Archive for the ‘General Assembly’ Category

Representative Terry Goodin (D-Crothersville) authored a bill—that ended up passing the Democrat controlled House, the Republican controlled Senate, and was signed into law by the Republican Governor. This law required that stores that planned to sell sexually explicit materials to pay a $250 fee and register with the Secretary of State saying what types of materials that they planned on selling. The expressed reason for this law was to help localities with zoning issues.

Well, this law died an ignominious death by being declared unconstitutional (regarding the first amendment) by U.S. District Court Justice Barker.

The post-mortem after the jump.

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State Representative Marlin Stutzman, today, won the opportunity to replace retiring State Senator Bob Meeks on the November ballot. Stutzman won on the third ballot. Mitch Harper of Fort Wayne Observed has more:

State Representative Marlin Stutzman is now the Republican nominee for the 13th District state senate seat held by incumbent Bob Meeks.

The well-respected Senator Meeks resigned his candidacy over continuing health concerns.

Mr. Stutzman won the Republican caucus on the third ballot. He led on each of the three ballots.

The other candidates were: State Representative Matt Bell; Brad Fox, a former state representative; and, Sue Ann Mitchell, former Kosciusko County auditor and assessor.

Mr. Bell had been endorsed by outgoing Senator Meeks. Mr. Stutzman was endorsed earlier this week by the three LaGrange County Commissioners.

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Now that the state convention is over, I think it about time for us to turn our attention to the Indiana House races. This can be an important year for Republicans on the state level. We are currently in the minority by a 49 to 51 margin. On the down-side, due to running for the Federal House seat, Jon Elrod is giving up IN-97. Of course, we failed to put a candidate up to retain this seat, so we are starting this effort needing two victories to tie and three to get the majority back.

Here are the contested races where the incumbent is NOT running for re-election, which should be considered the most vulnerable:

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From Mitch Harper and Fort Wayne Observed:

Republican precinct committeepersons in the district of State Senator Robert Meeks will meet on June 7th to nominate a candidate for the general election.

The caucus will be held in Kendallville at the Four County Vocational Center.

Senator Meeks is not seeking re-election due to health concerns.

For all the talk of the Democrats having one devil of a time with their gubernatorial race, Republicans sure have made life interesting for themselves this year as well. From the three person race for who would be the Republican nominee for the 7th CD special election back in January, to three person caucus race for who would replace Senator Jeff Drozda, and of course, the AG’s race, Indiana R’s have not beens ones to back down from a fight. The battle for who will win the caucus to replace the retiring Senator Bob Meeks apparently just got a little more crowded.

I just received this anonymous tip from a Hoosier Access reader:

The race to succeed Senator Bob Meeks just got more interesting—Sue Ann Mitchell, former Kosciusko Auditor & Assessor, filed her candidacy for Meeks’ seat to be determined at the upcoming GOP caucus.

If true, Mitchell joins an already crowded field that includes previously announced candidates State Reps Marlin Stutzman and Matt Bell.

Press Release from Matt Bell for State Senate below.

This morning, State Representative Matt Bell (District 83, Republican) announced his candidacy to succeed Robert L. “Bob” Meeks as the Senator from Indiana’s 13th Senate District. Yesterday morning, Rep. Bell filed paperwork declaring himself a candidate for the caucus to fill the ballot vacancy resulting from Sen. Meeks’ announcement of his intention to withdraw from the November General Election ballot.

“I have been humbled and honored by the calls and comments from folks across the 13th Senate District asking me to represent them in the Indiana State Senate. My wife, Jackie, and I have carefully considered this decision, and we are committed to working as hard as we can to earn the opportunity to fill the ballot vacancy, and win the General Election in November so that we can help lead the fight for a better northeast Indiana in the State Senate.”

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…you were thinking I was going to say “and all heck breaks loose” or “nothing really happens”.  Well, I guess one might think it’s a combination of both.

But the one thing that caught my eye wasn’t what happened in Indiana, but what happened in California.  As you probably have heard by now (and if you haven’t, where the heck have you been?!) the California Supreme Court struck down their voter approved state gay marriage ban.

Plenty of people have reason to be upset about this and for different reasons.  But I’m going to tell you why I am.

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Today State Representative Marlin Stutzman became the first Republican to declare for the Senate District 12 caucus to replace Senator Bob Meeks on the ballot for the fall General Election.  Sources tell me that State Representative Matt Bell, former State Rep. and current lobbyist Brad Fox, former Lagrange County Sheriff Greg Dheane, and Lagrange County Attorney Kurt Bachman are likely to join Stutzman in the race.  Press release below.

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Rumor mill is churning about the Democrat side of HD 86, that Ed Delaney might step aside from the ballot leaving the Party free to place David Orentlicher back on the ballot now that his bid for Congress has failed.

[crossposted to DFB]

It’s just sad it took the death of these two innocent children to potentally bring about legislation which increases the penalties for their murders.

The man who shot a pregnant teller during a bank robbery last week could face as little as two years in prison for killing her unborn twins.

But a penalty stretching several decades to 100 years would apply for the robbery and the attempted murder of the mother — an absurd gap, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. Today, he is expected to announce a proposal that would expand Indiana’s fetal homicide laws to include any unborn child.

The change would remove a condition that the fetus be viable, or have the ability to live outside the mother’s womb.

“I don’t see why we should be talking about viability,” Brizzi said Tuesday. “If somebody takes the life of an unborn child, they should be charged with murder, period.”

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Posted in Ethics, General Assembly, Legislature | 1 Comment » | Read more..

Republican State Rep. Jim Buck won today’s caucus to replace State Senator Jeff Drozda, who resigned earlier this month, quite handily. Final count was:

Jim Buck 68
Dave Mueller 15
Monty Henderson 5

The Kokomo Tribune has the story below the fold. (more…)

Larry Cooper, a perennial ballot filler that filed to run in the primary along with Michael Batz after the Party supported Christopher Swatts, dropped out of the Primary on Friday.

This leaves just one candidate for Chris Swatts contend instead of a three way race.