Democrat strategy plays up Daniels dissent

INDIANAPOLIS The first radio spot for Democratic state Rep. Dave Crooks doesn't mention his opponent in the November election, but it does take shots at Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.\n"Mitch Daniels is going around changing our clocks, and he let foreign companies take over our highways," a woman says in the ad. \nIt looks past the election, saying that's when "we get rid of a bunch of boys who were just rubber stamps for ol' Mitch."\nThe "boys" refers to Republicans who control the House, 52-48. All but a handful helped Daniels win passage of statewide daylight-saving time. And it took 51 of the 52 to pass a bill letting Daniels lease the Indiana Toll Road to a private, foreign venture. No House Democrat voted for it.\nThe ad illustrates a core of the Democrats' strategy for winning back the House: Link Republicans to a governor who has pushed through contentious initiatives and whose poll numbers are lagging.\n"It's on him and his policies and the rubber-stamping of those policies by House Republicans," said House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend.\nThere's no doubt that Daniels has irked many people with some of his initiatives.\nStatewide daylight-saving time has been an emotional and divisive issue in Indiana for years -- a reason that numerous attempts to pass it failed for three decades. Daniels said it would eliminate confusion and improve commerce, and he twisted enough Republican arms to get it done.\nA recent statewide WISH-TV telephone poll showed that of 800 likely voters, 49 percent opposed statewide daylight-saving time, while 44 percent supported it. Seven percent weren't sure. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.\nAll House Democrats voted against the bill that led to a 75-year lease of the toll road in northern Indiana for $3.8 billion. Daniels said the money will help fund hundreds of highway projects, but Democrats said it was a bad financial deal and argued that a major state asset should not be run by a foreign entity.\nThe WISH-TV Indiana Poll showed that 55 percent opposed the lease, while 39 percent backed it. Some GOP lawmakers from toll road counties have acknowledged that many of their constituents are angry. Longtime Republican Rep. Mary Kay Budak of LaPorte, Ind., has said her vote for it cost her the May primary election.\nRegarding Daniels' job performance, only 33 percent gave it a "fair" rating, while 24 percent called it "poor." Nine percent gave him an excellent rating and 29 percent rated him as good. Five percent were undecided.\nThose numbers suggest state Democrats are taking a page from their national counterparts, who are "equating every Republican with George W. Bush," said James McCann, a political science professor at Purdue.\nWhether the strategy works remains to be seen. Legislative races often boil down to personalities and local issues, McCann said. But it's possible Daniels could hurt some Republicans.\nDaniels has certainly turned off Dale Shake of Washington, Ind., who said he was a lifelong Republican who voted for Daniels in 2004. He said he received a poll call that asked him to rate the governor's performance one a scale of one to five.\n"I came back and said, 'Do you have anything below that one?'" said Shake, 65. \nHe said he was upset about the northern Indiana toll road lease -- even though he lives in Daviess County in southwest Indiana -- and the time switch.\nHe said he had known and liked Crooks' Republican opponent, Ron Arnold, for years. But because of Daniels, he's going to vote for Crooks.\nDaniels said Democrats were misrepresenting his record and making some false claims.\nDaniels touted his record, saying a budget deficit he blamed on Democrats had been erased; many inefficiencies and wrongdoing in state government had been eliminated; and a huge transportation funding gap had been filled by money from the toll road lease.\n"Indiana was sitting still. I thought that was a mistake, so we've acted," he said.\nRepublican House Speaker Brian Bosma said it is "a concern to us when the governor's numbers are not what he wants and the president's numbers are not what we want, but both are great leaders nonetheless."\n"But this election is not about that," he said. "It's about who can lead at the local level, and the Republicans out there are way ahead in that regard"