Link to article on Republicans losing state House in Indiana over sale of toll road to Cintra-Macquarie here.
Note how Republican Governor Mitch Daniels’ arrogance and failure to grasp the damage he’s doing to his Party and his state as he steamrolls his agenda through depsite GOP losses mirrors Perry’s arrogance and failure to grasp his public disapproval. Daniels’ approval ratings have been in the low 30s since he pushed through the sale of the Indiana Toll Road to foreign companies.
Note from the article in the Indianapolis Star:
“During the campaigns, Democrats attacked Daniels as a governor who ignored public sentiment against daylight-saving time and against leasing the Indiana Toll Road. ”
AND
“But he also said the four GOP incumbents ejected Tuesday by Hoosiers were hurt by their votes for daylight-saving time and the Toll Road deal, dubbed Major Moves. ”
Link to article on U.S. House loss here.
Here’s the section on the Indiana seat…
For all the talk of a national wave building in the House elections, local issues often can decide the outcome. In Indiana this year, there are some doozies tied to first-term Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Daniels came up with the idea of leasing the Indiana Toll Road, which runs through Chocola’s district as it crosses northern Indiana, for 75 years and a $3.8 billion payment to the state and pushed it through the Legislature after bitter debate. A Spanish-Australian consortium received the lease.
The toll road deal is poison in Chocola’s district, and Donnelly has done everything he can to keep the issue alive.
“The toll road was built by our fathers and grandfathers,” Donnelly said outside a United Auto Workers union hall in Kokomo. “They never asked us about this deal before they sold it to foreign companies and took the money to Indianapolis.”
In a recent debate, he demanded to know if Chocola had tried to intervene with Daniels to prevent the deal or at least to get a better financial arrangement for northern Indiana counties that say they are losing some of the money they once got for hosting the road.
Chocola said the road was a state issue and added that if Donnelly wanted to focus on it, “he’s running for the wrong office,” as the South Bend Tribune put it.