MIKE SMITH
INDIANAPOLIS — Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has put lawmakers and Indiana on notice by pledging to keep up his aggressive push for change during his second term.
“Never again will somebody be able to write that this is a change-averse state, this is a standstill state, this is a follower state because Indiana has announced in the last four years and emphatically tonight that not only do we accept change we are prepared to lead change,” Daniels told hundreds of supporters at Conseco Fieldhouse following his re-election Tuesday.
“Let the rest of America follow us!”
While his victory over former Democratic congresswoman Jill Long Thompson was secured early in the evening, he went into Wednesday morning not knowing which party would control the Indiana House.
House Democrats went into the election with a 51-49 advantage, but it was possible the chamber could be tied 50-50, and if so, Republicans would wield the gavel under a tie-breaking law tied to which party wins the governor’s office. That would make it easier for Daniels to get what he wants, since Republicans maintained their lock on the Senate.
The parties in the House traded three seats each, but the outcome of one race remained uncertain.
Republican Kelly Gaskill led Rep. Scott Reske, D-Pendleton, by 34 votes in District 37 with nearly 12,000 absentee votes left to be counted in Madison County. The counting was to resume Wednesday morning, and if Gaskill holds on, the chamber would be tied and Republicans would control the chamber.
The last time the House was tied was in 1997 and 1998, but the tie-breaker then gave Democrats control.
With 99 percent of Indiana precincts reporting, Daniels won 58 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns tabulated by The Associated Press.
Robert Dion, a political science professor at the University of Evansville, said he had no doubt Daniels would press forward with more change. Daniels has pledged to pursue further expansion of full-day kindergarten, take the next step toward amending caps on property tax bills into the state constitution, and starting a new college scholarship program.
“He is a man on the move, he is a big thinker,” Dion said. “He is in the second half of his time as governor and now the clock is running out, so he will feel the urgency of making his mark on the state.”
Long Thompson conceded the race shortly after 9 p.m. A victory would have made her the first woman elected governor in Indiana history.
“This didn’t turn out as we had hoped, but we put a big crack in that glass ceiling,” she told supporters at the downtown Marriott in Indianapolis. “And it’s only a matter of time before that thing shatters here in Indiana.”
Daniels, a former policy adviser to President Reagan and President George Bush, had a huge fundraising advantage throughout the campaign and outspent his Democratic rival by at least $10 million.
Democrats had hoped to capitalize on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and voter unhappiness over changes in Daniels’ first term, which included decisions to observe daylight saving time statewide and lease the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign venture.
Many of those changes came during his first two years in office, with help from a House then controlled by Republicans.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday maintained the 33-17 advantage they went into Election Day with. They have controlled the chamber since late 1978.
Daniels said recently that his first priority in a second term is keeping the balanced budget, especially given the tanking economy.
He has suggested that will be easier to accomplish with a GOP-controlled House, calling Democratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer of South Bend “an expensive date.”
Long Thompson had blamed Daniels for thousands of jobs Indiana has lost this year and had pledged to overhaul the state’s tax structure and implement a new economic development program to boost the economy.
She also had promised to restore bargaining rights for state employees, which Daniels rescinded on his first day in office, and end what she called Daniels’ “privatization madness” that she said had resulted in bad financial deals and worse services.
