Our View: Don’t We Have Bigger Issues to Tackle?

This morning we were greeted by an article from Jon Murray in the Indy Star discussing the possible side effects of Senator Mike Delph’s immigration bill.  The article highlighted some of the problems Arizona experienced when passing a similar law including the loss of what may have amounted to $169 million dollars in convention business. 

With a capitol city that made its mark as the amateur sports capitol of the world and is working to become a tier one city in the convention world, this isn’t exactly what anyone in Indianapolis wants to hear. 

Do we really need to involve ourselves in such divisive issues?  A Pew Research poll noted that Indiana has an estimated 120,000 illegal immigrants of an estimated 11.1 million in the country.   We are talking about less than 2% of the population in Indiana and 1% of the national illegal immigrants in the entire country here in Indiana.  Arizona was talking about 500,000 undocumented immigrants in 2008 and 10% of their workforce.  Maybe, just maybe, this is an issue that Indiana should not have such as much interest in as someplace like Arizona.

We have evidence this could be harmful to our local economy and part of the district that Senator Mike Delph, the author of the bill, represents.  For all the talk about jobs, the economy and creating business-friendly environments, legislation like this just does not make sense.

With the immigration bill and our “strong” stance on gay marriage, it seems as though some in our legislature are more focused on a very small percentage of Hoosiers at the expense of the vast majority.

But, hey, at least we can compete for the TEA Party convention.  At this rate, they may be the only people who would consider us a welcoming state.

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Delph Introduces Bill Creating Tea Party License Plate

At first, we thought State Senator Mike Delph was running for U.S. Senate against Lugar.  Now, we think he is just running for King of the Tea Party.  We told you last month about his birther bill.  Now, he’s introduced a bill to create a license plate for the Tea Party.  The bill, Senate Bill 0115, reads:

Don’t Tread on Me license plate. Establishes the Don’t Tread on Me license plate (plate). Specifies that: (1) the plate must bear a depiction of a coiled snake; (2) the plate is not a special group license plate; and (3) the cost for the plate is an annual registration fee for a vehicle of the same classification and any other fee or tax required of a person registering a vehicle.

With all the different things going on in the legislature like the budget, education reform and township government reform, do we really need to make sure the Tea Party has license plate? Really?

Additionally, you’ll notice that the plate is not a special group license plate.  Does anyone remember the “In God We Trust” license plates?  It looks as though Delph’s bill was drafted based on that bill.  Both plates are not special group license plates and do not require any fee like most specialty plates do.

Wednesday News Wrap-Up

Greetings loyal readers!  We wanted to give you a quick news wrap up before diving into our next post aka what we really want to write about but feel like we should make you aware of a few interesting tidbits in case you aren’t already.

• As expected, the Governor endorsed Eric Holcomb for State Chair.  Capitol & Washington has it that the vote will be on January 3^rd rather than mid-January as many State Committee members were discussing prior to Holcomb entering the race.
• Sen. Mike Delph has introduced a “birther” bill, SB 114.  The bill basically says that folks running for President have to file a certified copy of their birth certificate to be eligible for the Indiana Primary.  We know we’re going to upset Gary Welsh over at Advance Indiana by calling Senator Mike Delph crazy but we’re saying it anyway.  Folks (and by folks, we mean the TEA Party), President Obama won the election. Get over it. We are just days away from 2011, it may be time to move on.  Congrats to Sen. Mike Delph for finding a way to make himself even more appealing to the fringe Right.   We weren’t sure it was possible.
• The census data is out and Indiana keeps all 9 of our Congressional seats.  The districts will grow by about 46,000 people.  Now the fun of re-districting will begin.
• Howey Politics mentioned U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s warning on homegrown terrorism.   Scariest fact:   In the last 24 months, Holder said, 126 people have been indicted on terrorist-related charges. Fifty of those people are American citizens.  Yikes.
• After 2 years of pay freezes, state employees can look forward to modest pay increases.  Governor Daniels sent a letter to state employees laying out the details.  Agency heads and the Governor will keep their salaries at their current rate.  Merry Christmas to our readers over at the Statehouse!

Mike Delph Fueling the Fire on Potential Match-Up Against Lugar

Today Mike Delph did a blog post due to “numerous local and national media inquiries regarding 2012 speculation”.  You can read the full post but he basically said he won’t decide until sometime in 2011 and took the opportunity to take Senator Lugar to task for his support of the DREAM Act.

He did, however, show the TEA Party some love with this:

I continue to pray for Senator Lugar, his staff, our state and our nation in the hopes that we turn back to what made this country great: Faith, Freedom, Family, and a Federal government of limited and enumerated power.

We’re sure he will do those things.  We’re also sure that he’ll be working to find out if he can find the financial support to make a run against Senator Lugar who has $2.37 million in the bank.  That’s right, we said $2.37 million. So our guess is that Delph will not be able to raise the money to get the job done but may run anyway. 

And the TEA Party has been saying Lugar is arrogant and out of touch?  Sounds like the TEA pot calling the kettle black.