busconews.com

by Brian Howey

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Democrats might as well envision themselves on a London rooftop circa September 1940 during what we know as “The Blitz.”

But instead of dodging Stuka dive bombers, Hoosier Democrats have endured a wrecking crew by Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Republicans. And today, with President Obama’s Indiana approval rating below 40 percent, they face the prospect of a popular Republican member of Congress named Mike Pence becoming the next governor, and the strong possibility of a supermajority House (67 GOP members) joining the supermajority Indiana Senate (currently 37 Republicans).

With all eyes on former House speaker John Gregg to save the party in what could be their “finest hour,” what the party ended up with last Saturday was a Chinese fire drill.

Here’s the story line: Gregg wanted to install his own chairperson to head the Democratic Party. For the past seven years, it’s been chaired by Dan Parker, a former aide to Gregg who then rose up through the ranks of the Evan Bayh organization. It was then-Sen. Bayh who installed Parker to mind the party store; presumed gubernatorial candidates seek this. Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan dropped out of the 2004 race after Gov. Frank O’Bannon appointed Peter Manous as chair in 2002.

Parker has been at the mercy of two of the most powerful figures in Indiana politics: Bayh and Daniels. Both have thrown him through a number of hoops, whether it was Bayh’s aborted presidential run, his veep flirtations with a.) Hillary Clinton and then b.) Barack Obama, while Daniels ended personal license plate money to the party, costing it $750,000 annually. On President’s Day 2010, Bayh pulled the ultimate corkscrew, dropping his Senate reelection bid, leaving Parker to orchestrate a bizarre game of musical chairs with Brad Ellsworth replacing Bayh, Trent Van Haaften replacing Ellsworth, Bob Dieg for Van Haaften ….

It turned out to be a disaster. All lost, the Republicans retook the House with a 60-40 majority, and made huge inroads in Southern Indiana.

Gregg became the indispensable man, a charming Southern Indiana politician capable of issuing a stem-winder to rally the base. And he came to the conclusion he wanted what Bayh had: his own guy minding the party shop - Tim Jeffers. On Dec. 12, Parker resigned effective to when a new chair was selected and on Friday, Dec. 16, his office was cleaned out. Parker would land at Jim Schellinger’s CSO Architects, where Jeffers worked. It was a swap.

But the Jeffers’ pick stalled, as party elders like 8th CD Chair Tony Long decided they no longer wanted to take orders. Jeffers dropped out on Thursday night, leaving Parker’s legal counsel, Sarah Riordan, and Joel Miller, an Indianapolis operative with support from Lake and Marion counties, fighting for the chair.

With the Bayh/Parker/Riordan forces facing a defeat (Miller believed he had 12 of the 18 Central Committee votes), Parker pulled out Robert’s Rules of Order, withdrew his resignation and relied on an executive committee procedural maneuver to stay in power.

Even with the larger executive group stacked in Parker’s favor, the critical vote to allow him to stay on was 15 to 13 1/2 - hardly a resounding vote of confidence. Sources say that National Committee member Dean Boerste, Long, and recently resigned 2nd CD Chair Butch Morgan (who was there as an announced proxy) all supported withdrawing Parker’s resignation.

What stunned observers is that Gregg showed up to support Parker’s case. One longtime party observer wondered aloud about Gregg’s judgment in “pulling back” from having Parker ousted. A source at the meeting noted, “There were still enough votes to deny Parker’s request until John Gregg got up. I don’t know who John thought he was helping. Once you insist the Chairman step down, you don’t then back down and leave your friends sitting buck-naked out on Main Street.”

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. and Marion County Chair Ed Treacy were furious. McDermott posted on Facebook that the party has “a fraudulent chairman who is beholden to a former US Senator that doesn't even live in Indiana any longer. Our party leadership is a disgrace."

Parker explained, “John came to the meeting and asked for the committee members to accept my decision.”  

An Indianapolis Democrat who was part of the effort to elect Miller observed: “Give the devil his due. Parker is like Rasputin. You poison him. You shoot him. You think he’s dead and somehow he lives again. The problem is that our party has suffered under his leadership and we desperately needed a change to position us for 2012. I just wish Dan would be as effective fighting the Republicans as he is fighting to save his own job.”

“This has been the strangest two weeks of my life,” Parker told me Sunday night. “I was fully prepared to hand it over Saturday.” But at a fundraiser Friday night, Parker had Democrats telling him that the time was “too delicate” for a new leader.

As former Chair Joe Andrew would put it, the “Huns are at the gates” and at a time when Gregg needed to be Winston Churchill, he looked like Neville Chamberlain. The episode left both diminished at a time when candidate and party absolutely have to be at the top of their game.

(Correction: In last week’s column, I should have stated that Indiana teachers already operate under Right to Work rules.)

The columnist publishes at www.howeypolitics.com. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .