Pence calls bill to let him run for 2 offices a ‘distraction’

Gov. Mike Pence said Tuesday that a bill meant to allow him to run for both president and governor in the 2016 election is a “well-intentioned distraction.”

Senate Bill 200, authored by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, would eliminate a ban on candidates running simultaneously for a state and federal elected office.

The governor said the bill was not his focus and that the first time he heard about it was when he read about it in the newspaper.

Instead, Pence said that his focus remains on the “future of the people of Indiana” as well as the 2015 session of the General Assembly, which began Tuesday.

Pence has said he won’t make an announcement about running for president until after the legislature adjourns at the end of April. He has been widely mentioned as a possible candidate and has done little to quell the rumors. In the past year, he has traveled to the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire and has made international trips, including one last month to Israel.