Governor's race overshadows another big prize: Indiana House

INDIANAPOLIS -- Of state races on the Indiana ballot this year, the governor's race -- of course -- is grabbing most of the headlines.\nIt has been close and contentious, and one of the headlines has been that the race is becoming the most expensive political contest in state history.\nThe political power that comes with the office is why the major parties and their candidates -- Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan and Republican Mitch Daniels -- have combined to raise more than $28 million for one race.\nThere's another huge contest that will be decided at the polls, although individual voters only get to cast ballots for one of its 100 seats. Collectively, however, they will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the Indiana House.\nThe candidates and parties are spending millions on Indiana House races, too, because the power at stake is immense.\nRepublicans went to sleep on election night two years ago thinking voters had elected 50 people from each party to the House. By virtue of a tie-breaking provision in state law, Republicans would have controlled the chamber.\nIn all likelihood, House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, would have become speaker. He and his party would have controlled the agenda. With deliberation or, at times, with a whim, they could decide which bills got life and which ones never saw light.\nThey would hold equal bargaining power with the Republican-controlled Senate on all legislation, including how the state should spend more than $20 billion over two years. They would be major players on public policy, education, government reform -- you name it.\nIf they had controlled the House, there's a good chance that a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage would have passed the General Assembly. If that had happened, and the next elected Legislature agreed to it again, it would go to a vote of the people.\nBut Republicans did not win the chamber two years ago. A closer look at ballots on the day after the election revealed that Democrats had won the district in dispute by 37 votes. That made the count 51 Democrats, 49 Republicans.\nDemocrats were the big players with Senate Republicans. They largely determined what bills got through and which ones did not. In the House, they had the loudest say on the budget, education, public policy -- everything.\nDemocrats not only blocked the gay-marriage amendment from getting a hearing, House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, refused to allow any floor debate on the issue. He said gay marriage already was prohibited by state law and accused Republicans of drumming up a "hate" issue to score election points.\nRepublicans accused Bauer of abusing his power by going so far as to deny simple debate on the legislation. Republicans stayed off the floor in protest several times, but Bauer never gave in on that issue.\nThe point is not whether Bauer was right or wrong. That's for the public to decide. The point is that his party controlled the chamber and he was speaker, and the one who wields the gavel wields the power.\nIt is not without practical limits, of course.\nIn 1995, after Republicans won back control of the House in the 1994 election, they dropped a bombshell: They were going to redraw House district maps at mid-decade and eliminate a seat.\nTheir stated reason was to ensure that the chamber was never again tied 50-50 between the parties. Democrats called it a power grab, went home and stayed home for days, shutting the chamber down.\nRepublicans, after taking a beating in editorials and the court of public opinion, finally coaxed them back by dropping the redistricting plan and coming up with a future tie-breaking law.\nIf voters send 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats to the House this Election Day, that law says the party that wins the governor's office will control the chamber.\nThat's one more thing for Indiana voters to think about.