Governor Joe Kernan. These candidates are strongly in favor New Terrain I-69.   Build it, whatever it costs, as quickly as possible!   Not worth your time of day, much less your vote!.. Campaign and communication information to be added soon.

Chronologically presented coverage of the Candidate.  The newest entry to the earliest.

Activist protests Kernan I-69 plan

He wants governor to lose election on issue, but Daniels for interstate proposal, too.

    INDIANAPOLIS -- Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan wants to build an interstate highway linking Evansville, Indianapolis and points in between, including Bloomington.
    So does his Republican challenger, Mitch Daniels.
    But a prominent environmental activist has targeted Kernan for defeat on that issue alone, on the grounds that Democratic administrations have pushed harder than Republicans to drive an unwanted road through the fields, forests and farms of southern Indiana.
    Even by the standards of single-issue politics, it's an unusual stance. But Jeff Stant says the passions that surround the proposed highway run so strong that anti-highway voters may well heed his call to turn out Kernan and take their chances with Daniels.
    "By God, people are upset enough about this to make (this strategy) work," Stant says.
    According to Kernan's campaign, Stant is on a misguided mission that would turn over the highest elected office in Indiana to someone without Kernan's environmental credentials.
    And the campaign believes that, although environmentally minded voters comprise a significant voting bloc, most will judge the governor on a broad range of issues.
    "If certain voters want to choose who they're voting for based on the I-69 decision, that's certainly their prerogative," campaign spokeswoman Tina Noel says. "I would hope that they look at the governor's complete record, and the record of Mr. Daniels, and then make the call on Election Day."
    Stant, 45, brings more than a few tools to his quest. He's the former head of the Hoosier Environmental Council, with strong ties to environmental organizations and activists around the state. He has southern      Indiana roots and an evident love for the region's unglaciated terrain, rural economy and way of life.
    He also commands the facts and insights necessary to mount a vigorous debate about the highway's value, plus the passion to draw others to his cause.
    "I've never been more angry about an issue, more stirred by it," he says.
    Passion alone may not sway voters. But environmentalists who know and respect Stant say a combination of factors could play into his hands.
    "Don't underestimate him," says Thomas E. Dustin, environmental affairs adviser to the 40-chapter Izaak Walton League, Indiana Division. "He is a very energetic guy."

I-69 debate complex

    Like all major public works projects, the proposed extension of I-69 involves a face-off between competing values and interest groups.  
    Proponents say the direct, or new terrain route will bring sorely needed development and jobs to a neglected part of the state. Of equal importance, it will link important Indiana cities along a commerce corridor that eventually will tie the middle of America to essential trading partners in Canada and Mexico.     
    The anticipated cost is high: an estimated $1.8 billion and the loss of valued lands. But the Kernan administration cites a long list of benefits that includes safer and shorter travel between major cities and new development that will generate $3.5 billion in added personal income and 4,600 permanent jobs by 2025.     
    That ties directly to the chief theme of the race for governor: jobs and economic development.
    "Some would say that this election is a single-issue election," Noel says, "and that's job creation, and that's certainly what the governor is focused on."     
    But new terrain critics say Indiana could achieve similar results by routing I-69 from Indianapolis to Terre Haute to Evansville, along the existing corridors of I-70 and U.S. 41.  
    That route, they say, would cost significantly less money, involve far less environmental and human disruption, and boost sagging economies in hard-hit Vigo, Sullivan and Knox counties.  
    They also emphasize the effects a new terrain highway would have on other parts of the state, where highway projects might be delayed or scrapped as I-69 eats the lion's share of available state and federal construction money.
    "Yeah, there are multiple (construction) projects all the time, if you look at the state's transportation improvement plan," concedes Bill Hayden, a new terrain critic from Bloomington. "(But) what you can use federal money for is fiscally constrained."
    Hayden, who has twice run for local office as a Democrat, did not endorse Stant's dump-Kernan drive. But he says it may be a political tactic worth trying.  
    "Maybe making this a higher profile issue with the existing governor might make both candidates more aware of the depth of opposition to their plan," he says.
    That opposition is clear by several measures. Every environmental organization in Indiana opposes the new terrain highway, and even state transportation officials concede that 20,000 of 27,000 public comments on the project oppose it, too.
    Yet Stant may be leading a short parade of committed environmentalists.
    That's due in part to the regional focus of most of Indiana's Earth-friendly groups, but also to the risks inherent in Stant's gambit.
    "Speaking personally, I don't support Jeff's position on trying to oust the governor ... and the council doesn't take political positions like that," says Charlotte Read, a driving force and current assistant director of Save the Dunes Council in northwest Indiana.
    Diana Mendelsohn-Snyder, of the Earth Day Resource Center in St. Joseph County, says "no one" is talking about I-69 in northern Indiana.
    And as she sees it, no one should make a decision for governor unless they've considered the candidates' views on education, economic development and, yes, the environment.
    "The word of the wise for me, as an environmental person, is to consider all of the above, before you make a decision," Mendelsohn-Snyder says. "I call it balance."
    That's not to say that environmentalists are enthusiastic about Hoosier Democrats' environmental records. They point to understaffing at the Department of Environmental Management, to underfunding of key environmental initiatives, and to a general tendency to embrace development at all costs.
    "Democrat administrations can't really brag that they have that great an environmental record," says Hayden, the conservation chairman for the Hoosier chapter of the Sierra Club.

Strange bedfellows?

But Stant's campaign does not rely solely on environmentalists.
    He has drawn on sympathizers from the state's timber and agricultural industries, from fiscal conservatives who think Indiana can't afford the road, and even from antigovernment activists such as the Rev. Gregory A. Dixon, who lost a bitter tax battle with the federal government involving the now-closed Indianapolis Baptist Temple.
    Stant acknowledges that many environmentalists might cringe at the politics of some of his newfound allies. But he says he cannot reject Dixon or others like him who have the right opinion on I-69.
    "We are allied with him because he opposes this highway," Stant says, "and the politics of successful movements is always one that's based on diversity."
    Stant is also following a partisan political course. He is co-coordinator of the Marion County Green Party and is backing the party's newly announced candidate for governor, Steve Bonney.
    Bonney, who owns an organic farm in Greene County, on the cusp of the proposed highway route, announced his candidacy at a Stant-organized protest rally outside a Kernan fund-raising event last week.
    Stant says only some of the 80-odd participants were Greens, a not unexpected showing given the party's tiny status here. But he says Bonney's candidacy is important for two reasons: It represents an alternative to Kernan and Daniels, and it raises the issue's profile as Bonney seeks petition signatures to put his name on the ballot.
    Even Stant concedes that Bonney will likely not gather enough signatures, a possibility that is underscored by other Greens' lack of familiarity with Bonney.
    Tom Brown, of the St. Joe Valley Greens, learned of Bonney from a reporter, and professed similar lack of knowledge -- and enthusiasm -- about Stant's anti-Kernan crusade.
    "Personally, I wouldn't want to try and defeat Joe Kernan on a single issue like this," Brown says.
    But Brown frames his position around practical politics -- Kernan's potential defeat -- not the issue itself.
    "I think that Jeff is right," he says. "Environmentally, there's only one place to stand: We don't need more concrete, we don't need more disruption of the environment. (But) when you start talking (practical) politics in Indiana, that's a different story."
    Stant has heard it before: Democrats are better on the whole than Republicans when it comes to the environment, so environmentalists cannot risk the defeat of officials like Kernan.
    But he says people who care about the quality of Indiana's air, land and water can no longer afford that view, which has rendered them "impotent" on I-69.
    Sounding every bit like the prophets of old, who railed against their own people with a hard and stubborn message, Stant stands firm against all doubters.
    Politicians will never heed environmentalists until they pay a political price for ignoring them, Stant says, and the 2004 race for governor is a good place to start.
    "Being a nonfactor isn't acceptable," he says.
Staff writer Martin DeAgostino:
mdeagostino@sbtinfo.com
(317) 634-1707

Fiscally Reckless and out of touch with Hoosier common sense.

Mid to late January of 2004, the honeymoon with Joe Kernan was over and the O'Bannon economy raised it's head with a vengeance.

The economy roared, Indiana's credit rating was dropped, all the economic statistics showing Indiana leading the nation in downward trends and the dreaded word "bankruptcy" popping up from all  corners.   His every effort to create political solutions were exposing his weaknesses and the true state of the state:

All day kindergarten brought to light the missing Teachers Retirement Fund:  A 7.9 Billion obligation now borrowed down to 1.8 Billion in assets with after being raided to the tune of 6.1 Billion to "balance" the states budget. Link1, Link2, Link3, Link4
A Transportation Bonding proposal to fund "undefined projects" (I-69) with the sale of bonds was exposed by Republicans for costing Indiana $1.8 Billion over 14 years to access $800 Million in the next year.  20,000 some jobs paying $20K each would cost Indiana approximately $47,000 each and last only one year.  It would reduce the federal funds available to build I-69 beyond the first year by $60 million dollars per year.  It would  seem a desperate politician headed in two directions at the helm, unless he pulls his support of I-69 Link1, Link2
Standard & Poors reduced the states credit rating from A+A+ to AA.  This will increase the interests that the state will have to pay purchasers of state issued bonds in the future.  A time for fiscally sensible planning is in the face of I-69 unfounded optimism in our estimations. Link1, Link2         

We predict that understanding the cost, and  knowledge of the lack of positive benefit  from I-69 will be understood in time to  help derail  this  spend and pillage fiscally reckless governorship.   The analysis of  Senate Finance Committee chairman Lawrence Borst stood as an early crack in the myth of I-69. 

On November 6th, Governor Kernan announced reversal of his earlier decision not to run for Governor of Indiana in 2004.
He has announced that he will continue down the path of the late Governor O'Bannon on the selection of I-69/ 3C.  We must assume that INDOT and proponents have been feeding him misleading information and encouragement to support this boondoggle.  His choice of 3C through the farms of Gibson, Pike and Daviess Counties is inconsistent with his previous work to preserve farms.  We as citizens have a limited opportunity of time to get his attention before his statements lock in his action as Governor.  We encourage responsible citizenship!  Contact this highest office holder in our state, make him read facts of the DEIS that INDOT is skipping over!  A governor from South Bend is being hoodwinked by the Chamber of $ from Evansville, this is unacceptable.

Posted Sept 12, 2003
Governor Kernan has not announced his intention to run for the office in 2004, but this eventuality must be considered.
He has a history as a national leader in protection of farm land as a resource.  We hope this heartfelt commitment and a widely held belief by most everyone in the state that we are on the wrong path economically, might make him a better governor than his predecessor.

We wait with hope and fear to hear Governor Kernan speak on I-69.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/6756242.htm
Posted on Fri, Sep. 12, 2003
Kernan's policies likely to be same
He's worked closely with O'Bannon.
Mike Smith
of The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - Joe Kernan decided nine months ago not to run for governor, and he says he does not expect changing his mind.

Plenty of Democrats and Republicans alike, however, are glad someone like Kernan is overseeing the state's business while Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon cannot. Involved, capable and confident are words often used to describe him.

Kernan brings his own personality and leadership style to his new duties as acting governor. He has a more outward and commanding presence than O'Bannon, and is viewed as a more aggressive, "roll up the sleeves and get to it" kind of politician.

But it would surprise many if he made any dramatic shifts in policy.

"Acting Gov. Kernan will not do anything that will be contrary to the governor's wishes. I am confident of that," said Republican Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton.

Democratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer said Kernan and O'Bannon are very close personal friends and working partners, "so there will be no difference in what they do as a matter of policy."

So far, Kernan has been familiarizing himself with his new responsibilities and taking care of day-to-day duties the governor handles. For example, he signed extradition papers for a man behind on child-support payments, and consulted with the chief of the Indiana Finance Authority about closing some bond issues.

On Thursday, he attended a church service for the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and planned to tape the governor's weekly radio address.

But there are bigger issues looming. The state still faces an $800 million budget deficit and is falling deeper in the hole. Revenue for the first two months of this fiscal year came in $87.5 million below projections.

And many lawmakers in both parties say more must be done to blunt the statewide property-tax reassessment and its hit on some homeowners. In O'Bannon's absence, they will be looking to Kernan for leadership on those fronts.

And many seem confident he will deliver it, even if he does not change his mind about not running for governor next year.

"Because of the circumstances, I don't think he'll be viewed as a lame duck," said Rep. Matt Whetstone, R-Brownsburg. "Folks will give him a chance to move his opinion toward people and come up with some good policies."

Whetstone said Kernan was a "bulldog" as South Bend mayor, and if he must be acting governor for a long time, he expects him to be a bulldog in that role.

Kernan already has proved he can work with both parties in the General Assembly. He was O'Bannon's point man in selling and pushing a tax-restructuring package to passage last year, and played a similar role in the economic development initiatives enacted this year.

As lieutenant governor, Kernan has played a largely ceremonial role in presiding over the Republican-controlled Senate. But he has taken that role seriously and scored points with senators.

"His first day in the Senate was like he had been there a long time," said Sen. Robert Meeks of LaGrange, a top budget negotiator for Senate Republicans. "That transition was really smooth, and I think he's very capable of doing whatever he has to do."

When it comes to policy and directions state government should take, said Robin Winston, former state Democratic chairman, Kernan and O'Bannon seem to read each other's minds.

"It is truly an aberration in politics to see two men in positions that are so closely aligned get along on every issue, and these two guys do it," Winston said. "That is not baloney. I call Joe Kernan All-State, because Indiana is in good hands with him as governor."

Will he run? Wife opens door First lady's remarks fuel talk that Kernan may reverse decision to leave politics in 2004.

                       By Mary Beth Schneider
                       mary.beth.schneider@indystar.com
                       September 30, 2003

                            Joe Kernan moved into the governor's
                       office Monday and faced a new round of
                       questions about whether he might seek the
                       office in 2004 -- an option he didn't
                       completely rule out.
                            Kernan had turned his back last
                       December on an expected run for governor in
                       2004. But since Gov. Frank O'Bannon's death
                       on Sept. 13 elevated him to the office, Kernan
                       has fended off new speculation that the
                       changed circumstances might also change his
                       political plans.
                            Monday, his wife, Maggie Kernan,
                       fueled that speculation by advising her
                       husband not to rule anything out.
                            "My advice to Joe is, things can change,"
                       the new first lady told The South Bend
                       Tribune, the Kernans' hometown newspaper.
                       The story was published Monday. "I don't
                       believe he should shut the door on it just yet."
                            Maggie Kernan was unavailable for
                       comment Monday, but her husband told reporters that "nothing that has happened in the last weeks
                       has caused me to change my mind."
                            Still, Joe Kernan did indicate that he and his wife will deliberate a final decision.
                            "It's a joint decision. It's one that we'll make together. We have not had a chance to really talk
                       about it," he said.
                            This, he said, is "Maggie's opinion," conveyed to him in a private conversation that he didn't
                       know she'd made public until it hit the newsstands Monday morning.
                            As he takes over the governor's duties, he added, political decisions are "very low on the list."
                            One pressing decision facing him is the choice of a new lieutenant governor. Kernan said he has
                       had discussions with people about that selection, which could come as early as this week.
                            He is looking, he said, for both someone he gets along with and someone who can step into the
                       job of governor if something should happen to him.
                            Monday, Kernan stepped into the Statehouse at 7:30 a.m. to begin work for the first time in the
                       governor's second-floor office.
                            "It was very strange," said Kernan, who since O'Bannon's death had remained in the lieutenant
                       governor's third-floor office.
                            Over the weekend, some of his personal items had been moved into the governor's office.
                            Family photos sit on a table behind his desk. On the fireplace mantel rests the golden Spirit of
                       Notre Dame award he received in 1989 from his alma mater.
                            And on a glass display case sit models of military planes, including the RA-5C Vigilante
                       reconnaissance jet the former Navy pilot was flying in whe n he was shot down over North Vietnam
                       in 1972, beginning his 11 months as a prisoner of war.
                            Next to his desk, and in one corner of the office, rest symbols of his real passion -- baseball.
                       Picking up a baseball bat in a slugger's grip, Kernan told reporters that it's his favorite: a Hoosier bat,
                       "The Dream," made in Valparaiso.
                            In fact, if there's one job Kernan might prefer to governor it's owning a baseball team. He and
                       two other former Notre Dame baseball players are exploring buying the single-A Silver Hawks in
                       South Bend.
                            He also plans on swapping some of the historic portraits of past governors hanging in the office,
                       including bringing in a different portrait of one of his favorite governors, Gov. Oliver P. Morton, who
                       guided Indiana during the Civil War.
                            One piece of furniture staying in the governor's office is a small drop-leaf table with two chairs
                       that sits in the morning sunshine filtering into the office under one window.
                            Kernan had lunch there with a newly inaugurated Frank O'Bannon in January 1997, when
                       O'Bannon also made the move from the lieutenant governor's office.
                            Looking around the spacious and plush governor's office, Kernan had asked O'Bannon:
                       "Governor, how do you like your new digs?"
                            "He looked at me and said, 'I want my old digs back,' " Kernan said. "I agree with Frank."
                       Call Star reporter Mary Beth Schneider at 1-317-444-2772.

                       October 5, 2003

                            We may have come full circle.
                            Last December, then Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan rocked Indiana political circles when he said he didn't
                       want to run for governor.
                            Now, he is governor.
                            On Sept. 13, he took the oath of office, only hours after Gov. Frank O'Bannon died of the
                       stroke he had suffered earlier that week.
                            Now, he is putting in place the Kernan administration.
                            The question, though, is whether that's a 15-month footnote in Indiana's history books, an
                       administration with an asterisk, or whether it's just the prelude to a four-year Kernan term in office.
                            It's a question Kernan should answer soon.
                            In the days after O'Bannon's death, Kernan fended off the renewed questions about his political
                       future. Nothing, he said, had changed.
                            But last week his wife, Maggie, acknowledged things have changed so much that she had advised
                       him not to rule out a run for governor.
                            Those words electrified many in Indiana politics -- both those who want Kernan to run and
                       those who are afraid he will.
                            "It was the shot heard round the state," said Butch Morgan, a longtime ally of Kernan's.
                            He's also the Democratic chairman of the 2nd Congressional District. Democrats there already
                       have endorsed Joe Andrew, a former state and national party chairman, to be governor.
                            Andrew and state Sen. Vi Simpson have been campaigning for the job all summer. But this new
                       political equation is changing their worlds, too.
                            Morgan said he likes and supports Andrew -- "but if Kernan gets in, we have to revisit the
                       whole scenario."
                            Former Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Robin Winston calls it "Etch A Sketch politics."
                            Things shake up, and the whole picture disappears, leaving a clean slate.
                            Now, any picture can be drawn. Take your pick: Kernan runs, with Andrew or Simpson as his
                       running mate. Kernan runs, with the lieutenant governor he's expected to pick this week at his side.
                       Kernan runs, with a new running mate selected next spring while the lieutenant governor he chose
                       serves just a 15-month term.
                            And, of course, there's the scenario that had been expected all along: Kernan doesn't run.
                            Only now, Andrew's and Simpson's campaigns seem smaller. The party's hankering for Kernan
                       has made it clear they are second-best, at least in so many Democrats' minds.
                            The only person right now with his hands on the knobs of that Etch A Sketch is Kernan. Soon,
                       he must fill in key details -- the face of the new lieutenant governor and a portrait of himself.
                            He's either a governor trying to finish an agenda in the next 15 months, or a governor who wants
                       four more years to complete the picture.
                            Virtually every Democrat I spoke to last week hopes it's the latter. And all point to Kernan's
                       Navy pilot past -- a record that includes 11 months as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam -- as hope
                       that his battlefield promotion due to O'Bannon's death will cause him to re-enlist.
                            Rachel Gorlin, a political consultant who helped elect O'Bannon in 1996, recalled Shakespeare's
                       words: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
                            Kernan has had the state's highest office thrust upon him, along with a chance to find out if he
                       can make it great.
                            Said Gorlin: "I just don't think you walk away from that."