Monday, April 13, 2015

Daniels Loyalists Continue To Team Up With Gannett To Discredit Pence

Every day that passes without Gov. Mike Pence purging Mitch Daniels' loyalists from his administration, who are working in tandem with the Gannett-owned Indianapolis Star to drive him from office, will only hasten the end of his political career. Officials at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation wasted no time in alerting reporters for The Star that the agency is spending $2 million on a contract with an out-of-state public relations firm to restore damage to the state's reputation caused by Gov. Pence's decision to sign the RFRA legislation into law.
Indiana's economic development and tourism agencies announced Monday they have hired global PR firm Porter Novelli to help rebuild the state's image in the wake of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act debacle.
The state will spend the coming days building a public relations strategy with the firm and stakeholders across the state and plans to spend $2 million with Porter Novelli, plus however much more is needed in actual advertising buys.
"The recent controversy has advanced the thinking of just a lot of people, that you can't take for granted that people know what Indiana is," said Chris Cotterill, general counsel for the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
The state took a major public relations hit at the start of the month with the swirl of negative attention surrounding Gov. Mike Pence's signing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. There is little doubt that Indiana's national image took a hit, but nobody has been able to quantify exactly how much damage was done . . . 
The decision speaks directly to concerns raised by Indianapolis business leaders that the state was set to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if the law had been allowed to stand unchanged. 
"We know that having an agency with outside perspective and one that has helped other consumer and government brands with image restoration campaigns is beneficial," said Chris Gahl, vice president of marketing for Visit Indy, the city's tourism branch. "Clearly the last two weeks have beat up and tarnished the state's reputation as a welcoming place."
The IEDC's Chris Cotterill is a Daniels crony who formerly served as Ballard's chief of staff. Visit Indy, which ultimately answers to Mayor Greg Ballard, has played a key role in ginning up the media firestorm against Pence. Ballard, who may have his own statewide ambitions after a reported post-mayoral retirement job at Cathedral High School fell through, has been working hand-in-hand with cronies of Mitch Daniels to discredit Pence. Advance Indiana believes the publicly-financed tourism arm of the City of Indianapolis worked closely with convention planners to orchestrate the attack on Pence, giving the impression groups were pulling their conventions from the city when no real serious plans existed to do that. It was just all part of an act. No other tourism organization in the nation spends more wining and dining officials in charge of convention planning for organizations than Visit Indy. Top executives, who earn large six-figure salaries far exceeding what any other public employees earn in Indianapolis, essentially buy off these decision-makers through lavish entertainment, which would land elected officials like members of Congress or state lawmakers in hot water if they accepted such large gifts while being lobbied by interest groups.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:22 PM GMT-5

    As usual, great reporting.

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  2. Anonymous9:41 PM GMT-5

    Gary, Visit Indy execs do earn handsome 6-figure salaries, but don't forget about Indiana Sports Corp, the Airport Authority, and the kings of exorbitant municipal salaries Citizens Energy!

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  3. Anonymous6:10 AM GMT-5

    Why Pence didn't immediately fire Daniels retreads and put in his own people is a mystery to many Indiana Republicans!When Orr and O'Bannon took office from their predecessors they put their own people in right away! What in the world is Pence thinking!

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  4. Anonymous6:45 AM GMT-5

    Pence really does need to clean house. The Mitch and Barnes & Thornburg boys will use him until there's nothing left to give.

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  5. Anonymous6:51 AM GMT-5

    Pence was lied to and used. Also, question OBannons timely death. Lots to ponder re: Mitch Daniels and many others.

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  6. Anonymous6:54 AM GMT-5

    Pence left his very safe Congressional seat in order to get “executive” experience as our Governor in preparation for a run at the White House.

    Poor Mike.

    He had not yet tasted the bitter cutting edge of Mitch’s knife.
    Pence has been cut from the list of potential presidential candidates.

    If he runs for re-election --notice the word “if” -- his likely Democratic challenger, John R. Gregg, is already outpolling Poor Mike.

    The World’s 41st most important citizen, Mitch Daniels, has a lot of time on his hands to focus on those that dare to go against his wishes. See page 94 of the latest Fortune Magazine and read about Mitch’s eager “Republican Pooh-Pahs.”

    Just the other day, after he had finished his routine in the weight room at Purdue, Mitch was heard saying, “Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.”

    Poor Mike. Just ask Poor Charlie White. Charlie also has tasted the knife.

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  7. To just the average person the real tarnish is the Star newspaper which drags this on and on daily. I am more disgusted by them with their obvious agenda which they think will sell newspapers. So don't be so sure that there is a real backlash against Indiana.

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  8. I detest Mitch Daniels and his Schutzstaffel (German for “Protective Echelon) almost as much as I detest Barak Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John Kerry. They are all really the same people in political parties with no real distinctions.

    Mike Pence proved himself to be a complete weakling with his immediate, fearful, weak-spined back-walk on "explaining" RFRA- a legally enacted law that needed no "'splainin'". If it was Mike Pence's long-long-time male friend and newly installed Indiana Republican Chairman who advised Pence to perform in a way that turned out to be perceived as cowering and subservient - that could explain a lot about past Indianapolis City Council votes.

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  9. I'm not sure the Star is trying to sell newspapers, 7:05.

    They may simply be content with issuing the party line.

    They may know that if their finances get too bad, they'll get a bailout from the party, as "a world class city needs a world class daily newspaper."

    They may be content to run at a small loss just to keep their paper going so no other paper can enter the market. If the truth is kept out of Indianapolis, the Star has accomplished its mission.

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  10. Anonymous4:50 PM GMT-5

    I always found this strange as well why Mike Pence kept a lot of Daniels' old people. I worked both for Daniels and the beginning of Mike Pence and I was quite surprised (several of us were) how little change there was once he took over. The top Commissioner was changed, but everyone else was kept. In fact, Pence's people asked several of the old people to actually stay. One (higher up) position was actually vacant for a while, while Pence people tried to find someone to plug in.

    I found this really unusual at the time, but it is pretty evident now that Pence was out of his league and was not prepared/ready to be Governor. Mike figured he'd make a few changes here and there, shake a few hands, keep things sleepy and out of the limelight, then toss his name in the hat for 2016.

    ......clearly that didn't work out too well.

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  11. Anonymous6:03 PM GMT-5

    Sorry, but Indiana's rep HAS been damaged.

    The gossip at today's Indiana travel media confab was how editors at travel publications either were cancelling or declining to assign features on the Hoosier state.

    And, lots of jokes about "Hoosier Hospitality" and "Honest to Goodness Indiana".

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  12. Anon 6:03, of course that was based on a very disingenuous campaign that falsely claimed that RFRA had something to do with LGBT rights and was a "license to discriminate". Should we kow-tow to every interest group that lies and issues threats? If we Hoosiers gave in to bullies and intolerance we would deserve other unflattering nicknames.

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  13. Look, I'm sure that the Governor understood that succeeding the Daniels Administration was going to be HARD: property tax caps, right-to-work, school choice. Mitch -- whatever supposed Machiavellian plans some believe that he possesses -- did A LOT to reform Indiana's economy & government. It would be hard for anyone to step into the Capitol & pull off comparable reforms.

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  14. Anonymous7:24 AM GMT-5

    Ogden, I used to think you were improperly maligned by a disciplinary committee that just didn’t like you. But now I realize that you just aren’t that sharp a lawyer, and that perhaps you need a bit of sanctioning. The RFDA debacle for Indiana was not “disingenuous”, did not involve “false claims” that is was a license to discriminate, was not “kowtowing to every interest group that lies and issues threats” and did not represent giving in to “bullies and intolerance.” Your inability to properly perceive the legal ramifications of the carefully crafted RFDA are noted. What began in Arizona with a veto by Jan Brewer and reached fever pitch in Indiana with the disgracing of Mike Pence, who will never be President nor Vice-President, will soon move on to Louisiana and a Bobby Jindal all-in on the legislation, certain to be a disaster for his political ambitions. Yesterday we have a resolution by Andre Carson on anti gay discrimination paving the way for huge, civil rights style national legislation coming later in April out of Congress. The Supreme Court will weigh in on gay marriage and probably set a national standard. And you are on the wrong side. It says a lot about you. It speaks to your priorities. It tarnishes your legal reputation. And its losing you friends. I am shocked at your attitude. And I’ll never go online again to defend you when next you are sanctioned or disciplined. I question your ability to interpret the law.

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  15. It's RFRA, not RFDA. There were liberal law professors who support gay rights who signed off as supporting Indiana's RFRA law who were also maligned by the mischaracterization of the law Indiana passed.

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  16. Anon 7:24 trumpets ignorance beyond acronym, fading into the politically sour notes of disingenuous condescencion; and failing in every way to reconcile the promotion & support for this precise legislation (known as RFRA), of all but three members of Congress, President Clinton, IL State Senator Obama...

    Should you awaken one day, Anon 7:24, from bloviating & boorish lectures of hypocrisy; you'll notice that Islam is specifically intolerant of the LGBT lifestyle; as evidenced by those "accused" & thrown to their deaths, from rooftops in the Middle East.

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