A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Tippecanoe Politics ranks the websites

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Tippecanoe Politics ranks the websites of the candidates for Indiana’s 4th and 1st Congressional Districts.

The quick rundown:
IN-04: Buyer – D; Sanders – B+
IN-01: Visclosky – B-; Leyva – F.

I particularly enjoyed this passage about Mark Leyva’s website:

If the picture on the first page isn’t bad enough, the website itself looks like it was put together by a bunch of beer buddies. As for content, the first issue people see after clicking the issues button is “smoking” (seriously, I’m not joking).

IN-04: Limiting liability to VA for identity thefts

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The Army Times had a story a couple of weeks ago on the theft of personal data on 26.5 million veterans. Representative Steve Buyer had a pretty astounding quote with respect to dealing with the aftermath of the VA’s negligence which led to the theft of the data:

Buyer said there may be other costs if the VA has to take steps to help veterans, although with 26 million people potentially compromised, it will be difficult to determine if the loss of the VA data is the sole reason for identity theft.

“How many of them would have had their identities stolen anyway?” Buyer said.

Rep. Salazar wants to err on the side of helping veterans:

Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., a member of Buyer’s committee, introduced a bill Tuesday that would require the VA to provide free credit monitoring and credit reporting for any veterans whose personal information was on the stolen computer. The bill, HR 5455, will be discussed at Thursday’s hearings.

“We cannot allow our veterans to suffer while the government sorts out its mistakes,” Salazar said, noting that the VA waited until several weeks after the theft to warn veterans.

“Veterans should not have to pay for identity theft,” he said. “The least the government can do is cover the cost for veterans to monitor their credit. Entire lifetimes of saving money and good work can now be devastated in an instant because of the VA’s careless handling of personal information.”

David Sanders, Buyer’s challenger for the 4th District seat, supports the Salazar bill.

Toll Road litigation: notice of appeal filed

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The plaintiffs in the toll road litigation have filed their appeal. The Plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the toll road privatization legislation. The trial court judge told them they’d have to pay to play — telling them to post a $1.8 billion bond before they were allowed to litigate the issue of whether the legislation was within the constitutional authority of the General Assembly.

I have questions about the judge’s decisions interpreting the public lawsuit statute under which such a bond is authorized. But, that aside, I wonder about the validity of legislation that makes a Constitutional challenge too expensive for anybody to reasonably sustain. Because the sale involves so much money, nobody can get a court to determine whether the transaction was actually within the authority of the General Assembly.

Smith v. Hoy

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Republican Andrew Smith, candidate for House District 77, is trying to gain a foothold in his race against incumbent Phil Hoy. But, he’s trying to do it on the backs of homosexuals and altering Hoy’s statements to do it.

Smith said the letter, [concerning Hoy’s position on homosexual rights] mailed to about 200 GOP voters who describe themselves as opposed to same-sex marriage, deals with legitimate public-policy issues for voters in House District 77.

“Phil gets upset whenever his extremist views are talked about,” he said.

The letter prominently features in enlarged letters a United Church of Christ statement and includes this quote: “Homosexuality is a good gift of our Creator, as is its responsible, loving expression.”

Smith acknowledges that he changed the word “sexuality” to “homosexuality.”

Hoy’s response:

Rep. Phil Hoy, D-Evansville, contends that the letter — paid for by Andrew Smith’s campaign — is a “smoke screen” to energize social conservatives while avoiding more important issues.

“Why don’t we talk about education, health care, Medicaid?” Hoy asked.

This is nothing new, really. Howard Dean identified the strategy succinctly back in 2004 when he referred to the GOP’s “God, Gays, and Guns” wedge strategy. Get folks all worked up over emotional issues, and they won’t notice so much that their paychecks are stagnant, their environment is deteriorating, the government’s safety net is getting frayed, and the super rich are getting a lot richer.

I can certainly understand gays voting primarily on gay rights issues. And I know that there is a certain segment of the population for whom gays being treated equally under the law is anathema. But I would think that for a substantial majority of citizens, gay rights is something of a side issue. Not to minimize its importance to the people it effects directly — for whom the issues are of immense importance, but for the average Hoosier, the ability of gays to marry or otherwise receive the rights and privileges afforded to other citizens simply does not affect their daily lives.

This issue should be discussed, but it should not be emphasized disproportionately to its actual importance. And altering the text of what Hoy actually said is wrong.

For my part, I’ll go with the “if it doesn’t break my leg or pick my pocket, it’s probably o.k.” reasoning. Also, I suspect that the anti-gay position will eventually be seen as being on the wrong side of history, along side Bull Connor and the segregationists. I’m sure there were many, many good people from that era who held segregationist views for reasons they saw as perfectly legitimate. But they were wrong.

IN-06 PSA: Barry Welsh Fundraiser

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A public service announcement:

Fundraiser hosted by David and Robyn Honig
Start: 06/24/2006 – 4:00pm
End: 06/24/2006 – 8:00pm
Timezone: Etc/GMT-5
Event Details:

David & Robyn Honig are holding a fundraiser on June 24 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. David and Robyn live in Carmel, and David has been an active supporter of Barry’s campaign and contributor to the website for quite a while now.

The location of the event is 2811 Maralice Drive in Carmel, Indiana. Stop by and mingle with frinds, talk politics without anny annoying dittoheads runing your good time, and donate your time and or money to a good cause. Here is a map if you are not familiar with the area.

Ostentatious prayer

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Advance Indiana continues its skewering of Eric Miller’s Advance America. Seriously, with respect to this legislative issue, somebody’s gonna have to address the admonition against ostentatious prayer in the Gospel according to Matthew before I’m seriously going to believe that Christians absolutely have to pray in the name of Jesus from the Speaker’s podium.

Pal-Item on local property taxes

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I’ve beaten up on the Palladium-Item pretty good in the past. But, today they have an editorial that’s spot on, in my ever so humble opinion. They criticize the General Assembly for getting tough on other government’s taxes. Specifically, they are critical of the General Assembly’s decision to restrict the ability of local governments to raise property taxes without providing local government with an alternate means of funding schools, parks, and all the other local government services.

The trick to achieving success will be to make any local government finance reform proposal simple and productive, something that legislators long accustomed to micromanaging local governments in Indiana will find hard to do.

In lieu of traditional property taxes, provide local governments a host of sales or income tax options or user fees that best suit local needs.

And if local officeholders overuse or abuse their new, alternative spending authority, local voters will show them the door.

That is how it can and should work.

I might just add that fewer unfunded mandates coming out of Indianapolis would also be helpful to local government.

IN-08: Hostettler throws the “he won’t debate me” card

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Usually it’s the challenger who complains that the incumbent won’t debate him or there won’t be enough debates or something along those lines. In Indiana’s 9th District, challenger Baron Hill has already started that line of attack against Mike Sodrel.

But, in the 8th District, for whatever reason, incumbent John Hostettler is complaining that his challenger, hasn’t pushed for debates early enough. Ellsworth’s campaign gave the equivalent of a shrug with his spokesperson saying, “It’s a little early, but I’m sure we’ll have debates.”

Something to watch, I suppose.

FWJG: Don’t privatize FSSA

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The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an editorial suggesting that if the Governor privatizes the Medicaid benefits eligibility determination process for FSSA,it will be (even more of) a debacle.

There are two ways that Gov. Mitch Daniels’ decision to take over the Family and Social Services Administration’s move to privatize welfare eligibility could go.

He could ensure that a decision that profoundly affects so many fragile lives receives the careful analysis it should have gotten in the first place, bringing light and clarity to a murky process.

Or he could advance a pre-ordained contract that gives $1 billion to FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob’s former employer. If he chooses the latter, he’ll be greasing the skids on the road to a debacle.

The main problem seems to be that the only two bidders have what seem to be deal breaking problems: Accenture has a laundry list of snafus with respect to a similar contract in Texas that have them on the brink of being fired . . . in Texas! IBM/ACS not only lost a similar contract in Georgia, it also was the former employer of FSSA’s chief, Mitch Roob.

The Journal Gazette concludes by saying:

Everyone agrees that FSSA should do a better job serving its clients, and most would agree that replacing the agency’s antiquated computer system would go a long way toward improving service. Why not consider contracting for a new computer system that would solve some of the agency’s problems?

A few thousand FSSA employees would be more than happy to use their intimate knowledge of the public benefits system and the people they serve to help a contractor build it better.

IN-08: Hostettler advocates deporting 11 million

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The Evansville Courier Journal article doesn’t quite make clear that Hostettler supports deporting the estimated11 million immigrants who have not complied with all of the U.S. naturalization laws, but I don’t think there is any other way to parse his advocacy of a so-called “hard line” on immigration.

He opposes the Bush and Senate immigration proposal which allows, depending on who you talk to, a “path to citizenship,” “a guest worker program,” or “amnesty.” Politically, I guess I’m content to watch the Republicans have a food fight over the issue. Personally, I don’t think it’s really our most pressing problem — but that might just have to do with being an upper-middle class professional in Indiana. I think we have more pressing problems like paying off our debt, getting out of Iraq, developing a sustainable energy policy, combatting global warming, developing a better approach to health care, securing the ports, rehabilitating our reputation as a good world citizen, and fixing trade agreements that benefit owners of capital while screwing workers. Regardless, I don’t think mass deportations are very realistic, nice as it might sound to some constituents.