CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS TRY TO VASTLY TOUGHEN RULES FOR PRIMARY SEASON MATCHING FUNDS
Starting in 1984, minor party presidential candidates have used primary season matching funds to help pay for petitioners to get on the ballot. Now, Democrats in Congress propose to make eligibility for primary season matching funds five times more difficult. H.R. 1 and S.1 make many election law changes. Among the changes are increasing the difficulty of receiving primary season matching funds. Current law requires small donations totalling at least $5,000 from each of twenty states. The bills raise that to $25,000 from each of twenty states.
Minor party presidential candidates who have received primary season matching funds, and the amounts, are as follows:
Tenant Rights: The Argument for Rights and Regulations
STATE HOUSE–Tenant rights are not just an issue during the pandemic. Thirty percent of Hoosiers rent, and in some urban areas, high eviction rates were apparent before coronavirus. The moratorium has stopped evictions temporarily. But, state Rep. Maureen Bauer (D-South Bend), says the General Assembly is wrong to try and make landlord-tenant rules a one-size-fits-all issue.
Earlier in this legislative session, Republicans overrode the veto of Senate Enrolled Act 148-2020, which prohibits Indianapolis and other cities from regulating landlord-tenant relationships.
Bauer said her experience in South Bend informs her belief that cities should be able to make decisions regarding those relationships, like the Indianapolis Renters Bill of Rights. South Bend has some of the highest eviction rates in the state.
Listen to the broadcast version of this story.
Ten years ago, Indiana House Democrats walked out of the Statehouse and headed to Illinois in the middle of session, halting all legislative business for more than a month.
It was a legislative walkout that made national news and had an impact that’s still felt today.
Democrats had controlled the Indiana House for most of the first decade of the 2000s. But Republicans recaptured the majority ahead of the 2011 session, and with that came Right to Work – a controversial bill affecting labor union dues.
The measure drew ire from Democrats and brought thousands of protesters to the Statehouse. But Democratic lawmakers couldn’t stop the bill’s momentum – until on Feb. 22, 2011, they used a procedure other minority caucuses had employed before: a walkout. The House needs two-thirds of its members to conduct business, whether in committee or on the floor. By leaving the chamber, Democrats put a halt to everything.
Incident At Government Center: The Majority and Minority Factor
STATE HOUSE–Debate about whether a bill that allows a mostly white township in St. Joseph County to leave the South Bend Community School District is discriminatory, spilled over into the hallway at Government Center, Thursday.
News 8’s David Williams witnessed the incident and reported that Rep. Vanessa Summers (D-Indianapolis) was part of a small group of representatives who left the floor and went into the hallway when hissing and cat calls could be heard during Rep. Greg Porter’s floor speech about his experience as a Black man.
“Rep. Eberhart (Sean Eberhart, a Republican from Shelbyville) got upset. He thought I was talking directly to him. I was not. Then he called me a bitch,” said Summers. She said she was upset that it was tough for a Black representative to talk about the Black experience on the House floor.
The Indiana Senate has passed a bill designed to bring more music production to Indiana. Senate Bill 323 calls for the Indiana Destination Development Corp. to join nearly three dozen other states in