the Internet. The Internet would, of course, be instrumental in spreading that characterization. In any event, the Clinton White House was the first to have a web page.

Military action during the Clinton administration was generally low scale. There was conflict in Somalia which resulted in two U.S. helicopters shot down and 18 American soldiers dead as well as an operation in Yugoslavia in response to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. Al Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in East Africa which killed 12 Americans. With respect to the United States Supreme Court, Clinton appointed Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ultimately, Clinton would leave office with high approval ratings (which counterintuitively seemed to be bolstered by the impeachment proceedings.)