Political and special interest groups have long argued that Indiana's oft-touted ban on robo-calls applies only to commercial speech, a line of thought that received the judicial smackdown on Tuesday by the Indiana Supreme Court.
The court ruled 5-0 Tuesday to overturn a trial court's decision to dismiss a state lawsuit against American Family Voices. At issue was whether the state's 1988 law banning so-called "robo calls" covers political calls as well as commercial and sales calls.
Attorney General Steve Carter said the court ruling will protect Indiana residents from unwanted and illegal telephone calls.
Both political parties have been in quiet agreement that political speech should be protected from wholesale bans such as this, but you won't hear much outcry from anyone in defense of robo-calls for obvious reasons.
Here's a real puzzler. If I'm so wrong about this ballot thing -- and there has been no shortage of folks on the right asserting as much -- why would the McCain folks turn in additional signatures this afternoon nine minutes before the deadline?
While McCain raised gobs of cash across the street, his clean-up crew was making sure they had their bases covered back in the Secretary of State's office. Well they had to do something -- the big guy himself was counting on them. At least that's what he made it sound like at the press availability following his "town hall" meeting this morning, where he confidently uttered this little gem: "I will rely on the governor heavily to make sure that I am on the ballot."
And rely he did. I'm still waiting for updates on the situation as it stands, because the Secretary of State's office has made it clear they have no intention to keep the lines of communication open when it comes to the person who filed the challenge.
The Indiana Democratic Party put out a statement, including this:
"If John McCain thinks he can bring his national campaign's shady ethical standards to Indiana by getting his friend Mitch Daniels to wave a magic wand to get him on the ballot, then he and his cronies are in for a big surprise," said Indiana Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker. "They think they can bend the rules to sneak their man onto the ballot with closed door meetings and shifting stories and Hoosier voters won't notice. Those are not the ethical standards Hoosiers expect from a presidential candidate or our statewide elected officials."
This is from an MSNBC broadcast just a few minutes ago:
ANCHOR: Right now he's talking about Serbia. Of course, we saw big problems there yesterday. When in Belgrade, protesters erupted, attacked the U.S. embassy. Less listen into McCain.
MCCAIN: .including economically for many, many years. Questions?
Q. [Inaudible question]
MCCAIN: You know, I leave that to the governor, the capable attorney general and state legislature. I don't have enough knowledge or involvement and I believe that's more of a state issue. But I will rely on the governor heavily to make sure that I am on the ballot. And knowing his efficiency, I'm sure that he can do that.
Q. [Inaudible question]
MCCAIN: Yes. Yes.
Am I the only one who finds the rhetoric here a bit troubling? Calling in the Governor to use "his efficiency" on this problem? Seriously?
And no, Senator McCain, this isn't just a state issue. The incompetence involved in this debacle recognizes no border, and your national campaign infrastructure definitely looks bad because of this.
The usual suspects are up to their usual games, which consists mainly of accusing me of being a pawn for the powers that be in the Democratic Party by citing the powers that be in the Republican party. Excuse me if I'm not impressed.
In order to answer some of the questions I've received today about my challenge, here's a super-handy timeline, complete with links to the daily Indiana Election Division reports that, while not official, I think give at least a general sense of the signature movement over the last week or so.
February 12th -- Attorney General Steve Carter and GOP chair Murray Clark hand-deliver the John McCain signatures to the Secretary of State's office, stating that they have more than enough in all of the districts.
A hand-count of the petitions in the Secretary of State's office puts the tally at 496, contradicting the IED report, but still putting the total under the 500 vote threshold.
I file my challenge of the 4th District petitions.
Oddly enough, the IED report for today bumped up a few ticks to match the hand-count figure from the day before.
And the latest GOP story, for those of you keeping score at home...
Cook says McCain only collected 491 in the Fourth Congressional District. Lafayette is in that district. Secretary of State spokesman Alison Fore says the four-member Election Commission will rule on the challenge by March 13th.
Indiana Republican spokesman Jay Kenworthy said he checked the petition and counted 531 signatures from the Fourth District. State Democratic Chairman Dan Parker said his staff counted 496 signatures from that district.
First things first: I never cited the 491 number. If you go back and look at my post, I say that the hand-count revealed 496, but the IED report said 491. Regardless, 199 and 499 are the exact same in this debate, because they are both under 500.
Next we deal with the GOP's assertion that they now have 531 signatures. Eight days passed from the point that Steve Carter handed over those petitions and when I filed my complaint. During that time, the IED reported no change in the vote totals they had in their office. Petitions weren't trickling in from the counties in the 4th, and there is no indication that additional signatures were turned in.
On the 20th, a hand-count revealed 496, and my complaint hit in the media.
On the 21st, the McCain camp and the state GOP say that they have found 531 signatures.
Thus begging the question: Where did these new signatures come from? They weren't there on Wednesday, as verified by the Indiana Democratic Party, and the previous week had brought us no movement on the reported vote totals.
It's a mystery, to be sure. At the end of the day, it sure looks like my initial assessment of how this would probably play out is on its way to fruition.
Now, let's be honest here: Todd Rokita and Steve Carter will make sure McCain is on the ballot. Mitch Daniels will see to that, I'm sure. But at the end of the day, he shouldn't be, and the people of this state deserve to know that.
And while the GOP's magic wand will undoubtedly make a few signatures appear behind closed doors in the next few days, this is a clear stain upon Senator McCain as a candidate, and Governor Daniels and his Republican colleagues as standard-bearers within this state.
Remember that whole "I'm going to challenge to keep John McCain off the Indiana primary ballot and make a symbolic point about Republican incompetence in this state" thing I was talking about yesterday?
Thomas Cook, who runs the liberal political blog www.BlueIndiana.net, contends McCain's campaign fell a few signatures short of the 500 needed in Indiana's 4th Congressional District. Cook filed an official challenge with the Indiana Election Commission on Wednesday.
Republicans dispute the charge.
"Our own count had us well over the required number," said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign. "And it's pretty clear that John McCain is the Democrats' worst nightmare, and this is obviously part of a desperate campaign by the Democrat National Committee."
The state GOP says more than 500 signatures in the 4th District were certified by county officials.
"They didn't turn that many in," countered Dan Parker, Indiana Democratic Party chairman.
Parker said the party counted the signatures McCain's campaign turned in Feb. 12, and they fell short in the 4th District.
I filed the challenge yesterday because my hand count numbers had the petition total at 496. The state GOP operation told the Washington Times that they "still had some coming in," which seems slightly different than the story they told Maureen Groppe. Regardless, the bottom line is that they filed on the 12th without the 500 needed signatures, and it had been over a week with no new signatures turned in.
They suddenly have some additional petitions out of the 4th District? How perfectly convenient.
These guys will see to it that their man is on the ballot in May, but this entire episode should make two things incredibly clear: The incompetence of the McCain campaign and its high-level Republican surrogates in this state (Mitch Daniels, Steve Carter, etc.), and the fact that the aforementioned individuals have no problem bending the rules when their own sloppiness gets them into trouble.
Update: The Indiana Election Division sent out their update today. Of note? They have switched the 4th District signature total from 491 to 496.
How many signatures were accounted for when a hand count was done? 496.
Oh, but don't worry. They have "a few more coming in" all of a sudden, so I'm sure Todd Rokita and Mitch Daniels will see that this is all taken care of.
For those of you who have been following the site over the last few days, you are probably well aware that I have been covering the gubernatorial signature battle, as both of our candidates sought to get their 500 signatures in each congressional district, and thus earn a place on the statewide ballot for the May primary. As part of that process, I've been requesting daily updates from the Indiana Election Division, which keeps a rolling tally of the number of signatures that each candidate has collected.
Now, I'm originally from the 4th District, so curiosity led me to check out who had made it (and by how much) in my old stomping ground. To my surprise, I noticed that John McCain -- the presumptive front-runner for the GOP nomination -- was just a little short in a few districts, including my precious 4th, despite the fact that Attorney General Steve Carter had already turned in their petitions. I made a few phone calls, and one by one I found out that the McCain camp had got the job done across the state.
Except in the 4th District.
In the 4th District, they are short.
By my latest count, they turned in 496 signatures for the 4th, and the latest IED report for this morning shows them with only 491.
So this afternoon, I filed a challenge with the Secretary of State's office to keep John McCain off of the ballot. You can check it out here. (I'll have a .pdf version up when I get back to Bloomington this evening.)
And despite all of this high-level help, these guys managed to screw up one of the most basic steps that any candidate can take in the state.
I'm not scared of this crew at all.
This is indicative of John McCain's sloppy, ineffective national campaign infrastructure, and more notably for Hoosiers, makes it extremely clear that the incompetency of Governor Mitch Daniels, Steve Carter and the rest of this bunch has no limits.
This doesn't just make John McCain look silly -- and it does -- but this makes the entire Indiana Republican Party look silly. Silly, and clumsy, and inept, and generally incapable of running a national campaign, let alone the entire country.
Now, let's be honest here: Todd Rokita and Steve Carter will make sure McCain is on the ballot. Mitch Daniels will see to that, I'm sure. But at the end of the day, he shouldn't be, and the people of this state deserve to know that.
And while the GOP's magic wand will undoubtedly make a few signatures appear behind closed doors in the next few days, this is a clear stain upon Senator McCain as a candidate, and Governor Daniels and his Republican colleagues as standard-bearers within this state.
Did I mention he is coming to town on Friday? I wonder if he'll have a few choice words for his trusted surrogates in this state?
Update: The DNC responded to my challenge in a release a short while ago, but the key part of it is this:
Despite the fact that the McCain campaign clearly failed to qualify for the ballot, Republican Attorney General Steve Carter and Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita (who recently endorsed McCain) rubberstamped it anyway, trying to sneak McCain onto the ballot. Clearly, the Republican Culture of Corruption is alive and well within the McCain campaign.
A culture of corruption or a culture of incompetence, the fact remains that Hoosiers expect more from their officials, and I have no doubt McCain expected more from Mitch and the gang.
Special Judge Blanton (Orange Circuit Court) issued a ruling from the bench today ordering the dismissal of the case against [American Family Voices] stating that the automated dialing statute was limited to commercial calls. The attorney general has argued that the statute is broader and applies to both commercial and political calls such as those made by AFV. A final written order is expected to be forthcoming.
This could have huge implications for the 2008 campaign in Indiana. Will robocalling 527s strike here as they have throughout the primary campaign in other states? I'm especially nervous here in the 9th, where pro-Sodrel calls prompted this legal action back in 2006.
In the meantime, though, AG Steve Carter is holding firm:
"Until all appeals are resolved, companies make political robo-calls at their peril," Carter said. "We will continue to enforce the law to protect citizens from unwanted and illegal practices."
Sylvia A. Smith of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette covers the impending Supreme Court decision as to whether they will hear the challenge to Indiana's voter identification law that has been filed by the Indiana Democratic Party and the ACLU. Far be it from me to imply that the Indiana GOP would conjure up public fear to leverage their position on the voter identification issue, but Attorney General Steve Carter does seem to have a case of the doom-and-glooms.
The court will either agree to hear the case - ultimately choosing between the Indiana Democratic Party's view and the state law - or refuse to consider it, which would be a victory for backers of the law. The justices have not yet said whether they will accept or reject the case.
Carter told the justices that if they are tempted to consider the case, they ought to wait until after the 2008 elections, when it would "not precipitate emergency, election-eve challenges" and when there would be a record of voter ID law enforcement to take into account.
He pointed out that by the end of February 2008, "well before this case would be decided," 24 states and the District of Columbia will already have held presidential primaries.
"Fourteen of those states require some form of identification for all voters," and agreeing to hear the case but not deciding the outcome before those people vote "would create new uncertainty as to the validity of all voter identification requirements, far more uncertainty than exists now," Carter argued.
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I filed the challenge yesterday because my hand count numbers had the petition total at 496. The state GOP operation told 
