INDIANAPOLIS — In the end, it was the crushing fines set up in the 2011 anti-bolt legislation that caused B. Patrick Bauer and House Democrats to cave on right-to-work Wednesday.

After intermittent walkouts throughout January, the issue came to a head and, ultimately, a 54-44 vote to pass HB1001, identical to the Senate version passed last week. While AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott promised to continue the fight in the Senate, this battle is essentially over.

The chaotic session began Wednesday with Democrats insisting the doors into the hallway stay open. Fearing yet another walkout, House Speaker Brian Bosma relented, and so the emotional debate on what Democrats were calling the “most divisive issue in a generation” continued between chants and shouts.

“This is right-to-work … for less,” Bauer stormed. “Less pay, less health care, and yes, less safety.”

“After your vote against the referendum, your vote is shallow and hollow,” Bauer said of a ploy that would have placed the issue on the November ballot, though there were constitutional issues involved with that. Republicans were having none of it.

It was a capstone legislative defeat for a 42-year veteran who has presided over his party’s fall from a majority to a devastating 60-40 minority after he waged one of the most tawdry campaigns in modern Indiana history, attempting to defend caucus members in 2010. In the process, Bauer helped lose the Democratic Party’s Southern Indiana base.

The more Democrats walked, the more fuel and fodder the House Republican Campaign Committee collected for fall ads in an attempt to gain a super 67 seat majority. For Speaker Bosma, it was a win-win. He passed his top priority, and he will have his caucus campaign against Democrats who bolted.

The Democratic caucus — where Gov. Mitch Daniels marveled at Bauer’s iron-fisted control — heaved and groaned under the weight of fines that would have totaled $10,000 per member if the boycotts had lasted through the Jan. 31 session day, when the legislature pauses for the Super Bowl.

The theory was that Democrats would try and parlay their stand for labor with a worldwide audience, perhaps eclipsing the attention their colleagues received last winter in Wisconsin in that fight over collective bargaining.

Caucus Chair Dale Grubb quit that job as caucus unity was challenged over fines. There are some members facing tough challenges this upcoming fall — Reps. Ed DeLaney and Peggy Welch — who broke ranks and returned to the chamber while 35 of their colleagues sat out.

It was a perplexing dance with only one man — Bauer — knowing what the end game was. Asked if anyone was privy to the South Bend Democrat’s thought process and ultimate game plan, Democratic Chair Dan Parker could only smile and shake his head. No one else knew.

Weakened Democrats lamented the body blow organized labor would take with the looming right-to-work law.

“This bill has been for all of us the most divisive,” said State Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville. “The thing that really got me was how it was handled. The procedures were thrown out.”

An emotional State Rep. Scott Pelath recalled how his father had to explain to the family why he was on a Pullman Standard picket line and there would be no paycheck that week.

But it was the newest member of the caucus, ponytailed Rep. Mike White of Muncie, who revealed the angst.

“I’m the rookie here,” he said. “I’m also fresh off the streets. What the people on the streets tell me is they want us to get to work on a whole lot of other things.”

Indeed, as Democrats obsessed about derailing right-to-work and Republicans prepared to use the full weight of their daunting majorities, a litany of other important legislation ranging from mass transit to a statewide smoking ban to local government reform, were beginning to fall by the wayside.

And Republicans chided the minority that right-to-work would not be the end of the world.

“The sky will not fall the day after right-to-work passes. It just will not,” said Rep. Sue Ellspermann. “Right-to-work is clearly a job creation strategy as companies seek to locate to those states.”

During what would be a 54-44 vote with five Republicans joining the minority, the Democrats called for a voice roll call and the session ended in shouting.

“The only places where today’s events will be cheered is in the boardrooms of big businesses and corporations across this state,” Bauer — the face of the Indiana Democratic Party — fumed afterward. “For those who threw their weight behind this plan, and were willing to trample on a lengthy list of constitutional rights in order to do so, there is only one thing to say: Shame on you.”  

And in dozens of downtown restaurants and bars Wednesday evening, Republicans and business advocates were toasting a seismic victory in a northern state, clinking flutes and goblets of shame, red and white, sparkling and dry.

Had Bauer kept caucus losses to 55 seats, instead of 60, right-to-work probably wouldn’t have happened. Why he is still in power should be a question every Hoosier Democrat ponders.

John Gregg, phone home.

— This columnist publishes at www.howeypolitics.com. Contact Howey at bhowey2@gmail.com.