Some Will Win, Some Will Lose…
You know how the rest of the song goes. So now that the special session is over, we go down the list of the major players and figure who won and who will live to fight another day. So with all that said…
Governor Mitch Daniels
- Big Winner! He got the budget he wanted and kept the surplus. He stayed on message and drove the debate. He also walked right up to the brink and the Legislature blinked.
House Speaker Pat Bauer
- Talk about fighting a war on two fronts. Between having to fight the Governor on one hand and members of his own caucus, particularly the Black caucus, on the other hand. He did have a major victory on the unemployment insurance fund.
Senate Protempore David Long
- Although there was never any question, Republicans would get a budget out of the Senate, I will give the big guy credit for keeping an orderly process the whole time and keeping a civil atmosphere in his chamber.
State Senator Luke Kenley
- Once again proved he is one of the smartest people in Indiana.
State Representative Bill Crawford
- I think we are looking at the final days of Bill Crawford. Throughout the session he looked tired and somewhat discombobulated. He stood his ground and fought for IPS, but in the end the best he could do was mitigate damages.
Republican Leader Brian Bosma
- The groundwork has been laid for 2010. With redistricting and tax caps both at stake in the next election, the House GOP scored a major victory by getting the budget they wanted.
Democratic Leader Vi Simpson
- Although Democrats have as about as much power in the State Senate as the former President of Honduras, Simpson gave an impassioned warning about the need to change the school funding formula on the last day of special session. And from my vantage point, that message did not fall on deaf ears.
Greg Ballard
- Whereas the Mayor of Indianapolis had some big wins last year, this year was different. Losses on government reform and the CIB, the Mayor really took it on the chin. He had some smaller legislative victories but lost the big ones. I still think there is an opportunity to fix the CIB which I will expand on tomorrow, but it will require the Mayor to do something he hates doing, play politics.
ISTA
- Talk about a bad millennium. Between the scandal involving the health insurance fund and cuts in school funding and now the seeds for real choice being planted in Indiana, ISTA may not be around much longer.
School Choice Lobby
- They won because ISTA lost.
Labor
- By scoring a victory on the unemployment insurance fund, labor in Indiana proved that it can still get things done and show up in force.
Business
- The business community almost took it as much on the chin as the Mayor’s office. It suffered losses in both government reform and unemployment insurance. I think the consequences are going to be a lot of cash for House Republicans but not so much for their Senate counterparts.
The Taxpayers
- I’ll let you make the call.
