Indiana
Indiana Democratic Party Chair Mike Schmuhl to leave post in March
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun delivers victory speech in Indiana governor’s race
U.S. Sen. and Indiana Governor-elect Mike Braun delivers his victory speech Nov. 5, 2024, at the GOP watch party at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis.
Indiana’s Democratic Party will have a new leader in March after its chairman decided against seeking a second term.
Mike Schmuhl announced his decision to leave the state party’s highest post in March to Democrats’ state central committee on Saturday.
His decision not to seek re-election comes on the heels of an election that saw Democrats’ hopes dashed in each of the state’s top-ballot races. President-elect Donald Trump topped Kamala Harris by nearly 19 points, and serious challenges to GOP control of the governor and attorney general seats never materialized as Republicans Mike Braun and Todd Rokita cruised to similarly lopsided victories.
Those results led Black faith leaders in Indianapolis to call for Schmuhl’s resignation, citing a “lack of progress” under his leadership.
“I know how hard it can be to be a Democrat in Indiana, and over the past four years we have placed our party on a path to future success by protecting what we have and building new bases of support,” Schmuhl, 41, said Saturday.
“Our bench is bigger, and our party has more tools and more people involved in the political process to be successful,” he said.
He pointed to an increase in Democratic mayors in the state over the past year, along with an increase in donors supporting Democratic candidates. Democrats in a statement issued Saturday also touted gains made in local government races, including claiming city council majorities in Valparaiso and Muncie.
Still, Indiana’s Democrats face significant headwinds, including ongoing allegations of sexual harassment against high-ranking officials.
This year, IndyStar investigations uncovered allegations against state Sen. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, and Thomas Cook, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s former chief of staff. Each has been accused by women of sexual harassment and unwanted romantic pursuit. Taylor and Cook have both apologized for past behavior. Niezgodski has referred to the allegation against him as a “private personnel matter.”
Party leaders adopted a new code of conduct earlier in December and formed an ethics committee that will investigate potential code of conduct violations against its members.
Schmuhl’s term ends on March 15, 2025, when a new chair is elected. He took the state party leadership post after managing current U.S. transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
The Protect College Sports Act, legislation meant to introduce and codify sweeping reforms related to college athletics, passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday morning.
It now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill passed out of committee by a 19-9 vote. Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young voted no, his decision reflecting Big Ten concerns over the bill.
A spokesman for Sen. Young told IndyStar, “Senator Young hopes that additional changes can be made to the bill to address concerns raised by the Big Ten.”
Co-sponsored by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the Protect College Sports Act represents Congress’ most substantial success so far in a yearslong effort to bring legislative reform to college athletics. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in college sports — including the NCAA, member conferences and schools, and other major players — have lobbied for national solutions to what have become state and regional problems.
Several pieces of legislation have been introduced across the last several years, only to fizzle long before reaching the floor of either chamber. The SCORE Act, introduced last year in the House of Representatives, gained some traction and passed out of committee, but was never brought to the floor.
Which makes Thursday’s news meaningful. Moving the Protect College Sports Act to the Senate floor, while not a guarantee of any outcome, potentially takes the bill past a threshold no other such piece of reformative legislation has yet been able to cross.
Cruz told Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger on Thursday that Cruz believes Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is committed to introducing the bill to the Senate floor soon.
The bill provides a legal framework for a host of potential reforms and protections for college sports. It grants limited antitrust protection to the NCAA, places limits on certain things including potential conference realignment, builds safeguards meant to protect non-revenue and Olympic sports, addresses potential broadcast rights reforms, and more.
It enjoys significant backing, and not just among leaders in college sports. This week, the NFL, its players’ association, the National Basketball Players Association and Major League Baseball all voiced their support for the bill.
Two key constituencies not in lockstep on the bill voiced their own concerns Thursday.
In a joint statement issued just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the Big Ten and SEC — far and away the two most powerful conferences and arguably two greatest power centers, full stop, in college athletics — suggested they still hold significant reservations over the bill.
“From the outset, we identified a set of essential revisions to the PCSA necessary for the long-term sustainability of college athletics,” the statement read. “We have worked with both majority and minority staff to advance those revisions, which focus on better supporting student-athletes and stabilizing the college sports environment. We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill.
“Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted.”
The statement went on to note the “several Commerce Committee members that share our concerns and support these recommendations.”
Young is one of several members of the committee representing a Big Ten state, including one of three Republicans. He is the only Republican member of the committee whose state contains multiple schools in the conference.
Allowing for those reservations, Thursday’s news is still significant. It marks the first time a bipartisan bill on the subject has reached this point in the Senate and, should it be brought to the floor, it would be the first such legislation to reach that stage, in either chamber.
The bill could be brought to the Senate floor as early as July, though that timeline remains fluid.
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