Importantville: Speaker Ryan to Indiana—Buttigieg's book—Young for NRSC chair?—Mitch's speech—Whither Monument Circle?
IMPORTANTVILLE
By @AdamWren
Days to Election Day: 177
IMPORTANTVILLE SCOOP: House Speaker Paul Ryan is coming to Indiana on May 31 for a Jim Banks fundraiser.
In the month of May alone, Indiana will have hosted POTUS, VPOTUS, and the Speaker. When was the last time that's happened?
Importantville, indeed.
NEWS: Pete Buttigieg is working on a book. Importantville learned of the news Friday, and reached out to Buttigieg's camp that afternoon for confirmation. By Sunday, it was in the Washington Post. Better to be right than first.
From the Post: “Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., who is working on a book due out next year, has anchored his pitch in a broad vision of Democrats as “the party of everyday life” — a good job, health care and education included. “We’ve got to realize that a lot of this has to do with style,” he said. “That should be fairly obvious — we have a president who doesn’t even have an ideology, only a style.” https://goo.gl/tUuFy7
SPOTTED: AP White House reporter, Tom LoBianco, at Pearings on Washington Street in downtown Indianapolis Friday, with Robert Vane, a former top official from Gov. Mike Pence’s re-election campaign. LoBianco is working on a book about Pence.
Good Monday morning. Pence is coming back to Indiana later this week for a Braun fundraiser. He closed down part of Washington Street between Meridian and Illinois Friday. And the Legislature is back in session today for one day. You can find the deets of what they'll be doing here. Per the Star's Tony Cook and Kaitlin Lange: There have been nine special sessions. This is the first one since 2009. Here's why they are rare: https://goo.gl/Scecfk
--CURTAIN RAISER from the Herald Bulletin: "Four critical legislative bills considered key by Republican legislators will likely be passed -- all in one day -- in a special session Monday of the Indiana General Assembly." https://goo.gl/YyYyHA
DONNELLY FOR HASPEL: The Democratic senator comes out for Gina Haspel, Trump's nominee for CIA director, taking another issue away from Republicans, which would've used this as a cudgel in the campaign—and also dampening Democratic enthusiasm in November?
--DONNELLY'S SATURDAY STATEMENT: “I had a tough, frank, and extensive discussion with Ms. Haspel on a wide range of topics, including her vision for the agency and how she would approach the job, as well as issues of detention and interrogation. I have also reviewed her record and her testimony before Congress. I believe that she has learned from the past, and that the CIA under her leadership can help our country confront serious international threats and challenges. Importantly, Ms. Haspel expressed to me her commitment to be responsive to congressional oversight and to provide her unvarnished assessment – both to members of Congress and the president. For those reasons, and after careful consideration, I will support Ms. Haspel’s nomination to lead the agency to which she has dedicated her career.”
GOING IN CIRCLES: "Programming The Circle Is A Monumental Task," by Megan Fernandez in the May issue of Indianapolis Monthly: "No one is officially responsible for programming [Monument Circle]." https://goo.gl/gMQ1JR
HOT SPEECH: Mitch Daniels delivered Purdue University's commencement address this weekend. Importantville Denizen Pete Seat, Indiana GOP's executive director of strategic comms and talent, woke up at 5 a.m. to hear the speech. Daniels has, apparently, been reading Amy Chua lately.
THE GIST: "As we trust each other less, trust in the institutions of our society has eroded in parallel. Almost no sector – government, business, the media, even higher education – has escaped a steep drop in public confidence. Some constant vigilance and skepticism about centers of authority is a healthy, all-American instinct. But ultimately, to function effectively as a free and self-governing people, we must maintain some degree of faith that our institutions and those leading them have our best interests at heart, and are performing their duties with sincerity and integrity. And today, we plainly lack such faith.
There are plenty of culprits here, starting with too many who have misused positions of authority. The so-called social media – I have come to think of it as “antisocial media” – enables and encourages hostility from the insulated enclave of a smartphone or a laptop. People say things to and about each other that they would never say face to face, or maybe even think, if they knew each other personally.
Our various modern media lead us to, and feed us from information sources that reinforce our existing biases. They put us in contact with other tribe members, but rarely those who see things differently. We’re starting to resemble ominously our primitive forbearers, trusting no one outside the tribe."
Full text: https://goo.gl/xncP9a Read Dave Bangert, the Lafayette Journal & Courier's columnist who has followed Daniels' adventures in academia closely, on the speech: https://goo.gl/RQ5xrb
YOUNG PONIES UP FOR BRAUN: "Indiana Republican Mike Braun, fresh from his primary victory, gets big fundraising help," by David Drucker in The Washington Examiner.
"Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana is throwing his fundraising weight behind newly minted Senate nominee Mike Braun, moving quickly to ensure the fellow Indiana Republican wins against Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly in November. Cam Savage, Young's general consultant and a senior adviser, told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that helping Braun raise money is the "first priority." A meeting with Young's Washington-based steering committee, essentially the senator's committed group of D.C. donors, is being arranged for Braun to coincide with a scheduled trip to the nation's capital next week.
Young is giving Braun access to his network of campaign contributors, with an emphasis on helping the outsider candidate collect cash in Indiana. And Young's team is preparing to handle all of Braun's Washington fundraising, including from political action committees managed by Republican members of Congress, and from those run by advocacy groups. Two PAC fundraisers for Braun have already been scheduled, and a third is in the planning stages."
YOUNG FOR NRSC CHAIR? Smart money has Young as a contender to be the next chair of the National Republican Senate Committee Chair. IMPORTANTVILLE TAKE: Young has kept his head down in his first term, proving himself to be a workhorse, not a show horse—assiduously avoiding grandstanding, something that's increasingly rare for first-term members in the Senate. This muscular show of support for Braun could be a move toward leadership.
MAJOR MOVES
NEW CO-WORKING PLACE: After 2 years of construction, Refinery46, the co-working space for contractors in the building trades lead by Homesense cofounder Brian Schutt, is hosting a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting today in the old Double 8 Foods warehouse at 46th and Keystone. Mayor Joe Hogsett will be there.
CONGRATS: To Importantville denizens Nick Barbknecht, a strategist at Majority Strategies, and his new wife, Kenzie Clift, who works in the vice president's press office, on their Saturday wedding.
DAN SPEHLER, the WXIN-TV anchor and all-around classy guy, celebrated the third anniversary of #INFocus, Indiana's best Sunday show focusing on politics, yesterday. Spehler is incredibly fair and insightful in his coverage of Indiana politics. WRTV recently canned their rival show. If you care about local political journalism, this is a show you should watch weekly. WATCH: 15 news making moments in Indiana politics since 2015. https://goo.gl/G2q3NY
--FLASHBACK to The Star's James Briggs' column on what it means: "An Indianapolis company has launched a project, called Refinery 46, that has a chance to make the contracting world less of a hellscape for home service providers and consumers alike." https://goo.gl/4myjE5
THE KICKER
“I’m not naive enough to think that kids care about cars and driving anymore,” says veteran racing journalist Robin Miller, in Tony Rehagen's Indianapolis Monthly think piece about marketing Indy Car racing and the Indy 500. “But it’s a crime that someone as good as Scott Dixon could walk down the street in Indianapolis and no one knows who he is. IMS promotes everything but what counts—the drivers, cars, and speed.”