Centrist group to rally against one-party rule
Wonder why just 7% of Hoosier students benefit from such a lopsided share – 36% – of your state tax dollars for elementary and high schools? They attend private and parochial schools.
Only 64% of state tax dollars for elementary and secondary education support public schools, which teach 93% of Indiana students.
Blame the supermajority that runs Indiana government, says the political action committee of ReCenter Indiana. That’s why the bipartisan centrist group is holding two webinars this month. Both feature promising centrist candidates who could restore some balance and common sense to the Statehouse.
Thursday, Sept. 19, from 7 to 8 p.m., Sheila Suess Kennedy, professor emerita of law and public policy at Indiana University Indianapolis, will explain that gerrymandering has skewed both chambers of the state legislature. As a result, Kennedy says, Republicans “need not negotiate or compromise, need not take into account the concerns of a substantial number of Hoosier citizens.” Instead, she says, that “unrestrained majority can reward its supporters with vouchers they don’t need for private schools their kids already go to.”
A shift of just four seats from Republican to Democratic could end the supermajority in the Indiana House of Representatives. Analysts have their eyes on five pivotal districts; four of them stretch along the northern border of Indianapolis. Democratic candidates in those districts will appear with Kennedy Sept. 19:
Josh Lowry, District 24;
Tiffany Stoner, District 25;
Victoria Garcia Wilburn, District 32 (incumbent); and
Matt McNally, District 39.
The executive branch of Indiana government is also in the hands of just one party. For the last 20 years, Republicans have had a lock on the governor’s office.
So, the ReCenter PAC’s second webinar, Sunday, Sept. 29, from 8 to 9 p.m., features two Democrats running for statewide office:
Jennifer McCormick, Indiana’s last elected superintendent of public instruction, for governor; and Destiny Wells, a former deputy attorney general, for attorney general.
Registration for each event is free but required. Registration links are:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_92CsYyGoTxmEcobXbWyy2g#/registration for the Sept. 19 event, and
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_idbgaZFHRn6uvgUBjIWg2g#/registration for the webinar Sept. 29.
These webinars will enable attendees to take part from wherever they are and in anonymity, says Adrianne Slash, a Republican who chairs the ReCenter Indiana PAC. This privacy may appeal to traditional Republicans who feel left behind by their party but don’t want to lose their friends, Slash explains.
“A recent survey shows that only 42 percent of Hoosiers are or lean Republican, but the Indiana House of Representatives is 70 percent Republican,” says Don Knebel, president of ReCenter Indiana Inc. “That imbalance enables Republican legislators to ram through laws that many Hoosiers are against.”
Making it worse, Knebel says, Indiana has notoriously low voter turnout, especially in the primary elections that determine who’s on the general election ballot in November.
“Only the more partisan members of either party vote in primaries,” Kennedy notes. “And Republican candidates have protected their right flank by moving farther and farther right. As a result, the numerous ‘safe,’ predominantly rural legislative districts that Republicans have carved out send more and more extremists to the Statehouse.
“So not only do we have a supermajority of Republicans,” Kennedy says. “We have a supermajority of very right-wing culture-warrior Republicans who refuse to moderate their positions and feel free to completely disregard the wishes of a majority of Hoosiers.”
Both major political parties criticized the ReCenter Indiana PAC last spring. That’s because ReCenter posted billboards across the state urging Democrats to vote in the Republican primary.
Jocelyn Vare, the Democratic chairman in Hamilton County, was among those who objected. But Vare is on board with these ReCenter webinars.
“Each day,” Vare tells ReCenter Indiana, “we see the consequences of 20 years of GOP supermajority policies in the Statehouse. We see that Hoosiers' quality of life has been damaged. ReCenter Indiana's objective is to bring our Statehouse back to a healthy bipartisan balance, just like most Hoosiers want.”
