Paid for by COUNT US! Political Action Committee, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
 Back to PAC

...Mitch Daniels..

This space is reserved for candidates who's position might be foggy.
Let them know what it would take to win your support and vote. 
Attend their events and speak to them face-to-face.

Web pages: www.mymanmitch.com
Email: MitchDanielsJr@mymanmitch.com

Posted November 27, 2004-- Post election:

http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/opinion/article/0,1626,ECP_794_3282856,00.html

From:  Evansville Courier & Press Gubernatorial challenger outlines his plan on the record  October 26, 2004

QUESTION: What assurances do we have that if you are elected you will keep Interstate 69 moving forward on the course set by the administration?

"This is the first of two question-and-answer reports on the two major party candidates for governor of Indiana. Republican Mitch Daniels, whose responses appear today, met with the Evansville Courier & Press Editorial Board on Aug. 23. Much of this is verbatim, but it has been condensed for space. "

DANIELS: This is the highest-priority infrastructure project for the state. I hope to put it on a course far better than the current administration. The administration has failed for decades now to dig the first shovel of dirt. I would hope to accelerate the current schedule, and I would look for ways to do that. It is very important to know that we have not nearly the money to do the projects, including I-69, that have been dangled before the people of Indiana. So we are going to need to be effective in the spending of those dollars. We're going to need to look for creative ways to finance these projects, and we are going to need to be businesslike in prioritizing the projects. I am going to want to know, as we decide on which things to do with dollars that are too scarce to go around, which of these projects will bring the best return to the most Hoosiers. On a business basis, which will give us the highest return? I'm convinced I-69 comes to the top of such a list. I talk about I-69 when I'm a long way from here. If this project were simply about getting to and from Evansville faster, we shouldn't do it. I am convinced, however, it is good for the economy of the whole state, that we would have more jobs in Anderson and Fort Wayne, as well as Southwest Indiana, if we can build it. And so I want to try to build and maintain support all over Indiana for this. We cannot let this thing rest on the notion that it's our turn.

---

Posted October 21, 2004

On October 20th, The Evansville Courier and Press endorsed Mitch Daniels.  Some will be surprised that COUNT US! PAC continues to give Daniels even a single thumbs up still.  We would request that you read the Evansville's paper endorsement along with our comments posted here: http://www.i69tour.org/danielsendorsements.html

---

Posted September 29, 2004 (The Day after the Governor's Debate)

We are not happy with the position of Mitch Daniels, but it is distinctly in a different class from that of Joe Kernan and deserves to be recognized for the differences.

Today we took the bold move of moving Mitch Daniels from the thumbs-down category to thumbs down/thumbs-up.  

COUNT US! PAC has one bias that we have admitted since our first Voters Guide.  If neither of two candidates represents our position, throw out the incumbent, but our reasoning today is stronger than that. 

We have never been granted a personal sit down meeting, but have had numerous public meetings with Mitch Daniels and have found him willing to talk to us rather than avoiding even a handshake, as has always been our experience with Joe Kernan.   Conversations have exchanged meaningful information both ways.  He has studied the EIS for I-69 and while even he admits to knowing "little" it is clear he has personally read probably ten times the details in the Environmental Impact Study, than has Joe Kernan who only knows the simplest of, "INDOT/Nicol's speak". 

With Daniels, a look at the history of his campaign (below) and his most recent statements,  we see some hope for a "Common Sense I-69" compromise:

• His consistent and growing strong statements questioning the affordability of I-69, 
• his consistent statements that he will change the I-69 3C decision (if only the routing), 
• his historic connection to Senator Richard Lugar, 
• the fact that George W. Bush is the strongest opponent to increased Federal Highway Funding at this time,
• that his toll road proposal might be less liked in Evansville than a US 41/ I-70 upgrade to a free I-69, 
• and even that Daniels support of the "direct route" might well have been the result of political negotiations with the McIntosh candidacy and still not a heart-felt conviction.
  

 On this day, the INDIANAPOLIS STAR gave a one sentence analysis of each candidate: 

• Daniels: "The budget . . . is barely enough to maintain the roads we have now. . . . That's why I brought up the subject of tolls."

Our Greatest hope with Mitch Daniels as Governor would be that he might tell supporters of New Terrain I-69, "There is no money for this.  Take US-41 & I-70 or nothing",   Looking toward his second term, taking a play from the Kernan/ State Democrats who have told Environmentalists, "What are you going to do vote Republican?",  in our wished for future, Daniels would address the David McIntosh & Chamber of Commerce Republicans  and say, "What are you going to do, vote Democrat?"

Posted: September 1, 2004

Mitch Daniels responded to a series of press releases from the Kernan campaign sighting Daniels support for US 31 as a toll road.  We give both candidates thanks for addressing the transportation funding issue.  We are encouraged that Daniels shows some realism about the lack of funds:

http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/174811-9890-022.html

My View: Mitch Daniels

Ready to move ahead with new highway ideas

 The governor of Indiana and this editorial page recently criticized a proposal I never made. I have not proposed tolls on U.S. 31 or any other specific transportation project. In fact, U.S. 31 is widely regarded as a poor candidate for tolling.

But the governor's attack helps open the discussion on a major subject I have discussed. That is the impossibility of the state keeping its pledge on U.S. 31 and other transportation projects. Without new ideas, this administration's record of delays and broken promises will continue.

The governor has promised a long list of new highway projects, including U.S. 31 from South Bend to Indianapolis; U.S. 50 from Lawrenceburg to Vincennes; I-69 from Evansville to Indianapolis; two new bridges over the Ohio River; and numerous others. However, the gap between the cost and the available funds in the Indiana Department of Transportation's budget is more than $3 billion in the next six years. For a state that is broke by every measure, the governor's promise list is impossible.

The governor says he will fill the huge funding gap by increasing fees at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. For the average Hoosier motorist, that means the cost of license plates could increase by $167 every year. What good news! In addition to long lines and inefficient service, Hoosiers can now look forward to astronomically higher bills every year at the BMV. That is far too high a price for the state's taxpayers -- a group that is now the 16th-highest taxed in the country -- to bear.

Then the governor says he will be able to cover additional funding shortfall with federal money. But as anyone in the Indiana congressional delegation would have to acknowledge, it is a fantasy to claim that massive additional support will magically appear. Even the most generous version of the federal highway bill would leave Indiana with a $2 billion transportation funding gap over the next six years.

Studies show that congestion on Indiana's highways will grow by 450 percent over the next 10 years unless new capacity is added to the system. That is why I have pledged to explore new, innovative approaches that will get U.S. 31 and these other important projects built in less time and without the fees proposed by Gov. Kernan.

To build Indiana's infrastructure, we should look at any and all creative concepts like public-private partnerships, maintenance contracting, project component integration, and better traffic information and management, all of which have been used in other states to reduce costs and speed delivery of new highways.

Toll roads could become one part of the solution. A host of other states, including Texas, California, Virginia and Colorado have used new technology and the tolling concept to build state-of-the-art highways quickly. I do not know which bridges or highways would be best suited for tolling. Transportation experts tell me U.S. 31 would be a very poor candidate. However, if we could identify one or more projects elsewhere, it would free up scarce resources to fund U.S. 31 and other important highway projects.

Indiana cannot afford to be stuck with old thinking or leaders who dismiss ideas that might actually make U.S. 31 and our many promises realities.

---

Posted May 3, 2004

Mitch Daniels has not impressed us.  He has flip-flopped on our issue as well as others.  He offers little other than "feel good politics" and a big budget.

He  has refused meaningful meetings with any who would present  facts regarding I-69 that would clear up his misunderstandings on the costs and lack of benefits.  He quickly admits to being "a novice on the I-69 issue", but refuses to meet with anyone who would provide facts that contradict O'Bannon's appointed INDOT commissioner and Evansville & Bloomington I-69 contributors.  

Ask yourself, why would Mitch Daniels choose to watch the Primary's results in Bloomington, Indiana?  Other than NAFTA I-69 that will waste $3.2 Billion dollars in Hoosier tax payers funds for a Boondoggle public works project, he would seem to have no prior association with Bloomington.  Bloomington is city long ruled by the Democratic party and home to some of the Democrat's strongest I-69 proponents.  As the largest public works contract on the table, there is a lot of Hoosier gas-tax money to trickle in to campaign coffers.

 Posted March 9, 2004  (Revised May 3, 2004)

    We have moved Mitch Daniels to our thumbs down category today.  It is true that he has selected a route that is claimed  less expensive than Kernan's chosen route.   With a hybrid route using a modification of the top of rejected Alternative 5 north and 3-C from Martinsville south to I-64,  Daniels has selected the maximum amount of New Terrain damage and costs possible.
 
    We hold a little hope for movement from the Daniels' campaign if he would get the nomination for Governor, because he has left open a willingness to change the route and the fact that he has to this point only exposed his fact finding to those who have financial resources to support I-69.

Since the negotiated end to the McIntosh campaign, we have seen no reason to offer any support to Daniels.

At this time, Eric Miller is the only candidate worthy of our Thumbs-up.

Posted Dec 10, 2003 (Revised January 8, 2004):

Based on the clear statements of Mitch Daniels regarding his support of a 3C/ 5A Hybrid version of O'Bannon/ Kernan's choice of the New terrain routing of 3C, one would expect that COUNT US! PAC would firmly place Mitch Daniels in the Thumbs Down Category.

We have not.
We believe that Mitch Daniels' campaign has traded "the direct route" wording for the exit of  David McIntosh.    But,  just as "blood is thicker than water",  we are encouraged that longtime friends and advisors to Mitch Daniels are U.S. Senator Richard Lugar and State Senator Lawrence Borst.  We hold out hope and some belief that Daniels is playing a roll that will ultimately work to our advantage.

Minimally, Daniels has provided strong arguments that the final decision on I-69 will be made by the Governor in office after the 2004 election.  Daniels has clearly established his intent to change the project regardless of Kernan's ,  INDOT's and Federal Highway Administration's actions before that time.  Further we are grateful that Daniels has made I-69 a state wide issue on economic grounds.  We believe that the Boondoggle I-69 will ultimately be abandoned if the State wide voting public is educated truthfully. 

We hold Kernan to a higher standard as the elected official at this time.  When Daniels is our states governor, we will hold him to the same standard.  When there is no choice, we the voters must oust the incumbent and let the challenger know the same will be their treatment in the next election. 

Posted Nov. 8, 2003:

Posted Sept 5, 2003:
Daniels dropped from "Thumbs Up" on September 5th.   It comes as a disappointment to us that Mitch Daniels is now using "The Direct Route" language one day after the withdrawal of  David McIntosh from the Gubernatorial race.

Daniels has shown he is good with budgets, but he is counting votes, not dollars (except for campaign dollars).  He is betting that support from Indianapolis and Evansville will overcome opposition from Bloomington and Terre haute.  To heck with our tax dollars and the states economy.  We are leaving Mitch as a thumbs-up and down, for his staunch opinion that the next Governor will decide this issue and for his previous statements of fiscal responsibility, but he is looking more bought-and-paid-for all the time.

    Please read down beyond this first news article to see how promising a candidate he can be.   Daniels has been a leader in expressing the fact that the next Governor will have the power to correct the O'Bannon Boondoggle New Terrain I-69 Route.  If Daniel is going to gain our support, he is going to have to say US41 & I-70 is direct enough, given the state of our states economy and our true transportation needs.  Even responsible voters in Evansville will understand this language! 

www.myinky.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_2302957,00.html

Daniels to take close look at I-69
Not sure about section near Indy

By JENNIFER WHITSON Courier & Press Indianapolis bureau (317) 631-7405 or jwhitson@indyweb.net September 27, 2003

INDIANAPOLIS - As Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels travels around the state in an RV, he is not only getting to know more Hoosiers, he's also polishing his positions on issues, such as Interstate 69. 

 "I intend to be the governor who builds this road and puts and the political football," Daniels said Friday in an interview with the Courier & Press. "The biggest issue to me is making sure we have a plan we can pay for in a reasonably short time frame and a plan that won't run on the rocks of political opposition from somewhere else." 

He said he is not comfortable with the northern section of 3C, especially how the road connects with Indianapolis. 

"I'm not holding myself out as a highway engineer," Daniels said. "All I'm saying is that there are several close variations to 3C that cost much less money and I think they deserve a further  look before we leap." 

And he said he is concerned with the overall costs. 

"Now once again, I want no more studies, this (review) would be working with the data we have," Daniels said. "Everything's already been studied. And I think that there may be some financing options that haven't yet been explored." 

When pressed on exactly what variation he was talking about, Daniels declined to specify. But he said he wants a direct route. 

The closest variations to 3C included in the studied routes are 3A and 3B, which alter where the route enters into Indianapolis traffic. 

Route 3C connects the interstate by bringing it straight up Indiana 37 all the way to the interstate loop around Indianapolis. It has been a tough sell in the Indianapolis area with some residents protesting it. The route also runs through the southside district of Indiana Senate Finance Chairman Lawrence Borst, who could block state funding for the road project. 

Daniels most likely isn't referring to 3B, which brings the highway up Indiana 37 then west along Mann Road before running into the loop, because its estimated cost is $10 million more than 3C. And it would be an even tougher sell politically because it runs the interstate along the farm of U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, Daniels' mentor and former boss. 
 

Daniels may be referring to 3A, which doesn't use Indiana 37 at all, but rather follows Interstate 70 West out of Indianapolis before heading south on new terrain until meeting up with Indiana 57. 

The cost estimates for that route are $400 million lower than 3C,  but it didn't make it onto the Department of Transportation's preferred route list because it has "high unavoidable impacts" on the environment.  Daniels also could consider a completely different alignment from Martinsville north that didn't make it into the final list of preferred routes.

The Indiana Department of Transportation must complete a final environmental study on 3C and submit to the Federal Highway Administration, which it hopes to have done by the end of 2003. 

Daniels willing to reconsider I-69 route
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/3/057407-8013-102.html

                       Associated Press
                       July 13, 2003

                            BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The early front-runner for the Republican nomination in the race for
                       governor says he is open to reconsidering the selected route for the I-69 extension.
                            Mitch Daniels resigned last month after two years as White House budget director and formed a
                       campaign committee to raise money for the gubernatorial race.
                            Daniels began a statewide tour last week, pledging to visit all of Indiana's 92 counties over the
                       next 100 days. About 200 people heard Daniels speak before a lunch crowd at a cafeteria Friday.
                            A member of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, which opposes the selected I-69 route,
                       asked Daniels if he would be willing to reopen the debate if he was elected governor.
                            Daniels said he must learn much more about the project but that he would be "open" to bringing
                       the issue back up for discussion.
                            "I know there are deep feelings on both sides," he said.
                            The I-69 extension is part of the planned "NAFTA Superhighway" that would cross through
                       eight states to link Canada and Mexico.
                            Earlier this year, Gov. Frank O'Bannon selected the proposed route in Indiana that would link
                       Indianapolis and Evansville. The route takes the Ind. 37 corridor from Indianapolis south past
                       Martinsville and Bloomington, then southwest to near Washington and then roughly follows Ind. 57
                       to I-64 north of Evansville.
                            Indiana's proposed route must be approved by the Federal Highway Administration and will
                       likely face continued opposition and possible lawsuits by environmentalists before construction
                       begins.
                            Daniels said that as governor, his position would be driven by economic cost-benefit
                       considerations. He said a decision of that magnitude will have to be made on "hard dollars and cents
                       for where we get the most public benefit for the most people."
                            O'Bannon, a Democrat, is barred by law from seeking a third consecutive term.
                           Also seeking the Republican nomination are former U.S. Rep. David McIntosh, the party's
                       2000 nominee for governor; conservative activist Eric Miller; Petersburg Mayor Randy Harris; and
                       Indianapolis businessman Bob Parker.
                            Two Democrats -- state Sen. Vi Simpson of Ellettsville and former state and national
                       Democratic chairman Joe Andrew -- are seeking their party's nomination.

http://www.tribstar.com/display/inn_news/news04.txt
 

Daniels: Governor's job to bolster economy

Gubernatorial candidate makes stop in Terre Haute on statewide tour

By Peter Ciancone/Tribune-Star

August 29, 2003

From a distance, the white RV that serves as the mobile headquarters for Mitch Daniels for Governor looks like it's covered with road grime.

As it nears, the grime turns into hundreds of signatures Daniels has collected on a tour that will visit all 92 Indiana counties in 100 days.

A map of Indiana painted on the back shows 63 of the counties colored in. Vigo County got colored in Thursday.

Daniels, former budget director for President George W. Bush, is seeking the Republican nomination for Indiana governor one county at a time, one
small town at a time, one handshake at a time. He met with a group of about 35 Republicans in Terre Haute, and laughed off sympathy about his
hectic pace.

"Compared to what George Bush had me doing the past two and a half years, this is not heavy lifting," he said.

"These are the things we do every day," he told the group over lunch. "This is where the fun is."

After a pep talk about the need to change leadership to stimulate a floundering state economy, and about the things Daniels reported seeing in the first
part of his statewide tour, he fielded questions from the group: his stance on abortion, on to Interstate 69, and a request for examples of how market
solutions could be found for things that have been seen as government problems.

"We'll look at every way to advance the protection of life," he told one questioner, admitting that there were few practical ways for a state governor to
get involved in the legal struggle over abortion.

Daniels told the group that he wanted to see I-69 built, but the decision made by Gov. Frank O'Bannon in January, naming a controversial route through Washington and Bloomington, was not final.

"It can't be a done deal, because they don't know how to pay for it," he said. Daniels said Indiana has several major transportation projects on the books that all need funds.

"If we take the most expensive version of I-69, we may not have money for anything else," Daniels said. "He [O'Bannon] may have the best idea but I'm not persuaded yet."

Regarding market solutions, Daniels said he likes to apply the "Yellow Pages" test. If there's business providing the service, maybe government ought
to get out of it.

He wants to be governor, he said, to bolster Indiana's economy. He wants to start by making the governor the lead economic developer rather than the
lieutenant governor.

"It's the reason I decided to run for office, why would I delegate it to somebody else?" he said in an interview after his public appearance. Indiana
needs to find ways to create growth-friendly environments, lowering taxes and reducing regulations that hinder businesses. A governor must also
find ways to support local strategies for growth and development. His tour is designed to see and hear as many of those as he can.

Daniels brushed off criticism leveled by Democratic Party gubernatorial hopeful Vi Simpson that his term as Bush's budget director saw growth of
the largest deficit in history, a combination of tax cuts and increased spending on defense.

"Their arguments are with George Bush," he said. "Those are his priorities."

Daniels endorses tax cuts as a means to stimulate the national economy, adding that he believed we are seeing signs of the good it is doing. And he
took a shot at Democrats who picked at the president's priorities.

"I never had an argument with a member of Senator Simpson's party in which they wanted to spend less," he said. The president set priorities to fight
terrorism, build a Department of Homeland Security and provide tax relief, he said.

"When you ask which of these things would you not do, the room tends to be a little quiet," he said.

Daniels will run in May against former U.S. Rep. David McIntosh, Petersburg Mayor Randy Harris and political activist Eric Miller for the
Republican nomination. The winner will face either former national Democratic Party chairman Joe Andrew or state Sen. Simpson in November
2004.

Peter Ciancone can be reached at (812) 231-4253 or pete.ciancone@tribstar.com.