By John Krull TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS – Between them, Rep. Eric Turner, R-Cicero, and Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, have managed to shine a light on what happens behind closed doors in caucus at the Indiana General Assembly.
The lawmakers likely will not welcome the glare.
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
Delph made himself an outcast among his fellow Republicans by throwing a prolonged tantrum over the outcome of House Joint Resolution 3, the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions. When the Indiana Senate Republican caucus refused to reinstate the civil union ban the Indiana House had stripped out, Delph took to Twitter for 72 hours and held a largely incoherent press conference to express his outrage.
The undignified and churlish nature of his outburst overshadowed Delph’s one legitimate point – that an issue that had claimed an immense amount of public time, energy and attention was being decided not in open debate, but behind closed caucus doors, away from the eyes and ears of the voters.
Delph could have made that point from the Senate floor and forced precisely the kind of discussion he called for, but he chose not to. If he had, his argument likely would have received a much more sympathetic hearing.
Comes now Turner, who, according to some fine reporting from the Associated Press, probably honored the letter of the House ethics rules but may have violated the spirit of those rules. The AP reports that, while Turner recused himself from voting on nursing home legislation because of a conflict of interest, he lobbied intensely in caucus for a preferred outcome.
The source of the conflict was that Turner’s son and daughter both work in the nursing home industry and stood to gain financially if the state were to do away with a moratorium on new nursing home construction that had been in place since 2009. Turner lobbied so fervently in caucus – again, away from public eyes and ears – that his conduct troubled some of his Republican colleagues, but Turner got his way. The moratorium died.
Democrats, predictably, cried foul and sent a letter to House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, demanding an investigation. Bosma complied and sent a letter asking the House Ethics Committee to take a look.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, didn’t make it sound as if he were in any great hurry to get to work.
“What’s interesting is that the letter concerns conduct inside of caucus. It’s well known that (discussions within caucus) are private and confidential,†Steuerwald said. “I will contact the committee members and see how they view comments inside of caucus. I will go with the will of the committee.â€
The fact that the conversations in caucus on public policy matters are private and confidential is precisely the problem.
It’s a problem that is exacerbated by the fact that one party has such a lopsided majority right now. There really is no effective mechanism to force public officials to do their business in, well, public.
I remember talking back in 2010 with former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., about why political battling over health care had gotten so vicious.
Lugar blamed the heavy majorities that Democrats had in the U.S. Senate and House at the time. He said that more balanced representation forced legislators to work with each other and, just as important, served as a check on the temptation to behave as if the public’s concerns didn’t matter. Heavy majorities, he said, were a breeding ground for arrogance.
Lugar focused his fire at that time on Democrats – with considerable justice – but his reasoning is non-partisan and hard to argue with.
Left unchecked, public officials from either party will do their best to evade scrutiny and accountability. They just don’t like that kind of light.
That’s why it is important for voters – citizens in a self-governing society – to make sure that the light keeps shining on their elected officials all the time.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits†WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Last October, 911 Gives Hope presented the second annual Guns & Hoses Hockey game at Swonder Ice Arena. While that tradition will continue this fall, both teams continue to practice in the off season.
