Pence address to be viewed through lens of 2016 aspirations

When Mike Pence climbs the Indiana House rostrum on Tuesday evening to give his third State of the State speech as governor, he'll surely tout his proposals for boosting the state's charter school and school voucher programs and what he says is state government's excellent fiscal health.

Many ears also will be listening for clues about whether he's heading toward entering the campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Pence maintains he won't make a decision until after the General Assembly's session ends in late April. But he has stoked talk of a White House run with his recent travels around the country and overseas and actions that have won praise from social conservatives—with whom he was a favorite during his 12 years in Congress before becoming governor in 2013.

Pence said last week he would talk during his State of the State about what he hopes will be an "education session" of the Legislature and released what he called a "thrifty" state budget proposal that's projected to maintain a nearly $2 billion state reserve.

He wants lawmakers to raise the school voucher program's limit on per-student funding and give $1,500 more per student for charter schools.

Those types of issues are attractive to Republican voters and will get attention from party activists who watch his speech, said Pete Seat, an Indiana Republican strategist.

"Most of the speculation is going to come in terms of how he phrases those ideas and how strongly he puts forward or doesn't put forward contrasts with Washington, D.C.," said Seat, who was a deputy press secretary for President George W. Bush and was state Republican Party spokesman during Pence's 2012 gubernatorial campaign.

Pence says consistently that his focus is on Indiana and this year's four-month legislative session.

Democrats, however, question that commitment and point to his travels to places such as New York City and Iowa last year to speak at Republican fundraisers, along with a nine-day trip to Israel in late December that included a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was heavily touted by the governor's office.

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said Pence's education proposals are simply "conservative talking points" aimed at boosting his White House aspirations.

Zody said an example of that was Pence's decision in October not to have Indiana seek a federal grant that could have provided up to $80 million for preschool programs serving low-income students.

That move was cheered by tea partyers, along with his decision to join a 20-state coalition suing the federal government over President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration.

Those steps all play to an audience outside Indiana even if Pence doesn't talk about them in his State of the State speech, Zody said.

"I think he'll try to brag about the surplus that he's built, but what he won't tell people is how that surplus was built," Zody said. "It was built on education cuts to universities, K-12. It was built on cutting domestic violence prevention funding."

Seat said Pence's choice of issues follows the longtime play book of governors who have thoughts about running for president.

"All of those things packaged together could be what he points at to say, 'This is where I want to take the country and here's the proof that I'm capable of doing it because I have done X, Y and Z in my home state,'" Seat said.

Pence, meanwhile, maintains his noncommittal stance to a White House campaign.

"We'll let decisions about my future await the spring," he said last week. "There's plenty of time for politics in the days ahead."