Capitol stalemate continues in Ind.

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

A political stalemate in Indiana showed no signs of ending anytime soon as House Democrats met privately Wednesday in an out-of-state hotel and Republicans refused to negotiate away their legislative agenda to lure them back.

Though the tactic mimicked one used a week earlier by Senate Democrats in Wisconsin who fled to delay a vote on an anti-union bill, the Indiana Democrats said their protest was not about one GOP-backed proposal but a slate of them. In both states, Democrats don’t have the votes to defeat the proposals, but by not showing up they can prevent the required quorum necessary to call the measures for a vote.

“We want to see a little more cooperation on everything,” Patrick Bauer, the House Democratic leader, told reporters by phone from a hotel in Urbana, Ill. “I know they don’t think it’s necessary, but thank God the Constitution said you have a way of fighting tyranny.”

Although Bauer declines to list all the sticking points, the vote that sparked Tuesday’s walkout involved Indiana’s “right-to-work” legislation that prohibits union membership from being a condition of employment. The walkout effectively killed that measure, but the Democrats were pushing to end other aspects of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ agenda, including aggressive education changes such as vouchers, the expansion of charter schools and restrictions on teacher collective bargaining.

House Speaker Brian Bosma said he talked to Bauer by phone Wednesday morning to tell him “he needed to get back here.”

“The negotiation takes place on the floor of the House,” Bosma said. “This isn’t the old back-room deals that Rep. Bauer’s used to cutting.”

Daniels previously had warned the right-to-work bill could become so politically charged that it could kill the chances of other, more important legislation. He wouldn’t say “told you so” Wednesday, but he did tell reporters he was surprised and disappointed that Democrats simply didn’t claim the right-to-work issue as a political victory and return to work on other matters.