Mayor Pete to Indianapolis for YDA—LoBianco's Pence book—Macer at Tri-State Cornfield Conference

What's happening—and what's next—at the intersection of Indiana politics and business?

FIRST IN IMPORTANTVILLE: Pete Buttigieg will return to Indianapolis to keynote the Young Democrats of America convention on July 18—his first event here since launching his official campaign in South Bend on April 14.

The booking is a coup for Marion County Young Democrats. They have nabbed the youngest and perhaps most in-demand presidential candidate this cycle. It’s his first visit to Indianapolis since Feb. 24, when he drew a crowd of more than 400 people to Hine Hall on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis for a book tour event.

For Buttigieg, 37, who advocates a message of intergenerational justice, the event is a no brainer. IYD National Committeewoman and South Bend native Arielle Brandy said in a statement:

“We are thrilled to announce that Mayor Pete will join us in July, at the largest gathering of young Democrats in the country. As a young mayor and leading Presidential candidate seeking to represent an unheard generation of voices, Mayor Pete speaks directly to the change happening right now across our country. Mayor Pete has long been a supporter of the Indiana Young Democrats, and our organization is honored to welcome him to the 2019 Young Democrats of America National Convention, for the first time in Indianapolis.”

NEW OVERNIGHT: Buttigieg raises $24.8 million from more than 294,000 donors in the second quarter of 2019. The campaign has $22.6 million cash on hand.

Good Monday morning, and welcome to IMPORTANTVILLE. PROGRAMMING NOTE: With any luck and a few cooperating slow news cycles, I’m going to sneak away for a much-needed vacation later this week. I’ll be back in your inbox on July 15.

WHERE’S VEEP? He lunches with the president today.

WHERE’S PETE? He meets with pastors in South Bend this morning. On Tuesday, he’ll head to Chicago to speak at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Annual International Convention Business Breakfast. Later this week, he’ll spend July 3-4 in Iowa, making stops in Sioux City and Storm Lake for a 4th of July Parade.

WHAT PENCE TOLD THE FAITH AND FREEDOM COALITION

Speaking at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Pence framed 2020 thusly:

Today, Democrats openly advocate an economic system that has impoverished millions around the world and robbed the liberties of generations. That system is socialism.

Earlier this week, we heard leading Democratic candidates for President defend socialism. But I think all of you know it was freedom, not socialism, that gave us the strongest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world.

It was freedom, not socialism, that ended slavery, won two world wars, and stands today as a beacon of hope for all the world! (Applause.)

And so as this debate begins in the next 18 months, we must resolve here to say, as the President said in his State of the Union Address, America will never be a socialist country!

FOR YOUR RADAR

Tom LoBianco’s “PIETY & POWER: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House” will be the definitive political biography of one of the most secretive vice presidents in history—and it’s already landing in early readers’ hands this week. It’s not on sale until after Labor Day, but what should we expect? Some new details have emerged, according to Erin Reback, Senior Publicity Manager at HarperCollins Publishers.

We’ll learn about:

• How Pence’s team threatened to leave the ticket if Trump didn’t publicly announce him as his running mate;

• Pence’s struggles to square his personal opposition to gay marriage with a country that largely supports it;

• The gay couple that’s been welcomed into Pence’s broader family;

• How Mitch Daniels boxed Pence out of running for president in 2012; and

• How Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma got his revenge after Pence stopped him from running for Governor in 2012.

GUBERNATORIAL RACE

WHAT KARLEE MACER SAID AT THE TRI-STATE CORNFIELD CONFERENCE: “We’re the party that lives in your neighborhood and goes to your schools and churches, and we’re the party that fights for the tools and protections that allow all people to succeed,” remarked Macer in her keynote address. “Whether it’s fighting for affordable health care options, preserving our natural resources and protecting the environment, or advocating for quality education systems; we are the party of common sense policy that lifts up all communities.”

AROUND IMPORTANVILLE

• Dan Spehler landed interviews with Sen. Mike Braun and Rep. Jim Banks.

• Rep. Jim Banks said: “I respect Pete. I admire him for our service to our country, but what's becoming more and more clear is that, a question mark on whether or not Pete is the type of leader that can lead our country when he hasn't been the type of leader that can bring people together in South Bend.”

• Sen. Mike Braun told Spehler that Buttigieg has not been questioned harshly enough "about his own performance in South Bend."

IMPORTANTVILLE READS

Sherry Slater, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indianapolis rep weighs run for governor”

Karlee Macer might be on next year's ballot as a Democratic candidate for Indiana governor.

The state representative, who represents Indianapolis's west side, wouldn't say Saturday as she traveled to the Tri-State Cornfield Conference at the Noble County Fairgrounds in Kendallville.

“I'm not at a place where I'm fully ready to commit,” she said during a phone interview.

Macer might be forgiven for her reluctance to make it official. Her only son got married in May, and her only daughter is getting married Aug. 3 in Chicago. As Macer put it, there's a lot going on in her family this summer.

“I’m on the biggest mom high in my life,” she added.

Even so, the three-term state representative found time to attend the Cornfield Conference as a special guest. Democratic Party organizations in Noble, DeKalb, Kosciusko, Whitley and LaGrange counties hosted the event designed to fire up Democrats before the 2020 elections.

Amy B Wang and Wesley Lowery, The Washington Post: “Buttigieg seeks a relaunch after his candidacy gets mired in fallout from police shooting”

More than a week after a police officer fatally shot her son in a dark parking lot, and days after she was photographed being embraced by Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Shirley Newbill had grown weary of hearing what Buttigieg had to say.

“It’s all talk. He’s not doing nothing for me,” Newbill said in an interview Monday. “Everything I say is going in one ear and out the other. He still hasn’t fired the guy who killed my son. . . . I don’t really care about what he has to say anymore.”

It was one of many grievances lodged against Buttigieg in the past two weeks. His return to the city he runs turned into the toughest stretch of his presidential run, as he struggled to contain the fallout from the shooting of a black resident, Eric Logan, by Police Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, who is white.

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