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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRichard Lugar, the former mayor of Indianapolis and six-term U.S. senator who died April 28, set so many good examples for us to follow that it’s impossible to address them all in one place. But we hope the tributes and recollections that have poured forth since his passing impart some lessons that will stick.
Lugar got things done for his constituents at home and on the world stage by putting city and country ahead of political party, and public good ahead of ideological purity.
Best known nationally for his mastery of foreign policy and for working across the political aisle to safeguard and eliminate the nuclear remnants of the Cold War, Lugar’s bipartisan approach to public service was on display from the time he became mayor in 1968.
Lugar appointed as his chief administrative assistant John Walls, who had been an adviser to Lugar’s predecessor, Democrat John Barton. And Lugar aggressively ramped up Barton’s pursuit of federal planning and infrastructure grants, a strategy for urban renewal that had been all but ignored by previous mayors.
Lugar’s leadership became even more consequential after he and fellow Republicans succeeded in pushing through the Indiana General Assembly the landmark legislation that merged most government units in Indianapolis and Marion County. Known as Unigov, it created a bigger city by geography and population and put a national spotlight on Indianapolis for what at the time was considered cutting-edge urban policy.
The momentum wasn’t squandered by Lugar, who championed the construction of the Indiana Convention Center, which put the city on course to become a major convention destination. He also forged public-private partnerships—a strategy that became a hallmark of the city’s resurgence in the 1970s and 1980s—to secure the rehabilitation of City Market and the construction of Market Square Arena.
Lugar’s leadership didn’t go unnoticed. He was elected president of the National League of Cities in 1970. In 1971, Indianapolis hosted the International Conference on Cities, a meeting of city officials from the United States and other Western democracies sponsored by NATO.
His involvement in that conference hinted at the much bigger role Lugar would soon play in world affairs. Re-elected mayor in 1971, Lugar later pursued a U.S. Senate seat, losing to the incumbent Birch Bayh in 1974 but defeating Vance Hartke in 1976.
Lugar was undeniably ambitious—but ambitious in the best sense. He put ambition to work not for personal gain but to solve problems in pursuit of a more peaceful world, whether leading the effort to dismantle nuclear arsenals or clashing with members of his own party in the effort to end South African apartheid.
Lugar announced in 1995 that he’d seek the GOP nomination for president, a short-lived campaign that might have succeeded in an earlier era, before television sound bites became key elements in presidential campaigns.
No one ever accused Lugar of being flashy. He was known more for his intelligence, an asset that inexplicably seems to have fallen out of favor in modern politics. The world would be a better place if we all followed Lugar’s example of substance over style.•
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