Sunday scoop: A new statewide Democratic candidate?
Plus: Buttigieg's infrastructure win and Jim Banks gets his Twitter account back.
FIRST IN IMPORTANTVILLE: Indiana Democrats have struggled to find candidates interested in running for Secretary of State in 2022, but a source familiar tells me Destiny Scott Wells—an Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel focused on military intelligence, and currently adjunct faculty with the Army Command and General Staff College—could launch her campaign next month when she leaves active duty.
Wells was associate corporation counsel for the city of Indianapolis and Marion County and Indiana deputy attorney general. She serves as Indiana Democratic Party's deputy chair for coalitions and expansion.
INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK: Transporation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took a victory lap on Saturday, following the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
He sold the trillion-dollar package in interviews with MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News yesterday.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In a statement early Saturday morning, Buttigieg called the legislation “the most significant investment in jobs and infrastructure in my lifetime.”
“No matter where they live or who they voted for, all Americans deserve to have a transportation system that works for them,” Buttigieg said. “Now, we begin the work of building infrastructure that will support the traveling public and ensure an economically competitive America for generations to come. The U.S. Department of Transportation stands ready to implement this historic and transformational legislation, and help create a transportation system that works for every American.”
The bipartisan legislation passed 228 to 206, though no members of Indiana's GOP delegation voted for the bill.
Rep. Larry Bucshon called the legislation a "Trojan Horse."
“While there may be individual pieces of this bill that would meaningfully invest in our nation’s infrastructure, this legislation in its totality misses the mark,” Bucshon said. “Only a fraction of funds contained in this bill are actually going toward critical infrastructure, with tens of billions in misaligned spending going towards Democrats’ pet priorities. More importantly, this bill is nothing more than a trojan horse proposal designed to enable the far-left Democrats to ram through their larger $1.85 trillion bill that is full of job-crushing tax increases and budget-busting spending. These two bills are different sides of the same fiscally-irresponsible coin.”
Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski called it part of a “tax and spend spree” that “will clear the way for more of the Democrats’ radical agenda.”
Democratic Rep. Andre Carson called the bill's passage “a good day for Indiana.”
Here’s how the infrastructure package would shake out for Indiana, including $7 billion for roads and bridges.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, a fellow Hoosier, praised Buttigieg’s efforts working on the bill.
The White House said Buttigieg and other administration officials will embark on a nationwide tour to tout the bill in the coming weeks.
AROUND IMPORTANTVILLE
Republicans are now targeting Indiana’s 1st Congressional District and Rep. Frank J. Mrvan in 2022.
Rep Jim Banks “regained control of his office Twitter account after deleting a post about a transgender Biden administration official that the social media company found violated its rules,” according to ABC 57.
Marion County Republicans are optimistic about Indianapolis races after Virginia, Republican Central Committee’s Joe Elsener, chair, wrote this week. “If we learned anything this week, we learned that we can never give up on an election,” Elsener said. “In deep-blue Virginia, Republicans led a clean sweep of statewide offices propelled by a positive message that focused on real issues that impacted Virginians. In even deeper blue New Jersey, Republicans came close to unseating the Democrat governor and made inroads in the state legislature.”
IMPORTANTVILLE READS
Big stories about Hoosiers and Indiana issues that move the needle.
“With infrastructure vote, Buttigieg gains a multibillion tool to speed up megaprojects,” by Michael Laris in the Washington Post
The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill adopted late Friday creates a multibillion-dollar fund to spur the type of complicated, ambitious projects that have been stymied by decades of tentative investment and inattention from Washington.
Modern-day equivalents of megaprojects like the Hoover Dam can benefit broad swaths of the United States, but infrastructure experts say they have often stagnated. President Biden campaigned to address the issue. Now his transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, is tasked with speeding up such projects, which can straddle state lines and take years to complete.
“Rural Democrats stare into the abyss after Virginia,” by Zach Montellaro and Elena Schneider
As Democrats sort through the wreckage of their loss in Virginia, a familiar feeling is creeping over the dwindling number of rural officials left in the party: They have seen this show before.
THE IMPORTANTVILLE GREENROOM: Michael Leppert, former Indiana Statehouse lobbyist author of the new political thriller set in Indianapolis, "Flipping the Circle"
A new semi-regular section, featuring an Indiana elected official, staffer, or lobbyist you should know.
You left the Statehouse and lobbying recently. What are you doing now?
I am a teacher at IU. Even though I still have some lingering things I need to clean up at my old place. My official title is "lecturer" at the Kelley School of Business.
Why did you leave the Statehouse? Reading the book—which is, in some ways, a tell-all about what it's like to lobby there—it seems like it may have left a bad taste in your mouth?
This is what I wanted to do. For the last two years, I was finishing up my master's degree at Northwestern, and putting in applications to go teach. I've been looking for teaching jobs across the eastern half of the United States.
My approach to lobbying changed a lot in the last half of my private sector career and provided the real-life experience that led to the inspiration to write this book.
What turned you off about lobbying at the Statehouse?
I think I just got old. It becomes a slog when supermajorities are locked in and appear to be locked into the foreseeable future. It makes it difficult for innovative ideas that come from someplace else besides the Republican supermajority to grow.
I remember when I was early in my career when the Democrats had the House and obviously the Republican Senate. I had older lobbyists saying things to me, like, "we like split government,' and the sarcastic remark was, "gridlock is our friend." Not anymore.
That's not to me, intellectually stimulating after a while.
A particular dynamic plays out in your book when someone from outside of Indiana comes to testify in front of a Statehouse committee. The state lawmakers don't want to be talked down to by someone from the coasts, and that seems very Midwestern to me.
It is something that has existed my entire career there. Early in my career, I would think, well, "I know experts in D.C. that can come and just settle this for you." I learned the hard way that people are not impressed by that.
I'm glad you picked up on that because that is an important lesson that any lobbyist can read.
The book is a fictionalized account of an investment company that would've controlled the entire vaping industry in Indiana.
It was devastating to a couple of 100 businesses in Indiana, and there was no recourse. That was part of the plan, as the book lays out in the fictional account. It got cleaned up legislatively. But in the marketplace, most of the people that were harmed by it were not in a position to ever recover.
How much does the average lobbyist at the Statehouse earn?
They're good corporate jobs. Six figures. But you're not gonna buy a private jet off of that.
Even though this is a fictional account, there are many markers throughout the book that have real real-life resonances, including specific characters who are still in the Statehouse today. I could pick out some of them pretty quickly. And places, too, like the off-track betting spot. Some of them are more overt settings and events, like Patachou, the Indy Mini Marathon, or the Indy 500.
I wanted to make sure people knew where this was. And my commitment, from the very beginning, was I wanted to make sure people understood how unique Indianapolis is to those of us who find it special, but how common it is to people who have never been here.
Most of the characters in the book, with very few exceptions, are combinations of people for purposes of efficient storytelling.
That's all for today. Thanks for reading and subscribing.