Star Political Columnist Loves On Sugar Over Redistricting Idea

In his most recent political column, the Star's Matthew Tully offers up a reprisal to my recent blog post discussing potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Sugar's $250,000 make-work job at another one of those phony nonprofit education organizations established by the education profiteers to take care of out-of-work political hacks. Tully, looking for any way possible to promote the career political hack's candidacy, loves on how Sugar is a great visionary with "a great plan" to make Indiana a stronger state by taking the job of drawing congressional and state legislative boundaries out of the hands of politicians and turning it over to a nonpartisan commission. "Sugar is talking about something very important," Tully writes. "It sure would be nice to see more politicians, and more voters, join the conversation."

It's funny how I don't recall that same reaction from Tully when U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita proposed that very same idea when he was Indiana's Secretary of State. Republican state lawmakers were so miffed at Rokita for proposing the idea they drew up new boundaries for his 4th District in 2011 that left his Indianapolis home in Pike Township 500 yards outside his newly-drawn district. Rokita, who is not required to physically reside within the district he represents, did not allow their decision to force him to move his residence. "I think once folks realize the politics of what happened, the fact that they moved the line 500 yards from where it used to be, and they know that I was a reformer for the lines and this was kind of a comeuppance thing -- I think folks will understand that," Rokita told the Northwest Indiana Times at the time. "I'm not a carpetbagger." I guess Tully was too exercised about Rokita's support of the state's Voter ID law to notice his support for taking the partisanship out of drawing legislative districts.