Not long after police arrested Indiana Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, on charges of driving drunk and fleeing the scene of an accident, some of his supporters started talking on social media.

John Krull mug

John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com

Those supporters were responding to criticisms of Lucas—criticisms that included requests and demand that he resign his office. Lucas’ fans replied by saying that, should the people upset by the lawmaker’s conduct get their way and he left the legislature, they would elect someone even more extreme and irresponsible in his place.

They’re likely right about that.

Lucas, like so many Hoosier lawmakers, is the beneficiary of gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is the dark science of drawing maps of legislative districts so one political party or the other has victory all but assured.

Gerrymandering is the source of many evils. Because it runs the voters’ voice through a filter, it mutes the messages citizens send.

Over the long haul, it erodes the social contract that holds free people together.

But that’s the view from on high.

Closer to the ground, the big problem with gerrymandering is that it gives us legislators like Jim Lucas.

Long before he decided to get behind the wheel while impaired, Lucas had been a problematic presence in the public square.

From the beginning, he never made a pretense of serving or even listening to constituents who might disagree with his extremist takes on, for example, guns.

Most legislators sign their correspondence with the number of the district they represent.

Lucas signed his by proclaiming that he was a life member of the National Rifle Association, making clear from the get-go his priorities and his ultimate loyalty. He emphasized that point by belittling and berating anyone who questioned his laissez-faire attitudes toward both gun laws and the responsible use of firearms.

Then there was his social media presence.

Lord knows how many hours that man spent searching the web for racist, misogynist and antisemitic memes to post. When he posted photos of Black men being lynched, women being locked into car trunks or other inflammatory images, Lucas saw the attendant outrage as an opportunity to feel sorry for himself. Every time people complained that this was no way for a legislator—a lawmaker—to behave, Lucas whined that he was the real victim.

People were being mean to him.

And that just wasn’t fair.

If that sounds like an early adolescent take on life, well, there’s a reason for that.

Jim Lucas always has seen holding public office—and maybe living life in general—as a kind of adolescent fantasy, one in which he could exercise authority that was unencumbered by accountability or responsibility.

During the 2022 campaign, someone sent me—anonymously, of course—the records dealing with Lucas’ divorce. Those records showed that Lucas invoked the Fifth Amendment—the one offering protection against self-incrimination—multiple times during the divorce proceedings.

I checked to see if the records were genuine. They were.

Then I called several divorce lawyers I know to see if it was common for someone to invoke protections against criminal prosecution in a divorce, which is a civil proceeding.

I’ll save you from having to do the legwork: It isn’t common at all.

Having a lawmaker do it just adds to the oddity.

That’s why this latest Lucas episode isn’t surprising.

On May 31, Lucas lost control of his truck while driving on Indiana Highway 11. He careened down an embankment onto I-65, taking out a couple of guardrails in the process, and then drove the wrong way on the interstate entrance ramp to get back to the state highway.

He coaxed his vehicle three miles with only one functioning tire—two were down to the rims and the other was flat—and then parked it behind a commercial building. When the police found him walking not far from where he’d ditched his truck, he smelled of alcohol. He told the officers he’d parked his ride there not to hide it but to prevent the business from losing customers.

What a considerate fellow.

His blood alcohol level, by the way, was nearly 25% over the legal limit.

Lucas received a slap on the wrist for this offense, which, while saying he won’t resign, he called “a hiccup.”

He’s probably right about that.

Thanks to the dubious kindnesses of gerrymandering, Lucas likely will remain in the legislature, a lawmaker with little regard for the law or the responsibilities associated with leadership.

Ain’t God good to Indiana?

John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College