Indianapolis Star - Daniels Re-elected in Landslide

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Indianapolis Star - Daniels Re-elected in Landslide

His victory is an exception to many Republicans' woes elsewhere in country

Bill Ruthhart

Gov. Mitch Daniels filled his first term with wholesale changes, and on Tuesday voters granted him four more years to continue a streak of bold proposals that the Republican has insisted will continue Indiana's comeback.

Daniels' controversial moves to observe daylight saving time, lease the Indiana Toll Road and privatize some functions of government irritated and angered many Hoosiers, but not enough for them to replace him with Democrat Jill Long Thompson.

On a historically lackluster night across the nation for Republicans, Daniels was an exception, cruising to a second term despite a tight presidential contest in Indiana.

"Change just won, and won big in the state of Indiana!" Daniels shouted from a stage before hundreds at Conseco Fieldhouse.

His resounding win was declared shortly after the polls closed and before many had even filed into the GOP's election night celebration.

With 96 percent of the state's precincts reporting, Daniels had won 58 percent of the vote compared with Long Thompson's 40 percent and 2 percent for Libertarian Andy Horning.

Daniels' victory came eight months after he aired his first television ad. In it, he sat in a diner and proclaimed that he knew everyone wouldn't agree with his changes but hoped they would "accept the sincerity of what we're trying to do."

That mission has ranged from balancing the state's budget and hiring 800 additional child abuse caseworkers to establishing a new economic development agency and leasing the Indiana Toll Road for more than $3 billion to be used in new road projects.

Throughout the campaign, Long Thompson criticized it all.

She railed against his lease of the Toll Road and effort to save the state money through privatizing some functions of government while blaming Daniels for the state's job losses and steadily increasing unemployment rate.

Long Thompson, a former member of Congress from the Northern Indiana town of Argos, also strived to tie Daniels to the economic record of his former boss -- President Bush, whom he served as budget director.

But none of it worked for Long Thompson, who was outspent more than 3-to-1 by Daniels and so financially strapped that she went five weeks this fall without airing television ads.

"We fought for real change. We fought for a better Indiana for all Hoosiers," Long Thompson said in her concession speech. "While this journey ends tonight, our fight continues."

Daniels dominated across the map, as Long Thompson won just 11 of Indiana's 92 counties and none in Central Indiana.

Long Thompson began as an underdog in the Democratic primary against Indianapolis architect Jim Schellinger, who had the backing of the party's establishment. Her narrow win in the primary led to a divide in the party that her own campaign staff said never was bridged.

As a result, she lacked a robust financial backing that other Democratic candidates for governor have had in the past, said campaign spokesman Jeff Harris.

"Jill never was the party establishment pick. She was an outside candidate who wasn't supposed to be in the race and wasn't supposed to win the primary," Harris said. "We haven't always had that backing, and it's reflected in the fundraising totals we've had in this campaign."

Long Thompson had the odds against her, said Bill Blomquist, a political science professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

"I think it was difficult for her to come out of the hard fight for the nomination in the primary and then to go into the fall campaign with such a financial disadvantage," he said. "The other factor is that she was running against a really well-done Daniels campaign."

For Daniels, a second term was far from a shoo-in two years ago.

A March 2006 Indianapolis Star poll showed his approval rating at 37 percent, due in large part to controversy about the switch to daylight saving time and his push to lease the Toll Road.

Blomquist said Daniels was able to rebound from those numbers by pushing the most aggressive measures earlier in his term and running with a message that acknowledged some may not have agreed entirely with his approach.

Daniels' decisive win also came as Republicans hemorrhaged seats in Congress, saddled with Bush's unpopularity.

"Even though Democrats kept reminding voters of his ties to Washington and the Bush administration," Blomquist said, "the Daniels campaign succeeded in making their entire focus on Indiana."

Four more years for Daniels is sure to mean another four-year, ambitious agenda of change.

"I think Mitch is going to look at this as a golden opportunity as a second-term governor without obligations to anybody," said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. "I think he will be very aggressive on some positive agendas to produce excellence in Indiana, and I think he'll continue that with economic development but will be much more emphatic about what we need to do with education."

A new education plan was one of few new proposals Daniels made in his re-election bid.

Under the program, graduating high school seniors whose families make less than $60,000 per year would receive two years of education at Ivy Tech Community College or the same value of tuition at another state school. Daniels had planned to fund the plan by privatizing the state lottery, but federal officials recently ruled against such an action.

Instead, Daniels likely is to propose borrowing money against future lottery proceeds.

He also will push to place permanent caps on property taxes into the constitution and said he will continue to improve the state's economic climate.

Daniels also is likely to push for additional government reform, even though he did not make it a staple of his campaign. Last year, he appointed a blue-ribbon commission that made a series of proposals on how to streamline government to make it more efficient.

"I think everybody sees him as such a change agent, even those in his own party," Kenley said. "Now that he has this mandate, I think he's going to look over all the choices in the commission's report, and he's going to decide what he really wants to do."

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker said he's worried about just that.

It was unclear late Tuesday whether Democrats maintained control of the Indiana House or whether Republicans once again would control both the House and Senate as they did during the first two years of Daniels' tenure.

"The question is, is it the Mitch Daniels of the first two years or the Mitch Daniels of the second two years?" Parker said. "We don't know whether he'll have a split legislature that will put a check on him."

Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark said Daniels ran a flawless campaign and voters embraced his willingness to tackle tough issues.

"Four years ago tonight, I said to our partners to-be in the General Assembly, 'Buckle up,' " Daniels said. "Well, tonight we say, 'Please recheck to make sure your seatbelts are still securely fastened. The movement for change is moving ahead!"

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