The Journal & Courier had a couple of articles featuring my own House district, the 15th. It is currently represented by Don Lehe (R-Brookston). He is being challenged in the Republican primary by Art Anderson (R-Monticello). Anderson is the president of a White County trucking company and says he is running because he thinks the Republican Party has been losing direction and its actions are alienating the people that elected them. If elected, he says he would focus on education and time change. With respect to the time change, he says:
Regarding the time issue, I sure wish we could change it back. People are really not happy.
When asked what separates him from Don Lehe, he says:
I’m not afraid to go against the grain, and I’m not afraid to put the voters’ issues ahead of the governor’s issues. I care more about the district than I do about Indianapolis. I think some people get so wrapped up in being a good Republican they forget the people who voted for them.
Amen brother.
In the Democratic primary, Myron Sutton, Sheriff of Newton County is running against John Malan who apparently did not respond to the Journal & Courier’s request for information. Sheriff Sutton says, if elected to represent the district, he would focus on property taxes and school funding.
In the other article, Benton County Democratic Party chair Martin Kennedy thinks Don Lehe may be vulnerable because of how he voted on the time issue. That makes a fair amount of sense to me. Those of you who were following the USDOT’s time zone docket closely may recall the deluge of protests from Benton County. They were protesting the potential shift from Eastern Time to Central Time, but y ou can be few of them were any too happy that Rep. Lehe even let it be an issue when he was in a position to kill the Daylight Saving Time bill with a simple “no” vote.
” I care more about the district than I do about Indianapolis.”
And in the process, not exactly all that interested in doing his responsibility for all of the state. Sure, representatives must respond to the needs of their districts, but as members of a legislature that handles business for all of the state — and not just Indianapolis or Brookston — they must also consider the state’s overall welfare first and foremost. Tiny Brookston won’t survive if Indianapolis, Anderson, Gary and Evansville do not.
But I think the sense is that it’s not the whole state that gets represented when the legislator puts aside the interests of his or her district; it’s the interests of Indianapolis that get advanced to the detriment of the rest of the state, including the legislator’s district. That’s a premise that’s impossible to prove or disprove, but the sentiment is real.
I had the assumption in my head that Reps are supposed to represent the will of the people, regardless of their personal feelings. On the other hand, I thought Senators were to do what is “best” for the people. Sometimes that might not be want the people want, but it is what that Senator feels is “best” for them.
I have no idea why I thought that, and I know it doesn’t seem to be practiced.
However, to what Biddle said, the system should work best if each Rep does what is best for his/her district. Everyone has a voice, and what is best for Indianapolis isn’t also isn’t always best for the state. If Indianapolis failed, other cities could take the lead.
Such an argument only works if representatives were deciding issues that merely involved the interests of their respective citizens in their districts. A Marion County representative having some sort of local privilege decision over, say, consolidation, might make sense. But then representatives shouldn’t be making decisions regarding such local matters; that’s why those jurisdictions elect mayors as part of cities and commissioners as part of counties.
From the Toll Road lease deal to the state budget, the reality is that the issues with which representatives and senators handle affect a state as a whole and not just one jurisdiction. This means each legislator should and by constitutional mandate, must balance the concerns of his constituents back home with the best interests of all of his fellow citizens in the rest of the state. A pork barrel project in Gary might help a representative for that district keep his or her job, but what about the effects on citizens in Evansville or even in Merrillville?
While representatives in those districts may be charged with representing those interests, the power dynamics of legislatures, with speakers and presidents pro tem who lead majority caucuses and the caucuses themselves, which have collective interests of their own, mean that the speaker from, say, Indianapolis, is going to have the power to cut enough of the pie to benefit his district and the ability to disregard, to some extent, the interests of his colleagues.
This is why all legislators must do the balancing act, between home district concerns and that of the entire state. What your constituents want isn’t always the best for the state and the converse.