INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
House Democratic leaders took stock of their losses Thursday and promised to
press forward, even with their party’s smallest group since 1973.
Despite fears they
could lose their powerful supermajority, House Republicans added to their
ranks Tuesday’s elections and now control the chamber 71-29. Democrats, who
at one point thought they might pick up seats in fairly Republican
districts, including near Terre Haute, ended up losing a pair of seats that
were thought to be fairly safe, in northwest Indiana.
House Minority
Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, was fairly blunt Thursday in accepting
his caucus’ poor showing.
“It was my goal all
along to try and make some progress, to pick up some seats and to show the
people of Indiana that we’re ready to govern,” Pelath said Thursday
afternoon. “Not every election goes like I would like.”
The goal now, he
said, is to find ways to work with Republicans on some issues and try to
divide and block them on others. He cited Democrats’ success in keeping a
proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage off the November ballot as one
example of the minority’s power. But the Republican supermajority prevents
Democratic walkouts like one they used successfully in 2011 to block
education and labor bills.
One area where the
parties are likely to find common ground is on ethics reforms in the wake of
the scandal involving state Rep. Eric Turner, R-Cicero, who fought privately
to defeat legislation that would have been disastrous to his family’s
nursing home business. But a top priority for Republicans, altering the
school funding formula, will likely be one of the biggest partisan battles
of the session.
Pelath also
announced Thursday that Indianapolis Rep. John Bartlett had been selected as
the minority caucus chair, taking over the role for Indianapolis Rep.
Vanessa Summers.
Senate Democrats
meanwhile, who saw their ranks drop from 13 to 10 out of 50 seats, blamed
gerrymandering by Republicans for their woes.
“Indiana’s
non-right-wing, whether Democrats or (moderate) Republicans, have been
packed into a few neat and tidy, fairly safe seats. Those of us left
standing should be grateful. Some of us have a 90-percent support base,”
wrote Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, in an op-ed Thursday.
A day earlier,
House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, promised he would work closely
with Democrats on bipartisan issues and said that he cautioned his caucus to
“step lightly", because supermajorities can be easily lost in one election
cycle.