Comments on Advance Indiana™: Money & Influence Pays Off For Gambling Industry And Others

Good observations, Gary.Here's another one:Indiana...

2007-06-25T07:43:00.000-05:00

Good observations, Gary.

Here's another one:

Indiana's lobby reporting laws are the most lax in the nation. The commission that oversees these expenditures and reporting, is composed entirely of legislative appointees.

Ask Joe Hogsett what happened when the former regulations, which weren't exactly draconian, were enforced. He was SOS then, and in charge of the reports.

All Hoggy wanted to do, was enforce the lazy requirements in place in that office for decades, and largely unenforced. The legislature, led by Garton, Bauer, Borst, Pat Miller, Sen. Harrison, and the rest of those dinosaurs, immediately removed the reporting function from the SOS's office and replaced it with their own hand-picked commission.

The buggest surprise was that they defended their action, and had no shame. And likely adjourned to a local pub to drink and eat on a lobbyist's credit card.

The reporting rrequirements which led to these stories, only cover about half the news. That's how wide-open the regulations and reporting are.

Translation: it's worse than it looks. And it looks smelly.

Again, it bears repeating: Harrison Ullman was right.

It's unbelievable the Star could write that editor...

2007-06-24T11:03:00.000-05:00

It's unbelievable the Star could write that editorial the way it did knowing the information it had gathered for today's story. A real disconnect in the newsroom wouldn't you say?

And a fair amount goes to Bose Public Affairs Grou...

2007-06-24T10:17:00.000-05:00

And a fair amount goes to Bose Public Affairs Group.

Mayor Peterson was never a partner at Ice Miller, ...

2007-06-24T08:13:00.000-05:00

Mayor Peterson was never a partner at Ice Miller, although he was an associate at the start of his career.

A significant amount of the City's lobbying expenditures go to Baker & Daniels.

There has long been a love/hate relationship betwe...

2007-06-24T08:11:00.000-05:00

There has long been a love/hate relationship between the Indiana Legislature and the City of Indianapolis over issues of "local control". I am surprised our city spent so much on an "outside lobbyist" as opposed to home-grown staffers on the city payroll. With the way Hoosier laws are structured we need a lot of lobbying to ensure our big city interests are not subsumed to the interests of Logootee or Elwood...