INDIANAPOLIS -- As united in vehement opposition as Indiana House Democrats were to Gov. Mitch Daniels' "Major Moves" highway plan, some were actually giddy and grinning when Republicans were about to pass the bill without one Democrat vote.\n"Let 'em drink the Kool-Aid," several said to one another privately.\nThe saying was in reference to the 1978 event in Guyana when more than 900 members of a cult led by Jim Jones committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced punch.\nThe context of the saying a week ago was that Republicans only have a 52-48 majority in the House going into the November election, and a majority of Hoosiers were against the legislation that essentially ratifies a Daniels deal to lease the northern Indiana Toll Road to a private Australian-Spanish consortium.\nHouse Democrats could have walked off the floor and denied a vote being taken on the plan, but in the end, they blasted the proposal during debate and then let Republicans pass it. It takes 51 votes to pass a bill in the House, and House Democrats knew that 51 of 52 Republicans were going to vote yes.\nTo House Democrats, that meant Republicans were committing political suicide, and Democrats would regain control of the House in the November election.
Their primary belief for thinking that was the stated reason given by the lone House Republican who voted against the bill.\nRepublican Rep. David Wolkins of Winona Lake said he believed the toll lease arrangement and the $3.85 billion upfront payment the state would get from the foreign companies was a good deal.\nBut the longtime lawmaker said his constituents were against it, and he felt obligated as an elected official to represent their wishes.\nSeveral Republicans in the GOP-controlled House and Senate acknowledged that through their own surveys and e-mails, phone calls and letters they were getting, many of their constituents not only opposed the legislation and toll road deal, they were passionately against it.\nAccording to a recent statewide poll by The Indianapolis Star, only 30 percent of 501 residents surveyed thought the lease deal was a good idea. Sixty percent said it was a bad idea, and the poll put Daniels' approval rating at only 37 percent.\nMany Republicans did not dispute that public sentiment was against the plan, but most said the toll road lease payment would help fund hundreds of highway projects and create tens of thousands of jobs. Most Hoosiers were simply not educated about the plan and its benefits, they said.\nHouse Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, thanked his caucus members for having the courage and leadership to buck the majority opinion of their constituents and vote for legislation that folks would eventually realize was a wonderful deal.\nHe said some voted for it "despite the fact that it may result in our not coming back here to serve in the future." That was courage and true leadership, he said.\n"If all a legislator is to do is to come and reflect exactly what their constituents by polls believe, then let's just do away with representative government," Bosma said. "Let's just do a poll on every issue throughout the state and follow the results of that poll."\nHouse Democrats said in many ways that Hoosiers were not mindless sheep that needed to be herded by 150 lawmakers. Their campaign theme this election year will be that they listened to the people, and most Hoosiers, Democrats say, knew enough details about the toll road lease deal and opposed it.\n"They know, they know, they're not dumb," said House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend.\nWhether Bosma or Bauer is speaker next year will be decided by voters in November.\nWhat is a certainty now is that "Major Moves" will be a major campaign issue; one that will play a major role in how the state votes.
