Friday, August 31, 2007

Daniels Plans 67-Member Junket To Japan

Taxpayers will fund a junket for 67 people to travel to Japan and pretend to promote trade with the state of Indiana. The list of junketeers includes the usual suspects. Gov. Daniels will have more than ample staff to assist him. Nate Feltman of IEDC will make the trip with three other staffers from his agency, plus two hangers-on from the Governor's office, Jan Jankowski and Ben Ledo and two wannabes from the Department of Agriculture, Andy Miller and Beth Bechdol. Senate President Pro Tempore David Long (R) is along for the ride as is Sen. Sam Smith (D), the legislator who resigned and then withdrew his resignation after party leaders refused to install his wife as his replacement. Rep. Clyde Kersey (D) is hopping a ride with Rep. Jim Buck (R). There's a bunch of mayors on the list as well. Don't they know this is an election year? And since we know the law firm of Ice Miller (former law firm of Nate Feltman) is really who is in charge of the Daniels' administration, the firm's managing partner, Melissa Reese, is included on the trip to make sure her firm's clients receive their share of taxpayer-funded incentives (as if they aren't already). Here's the entire list of people who will travel on this latest junket in case you want to be informed:

Governor Mitch Daniels
Nate Feltman, Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC)
Chad Sweeney, IEDC
Steve Akard, IEDC
Kai Chuck, IEDC
Andy Miller, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Beth Bechdol, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
State Senator Sam Smith
State Senator David Long
State Representative Clyde Kersey
State Representative Jim Buck
Jane Jankowski, Governor's Office
Ben Ledo, Governor's Office
Don Babcock, Northern Indiana Public Service Company
David Barrett, Gene B. Glick Co., Inc.
Mike Beard, Indiana Pork Producers Association
Brandt Burdick, National City Bank
Stephen Corwell, Indianapolis Power & Light
Michael Dellinger, The Indy Partnership
Bill Dory, Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center, Inc.
Kathryn Ertel, Jennings County Economic Development Corporation
Mike Fincher, mayor of Logansport
Scott Furgeson, mayor of Shelbyville
Harold Force, Force Construction Company, Inc.
Tamayo Fukumoto, Japan-America Society of Indiana
Gary Gentry, Knox County Development Corporation
Robert Grewe, Dubois Area Development Corporation
John Hall, mayor of North Vernon
Nubuo Hara, JP Morgan Chase Bank
Takayasu Hara, Fifth Third Bank
Yuichi Hasegawa, National City Bank
Michiharu Homma, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak and Stewart, P.C.
Bruce Hosier, mayor of Portland and Energize ECI
Kyle Hupfer, ProLiance Energy
Larry Ingraham, Ingraham & Associates, Inc.
Hideyuki Kawashima, MJ Insurance
Vicki Kellerman, Economic Development Corporation of Greensburg/Decatur County
Christopher Kinnett, Perry County Development Corporation
Jeffrey Knight, Old National Bank
Mark Kosiarek, VAI Technology, Inc.
Theresa Kulczak, Japan-America Society of Indiana
John MacNab, MJ Insurance, Inc.
Dennis Maloy, Hancock Economic Development Council
Richard McConnell, Bose, McKinney & Evans, LLP
Mark Miller, Cornerstone Environmental, Health & Safety
Terry Mooney, mayor of Vincennes
Cheryl Morphew, Johnson County Development Corporation
Peter Morse, Barnes & Thornburg, LLP
Terry Murphy, Muncie-Delaware Economic Development Alliance
Mick Nakada, Force Construction Company, Inc.
Marie-Christine Pence, Duke Energy
Jeffrey Pittman, Ivy Tech Community College
Joseph Plankis, Economic Development of Westfield
Jim Plump, Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation
Melissa Reese, Ice Miller, LLP
John Sampson, Northeast Indiana Regional Marketing Partnership
Dennis Sargent, National FFA Foundation
Wayne Seybold, mayor of Marion
Gina Sheets, Clinton County Economic Development
Robert Sparks, Anderson/Madison County Corporation for Economic Development
Randall Stephens, Chase Commercial Banking
Don Stock, mayor of Frankfort
Toyohara Tamura, Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance
Danny Theobald, Shelby County Development Corporation
Kip Tom, Tom Farms, LLC
Greg Wathen, Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana
Ayako Yamamoto-Girt, City of Anderson

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

SIXTY-SEVEN FREAKING PEOPLE?

These folks need to take some John Mutz lessons. I never voted for John, but as Bob Orr's LG, he led multiple trade missions, with great results.

And much smaller groups.

Good Lord, that's 13 basketball teams and a couple extra.

Obscene, obnoxious, yet Rokita-free. Rumor is Todd will be crying on the tarmac and waving his passport.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Reese on the trade mission to Europe a few months ago?

Anonymous said...

I like how Mitch is taking care of his boy, Kyle Hupfer. It must be a nice payback since there is no conceivable way that a marketing alliance for Midwestern energy companies would be doing business with or in Japan.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Yes, she was. Here's the post on that trade mission: http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2007/05/daniels-trade-mission-to-europe.html

Anonymous said...

Jennifer Granholm's trade mission
(I don't know how many went with her) just brought back a whopping 80 new jobs from Sweden. Was that
worth it?

It would make a lot more sense
to take a maximum of 12 state people along, and leave the relatives and private industry folks home. These have become more of a Rotary Club type exchange
to promote international understanding, rather than focusing on getting new jobs.

Anonymous said...

MMM has a bigger posse than most rappers ..... or even Ruth Lilly.

Anonymous said...

I want to correct my prior post.
The first story I saw said 80 jobs.
A more recent story says 205 jobs.

Anonymous said...

If there are such great prospects for more new jobs from Japanese companies, then most of these people (say 60 or so) should be THRILLED to pay their own way!

Anonymous said...

Not sticking up for Mitch, but he did put the state back in the black after the democrats almost ruined it like they are doing to indy.

Anonymous said...

I wanna go....
It's my tax dollars paying for it

Anonymous said...

Just hope he has something new to show for this big trip.

The Honda rhetoric is getting old.

Anonymous said...

I think you need to check your facts on this posting. The individuals participating on this trade mission who are from private industry are paying their own way. Their travel expense and participation is not at taxpayer expense.

David C Roach said...

I just read "the world is flat", by Thomas Friedman. It seems to me if MMM+67 wanted to see where all the jobs are going, he should be setting up trade offices in China(the big Red one), and India. Not to mention branch offices in Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Macau.
Maybe they could change our states name by dropping the "na". Then indiana would be India, and all the jobs would be coming here. as it is, we are paying Walmart to be the middleman for all our jobs in china. why cant I order a bike, cell phone, or camera, for instance from alibaba.com- a china trade company, and get my goods shipped via UPS? buy direct- who needs wal-mart? they buy in china, and make up the price. duh!
I guess a few weeks out of sight- to hide from the property tax conflagration? Where are all the jobs going to? who is going there to work? why? then duplicate the same laws. It so simple a caveman could do it..