Eric Holcomb Archives

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb brandished his front-runner status Saturday as he kicked off his reelection campaign with a rally extolling the state’s economy while brushing off any criticism of his record.

Holcomb made his announcement before a few hundred people at Knightstown’s Hoosier Gym, which served as the home court for the fictional underdog Hickory Huskers basketball team in the 1986 movie “Hoosiers.” But he heads into the 2020 election with $6 million already in his campaign’s bank account thanks to his leverage of leading a GOP-dominated state without any high-profile Democrats vying to unseat him.

Holcomb touted what he says are record hiring commitments from businesses since he took office in 2017 and numerous infrastructure investments, including work to complete the Interstate 69 extension through southwestern Indiana and plans for upgrading the South Shore commuter rail line between South Bend and Chicago.

Democrats fault Holcomb for what they call “empty promises” on issues such as raising teacher pay, expanding the state-funded preschool program and lowering health care costs.

Holcomb, however, argued that policies under Indiana’s Republican governors the past 15 years have given the state a top-level AAA credit rating and enabled it to beat other states for jobs and business investment.

“We’re going to keep on winning, because this state, we provide certainty, and we provide stability and predictability and an aspirational continuity about our conduct of affairs,” Holcomb said. “We are exactly, exactly what the entrepreneurs and the career creators are craving.”

Now the most powerful elected official in the state, Holcomb was only a little-known former state Republican Party chairman four years ago. He was struggling to raise money for a U.S. Senate campaign when then-Gov. Mike Pence appointed him to be lieutenant governor in early 2016. He became the party’s gubernatorial candidate after Donald Trump picked Pence as his running mate.

Paul Helmke, an Indiana University public affairs professor and a former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, said Holcomb has used the power of incumbency well and avoided major controversies such as what Pence faced over Indiana’s 2015 religious objections law that was widely panned as a sanctioning of discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community under the guise of religious belief. An intense social media and business backlash led lawmakers to make changes that prevented the state law from overriding local LGBT-rights ordinances.

“People hear his name and don’t hear any clear negatives or criticisms of him,” Helmke said of Holcomb. “He comes across as a nice guy, friendly, trying to do a good job. It really is an amazing story because I doubt four years ago he would’ve registered on anybody’s list of being somebody to pay attention to.”

Democrats don’t have any well-known potential challengers to Holcomb, with business executive and former state health commissioner Woody Myers as their only declared candidate so far. Eddie Melton, a state senator from Gary, created a gubernatorial exploratory committee last month. State Rep. Karlee Macer of Indianapolis is also considering entering the race.

State Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said Holcomb has ignored the needs of working families in favor of giving tax cuts to big corporations, producing a list of “unidentifiable” accomplishments.

“Indiana Democrats are offering a message about education, jobs, health care, equality, better elections,” Zody said. “Any candidate who’s out there on the ground, up and down the ballot, are talking about those things.”

Helmke said it could take a big shake-up in the Indiana campaign — such as South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropping his Democratic presidential campaign to run for governor — or national developments that are out of Holcomb’s control to put his reelection in danger.

“I think the only thing he really needs to worry about is some major economic downturn or major scandal, crisis for the Republicans at the national level,” Helmke said.

The governor said he and Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch would run a 2020 campaign that “shares the good news.”

“The stars are aligned and we have a record of positive results,” Holcomb said. “We are organized and we are mobilized, and we are energized to keep Indiana rising.”

More help is on the way for Hoosiers fighting drug addiction.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb on Friday ceremoniously signed three bills into law to provide more resources and support for the state’s drug crisis.

Holcomb looked straight into a TV camera during a news conference at Franciscan Health Indianapolis and said, “This is about life-and-death situations.”

The three new laws were designed to usher in resources for addicted Hoosiers. The governor spoke directly to people who are hurting.

“You can get your life back. You can get your family back,” Holcomb said. “There is a bigger family out there. I run into good-hearted folks every single day that have put their interest aside so they can help you.”

Erin Neu, an obstetrics nurse navigator, works with pregnant moms battling substance abuse for Franciscan Health.

“It’s very hard for them,” she said and got teary eyed.

“They’re very scared,” Neu said at the news conference. “They’re frightened of what may happen to them and their family.”

State Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer, a Republican from Beech Grove, said her bill, House Bill 1007, calls in part for adding nine opioid treatment centers statewide in the coming years. The goal is to have centers within an hour’s drive of people who need their services.

Kirchhofer said Friday at the news conference, “I’ve heard of people having to drive from Brookville, Indiana, to Indianapolis and back before 8 a.m., investing two, three, four hours of travel before they even start work. This will get treatment to them. Keep them working.”

State Sen. Jim Merritt, a Republican from Indianapolis, said his bill, Senate Bill 139, requires county coroners to investigate if they suspect someone died of an intentional or accidental overdose of a controlled substance.

Merritt said at the news conference, “Understanding what individuals are dying from, what drugs are in our communities. We know Fentanyl is playing a large role in overdose deaths now.”

State Sen. Erin Houchin, a Republican from Salem, said her bill, Senate Bill 221, requires doctors who want to prescribe opiates, including Oxycodone, to register with the Indiana’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program called INSPECT. Doctors also will have to search a patient’s prescription history in that database before writing an opiate prescription.

Houchin said at the news conference that the database is “to make sure the patient is not at risk for an overdose, is using their prescriptions appropriately, and is not over-using or doctor-hopping.”

Dr. Jim Callaghan, CEO of Franciscan Health Central Indiana, said the laws will help hospitals.

“It’s gonna help us treat our patients and our newborns, some of whom are born with an opiate addiction and have to go through a painful withdrawal treatment process.”

Indiana’s drug czar Jim McClelland discussed the sources of the money for these resources.

“There’s more coming from the federal government now,” McClelland said, “the waiver that we had approved from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Policy. That now enables us to use Medicaid and HIP (Healthy Indiana Plan) dollars to pay for residential treatment and recovery support services which basically enable us to use those dollars for a full range of services.”

McClelland said millions of dollars are coming to Indiana. “That money is almost all federal dollars coming in. Plus, the budget that the Congress passed recently has more money in it to tackle the opioid problem. So, there’s more money, there’s a lot more money coming in. We’ll be working on what we might want to bring before the General Assembly in 2019.”

Holcomb officially signed all three bills on March 22. They will take effect July 1.

David Williams is the Nexstar Indiana Statehouse bureau chief.

Big changes are on the way for standardized testing in your child’s school.

But it won’t be as soon as many expected, which is raising some questions.

We spoke with Jennifer McCormick, state superintendent of public instruction.

She said students will still take ISTEP, the statewide student achievement test, this year.

McCormick said children in third through eighth will start to switch to the ILEARN — Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network — test next year.

If your children are in high school, they’ll have to wait longer for the change.

“The ISTEP high school exam will go on for another two years,” McCormick explained.

When asked why Indiana’s much-maligned test is staying a while longer, McCormick said it’s partly because of graduation requirements and making sure a nationally recognized exam is vetted.

“It has to be looked at regarding Indiana standards. So, it’s gonna take some time. We wanted to get it right and not be sloppy,” McCormick said.

Lawrence Township Schools leaders said they’ve dealt with computer test problems and heard concerns from parents and schools about not getting test results back for months on end.

“Students would take the first part of the exam in February/March. The second part of the exam April/May. But we didn’t get results back for months and months and months.That really was challenging for families, not knowing how their students were doing,” Troy Knoderer, director of curriculum, instruction and professional development for Lawrence Township Schools said.

Lawrence North High School Principal Brett Crousore said he hears parents question the tests’ validity, as well as whether the test accurately shows what students are able to do and what they’ve learned.

“I would contend it’s not. There’s a lot of skills that students have today that are not reflective in a test. I think we need to find something that prepares our students for their ‘next’.If their ‘next’ is college, great. If their ‘next’ is the workforce, great for them,” Crousore said.

At the state level, the Department of Education said there are two possibilities for what could replace ISTEP. The SAT or ACT are two options. But in schools including Lawrence North High School, administrators have questions.

“Is the SAT for example prepared to be a high school proficiency exam versus demonstrating whether a student’s ready for college or not?” Knoderer asked “Those are pieces we’ve got to work through.”

Crousore said if your child is in seventh grade in the 2017-2018 school year, they’ll be the first class to take the new test.

Crousore added he feels like this extra time and the education bill signed into law a couple weeks ago, will allow schools to figure out what he calls pathways for students who might want to go to work instead of college: “Right now, we’re putting students into multiple math classes, multiple English classes and not necessarily in workforce readiness classes. This change is going to allow us to get them into pathways and help them be more prepared for their next.”

Crousore said the rollout of whatever new test the state decides to put in schools will be gradual, over about five years.

To read legislation that mandates the replacement of the ISTEP test, click here.

To read the education legislation that covers state standardized testing, which Governor Eric Holcomb signed into law in March 2018 click here.