INDIANAPOLIS —
Indiana Republicans are hoping to score a rare kind of victory this November: winning enough seats to claim a “super majority” in both the House and Senate while taking the governor’s office as well.
Holding that kind of one-party power hasn’t happened in Indiana since 1964, when Democrats took control of the Statehouse in numbers large enough that they didn’t need a single member from the other party to cast a vote. They wielded their power in a big way by making Indiana the first state in the nation to repeal a “right to work” law — the one that Republicans had wrestled into place just a few years earlier. But two years later, when voters went back to the polls for the 1966 mid-term election, the Democrats’ control of 78 seats in the 100-seat state House plunged to just 34.
The super-duper super majority was gone.
“No one can hang on to that kind of power for very long,” said political scientist Andrew Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Indiana Republicans want to give it a shot. With Tuesday’s election, they’re counting on hanging on to the super majority they’ve long enjoyed in the state Senate and predicting with confidence (based on polling) they’ll keep the governor’s office as well. To get total control, they need to up their numbers in the Indiana House. They won majority control in 2010 by taking 60 of the 100 House seats, giving them power to push some major legislation including the new “right to work” law that bans mandatory labor contracts for employees.
Their goal is to get 67 seats this time around to get a quorum-proof super majority. With that, they could keep doing business even if House Democrats walked out like they did in 2010 and 2011 — bringing the Legislature to a stall.
Downs, who has tracked the numbers back to 1850, said there have been few times in Indiana history when one party has had that kind of super-control over another party. This could be one of those times, Downs said, though he also called it “a pretty tall order.”
Brian Howey, editor of Howey Politics Indiana and a longtime chronicler of state politics, predicted back in July that Republicans were in a good position to increase their majority and called a House GOP super majority “not out of the question.”
That’s due to several factors, including 19 open seats that were created either by redistricting of legislative districts after the 2010 census or by the high number of Democratic legislators who decided to retire.
It helps that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence are polling well in Indiana. But that’s not enough, said Ed Feigenbaum, editor and publisher of the Indiana Legislative Insight newsletter.
Feigenbaum doesn’t think this is “top-down” kind of year for the state legislative races.
Downs agrees: “In Indiana, we’re happy to split our ticket.”
In Feigenbaum’s most recent analysis of the state House races, he says Republicans are within “striking range” of winning 67 seats next Tuesday. But he also likens the countdown to the election to a football game. “You need to execute each play, each series, each quarter, each half and each game before looking ahead to the Super Bowl.”
Maureen Hayden covers the Statehouse for the CNHI newspapers in Indiana. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.
State News
Related Photos
-
Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, welcomes Rep. Sheila Klinker, D-Lafayette, to the House Chamber. Darron Cummings
Discussion
Indiana Republicans seeking ‘super majority’ in House
- State News
-
-
Prison sentence of 12-year-old prompts new juvenile sentencing law
Three years ago, when 12-year-old Paul Henry Gingerich became the youngest person in Indiana ever sent to prison as an adult, his story gained international attention and sparked questions about whether children belong behind bars with grown-up offenders.
-
Ritz orders independent analysis of ISTEP results
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz has hired an outside expert to determine the validity of ISTEP+ test scores of nearly 80,000 students who were kicked offline while taking the high-stakes standardized test.
-
State won’t use free lunch program as poverty indicator
Indiana is changing the way it counts low-income students in public schools because Republican legislators suspect fraud in the federal school-lunch program used to measure poverty.
-
Report: State is both ‘leader and laggard’
A newly released report card on where Indiana ranks nationally in key economic measures shows the state is both “a leader and a laggard” in areas that signal potential for more prosperity.
-
Indiana’s high school grad rate continues upward
Indiana’s reported high school graduation rate continues to improve, moving from 77 percent to more than 88 percent in less than a decade, but there are still significant achievement gaps marked by race and income.
-
Schools chief Ritz on fast learning curve
For many occupants of the Indiana Statehouse, the week after the General Assembly wraps up its final frenzy of work is a quiet one. But not for Glenda Ritz.
-
SLIDESHOW: Governor Otis R. Bowen
Photos from the Indiana State Archives of the late Otis R. Bowen, who served as governor of the state as well as in the Ronald Reagan White House. The Bremen native died Saturday
-
Out of office, Lugar shuns retirement
One year ago, Indiana’s longest serving U.S. senator was rejected by Republican primary voters and forced into an unwelcome retirement from a distinguished political career that spanned 46 years. But at 81, former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar is hardly in a resting mode.
-
Lugar wary of Syria involvement
Former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar has been out of office since early January, but he’s still being sought after for his opinion about foreign policy matters he once helped shape.
-
Budget deal includes little funding for criminal code reform
Facing the end-of-session deadline, Indiana legislators moved forward on a bill to overhaul the state’s criminal sentencing laws but left undone the issue of where local communities will get the money to implement it.
- More State News Headlines
-
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51
Fmr. TWA Flight 800 Investigators Want New Probe
Raw: Heat, Spurs Back on Court Ahead of Game 7
Dolce and Gabbana Convicted of Tax Evasion
Paris, Prince Depositions Used in Jackson Trial
Coiffed Cattle Get Their Close-up
In Berlin, Obama Channels Cold War Activism
Police at Patriots Tight End's Home for 2nd Day
Fed Suggests Bond Purchases Could Slow
AP: DOJ Broke Own Rules Seizing Phone Records
Raw: Baby White Rhino Debuts at Australian Zoo
Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse
Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive
Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends
