Daniels learns to get what he wants from Legislature

For his eighth and final session working with Indiana's General Assembly, Gov. Mitch Daniels finally honed a light touch for getting what he wanted out of the 150 lawmakers who mill about the floors directly above his Statehouse office.

In his first dance with the Legislature in 2005, Daniels' hand was heavy and plodding, as he came stumbling out of his first election victory with a surprise call for an income tax hike and a battle placing Indiana on daylight saving time, followed by suggestions that Democrats "car bombed" his agenda when he didn't get his way.

Daniels then and Daniels now are two different people, although the priorities haven't changed much. Lawmakers this year signed off on his two biggest priorities — a right-to-work law and Indiana's first statewide smoking ban — after a presence from him that one House Republican called "stealth."

While Democrats boycotted the House and union protesters filled the halls of the Statehouse with chants and promises to shut down the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, Daniels limited his public appearances near the Capitol. Instead, he blocked off two hours at a time in his schedule and called wavering lawmakers into his office one at a time to combat heavy lobbying from right-to-work opponents in public meetings throughout the state in January.

"Some folks needed some reassurance that there's a whole lot of other people out there who aren't coming to those meetings, who will understand the reasons for doing what we do," Daniels said. "I remember a lot of those."

Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott, who helped coordinate a lot of those meetings, said she couldn't pinpoint how much Daniels' personal lobbying flipped lawmakers they had been counting on for support. But she did give him credit for the overall campaign waged to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state.

"I think he's been pretty savvy," she said.

"Savvy" was not a word most lawmakers, Democrat or Republican, associated with his early battles with the Legislature. Reflecting on his lobbying tactics last week, Daniels said that one of the best moves he learned early on was biting his tongue.

"Just don't take the bait. When somebody who disagrees, or the partisan opposition tees off," Daniels said.

Rep. Bruce Borders, R-Jasonville, was elected to the House the same year Daniels won his first election in 2004. He said Daniels' public scraps and sharp tongue in the first few years got him in trouble early, but improved with time. Likewise, he said, Daniels' private meetings with lawmakers softened, getting him more of what he wanted.

"I don't think he was as good at making himself the guy you'd sit down and roast a hot dog with, and I think he became that guy over the last eight years," Borders said. "He was nice before, but maybe too much agenda-driven."

Sometimes that intense focus on the idea and the policy led him to make some basic mistakes rolling out big ideas, which ultimately led to their demise.

Senate Transportation Chairman Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, remembers how surprised he was in November 2006 when the governor said he would ask lawmakers to approve construction of an outer beltway, connecting the doughnut counties outside Indianapolis from Anderson to Hazelwood. He also remembers how surprised he was five months later when he heard from a friend that the governor would be pulling the project after public opposition made the plan toxic.

Wyss still raves about the proposal: The plan would have built a critical bypass around Indianapolis traffic for truckers coming out of northeast Indiana and have them essentially pay for it in tolls along the road. He called it brilliant.

But Wyss also says that Daniels was outfoxed by Democrats who had recently won control of Indiana's House of Representatives. Then-House Transportation Chairman Terri Austin held a series of hearings in towns along the planned route of the new highway and pressure built against the proposal to the point where even Statehouse Republicans who supported the plan had to pull their support.

But Austin said Daniels was just unprepared to defend a massive new project.

"There had not been enough opportunity to help educate the public about the need for the proposed connector or any real traffic studies that demonstrated it was a good idea," she said. "People were adamant they didn't think the road was justified."

Five years later, Daniels primed the public for Indiana to become the 23rd state to approve a ban on unions collecting mandatory fees for representation. He made right-to-work the centerpiece of his final State of the State address. He filmed a campaign ad that aired throughout the state this past January.

Then he got out of the public eye and worked lawmakers in private.

Daniels likewise stepped aside for much of the debate over banning smoking statewide. When pressed by reporters in a rare gaggle during the 2012 session whether he would oppose a carve-out for bars and taverns added to squeeze the ban through the Senate, Daniels was conciliatory, saying he would likely sign any ban that reached his desk.

One of the House authors of the ban, Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, accused Daniels of keeping too low a profile when it appeared the measure might die in the Senate. But Senate President Pro Tem David Long, who had regular meetings with Daniels and Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma throughout the session, called it the right move.

"The governor has quietly staked his spot, this is the Legislature's time now," said Long, R-Fort Wayne. "If he needs to be called, he will be. I'm sure he would be. I don't think he does."

One day after Long made that assessment, the Senate approved a smoking ban 28-22.