Pence's State House Lobbyist Out: Embroiled In Tony Bennett Scandal

Gov. Mike Pence's State House lobbyist, Heather Neal, served as chief of staff for former Education Supt. Tony Bennett when his staff rigged the grading system for the state's schools to ensure that the charter school operated by his biggest campaign contributor, Christel DeHaan, received an "A" instead of the "C" it was entitled to receive under the grading system he devised. Upon learning that DeHaan's Christel Academy was going to receive a "C" grade, Neal reacted in an e-mail exchange with Bennett: "Oh, crap. We cannot release until this is resolved." The Journal-Gazette's Niki Kelly reports that she is leaving her job after only seven months on the job. She will reportedly become a State House lobbyist for Limestone Strategies where she will immediately begin lobbying state lawmakers, although she is barred under state law from lobbying the executive branch for at least one year.

Limestone Strategies was founded by Cam Savage, another former employee of Bennett's office. Interestingly, he just penned a column for the State House File, suggesting that AP reporter Tom LoBianco's reporting had it wrong and that Tony Bennett was right.

Bennett’s concern that this particular school registered a “C” grade under initial system trials was well founded. Because the school only served students in kindergarten through the 10th grade, the initial formula penalized the school for not graduating any seniors. This is an obvious problem, because this school, and a few others, didn’t have any seniors. Adjusting the formula to avoid punishing these schools was certainly something Bennett had the authority to do, but unquestionably, was the appropriate thing to do.

Perhaps Bennett's concerns that his grading system was flawed were well-founded. Nonetheless, he declined to make similar allowances for several IPS schools, forcing their takeover by the state. It turned out that the private company that's making millions of dollars operating those schools gave Bennett's wife a very well-paid job after the couple left the state for the Sunshine State where Bennett became the state's top education official until the scandal forced his resignation last month.