When does "sticking up for working people and the middle class" seem a lot like being a bought-and-paid-for tool of the unions? Maybe when the unions, including out-of-state ones, pay your hotel bill during your desertion to Illinois? Indiana GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb:
Democrats continue to fight for narrow special interests clamoring for the status quo. A finance report filed last week shows the entire Urbana hotel bill was footed by unions - many of them out-of-state.
Unions contributed $139,000 to the Indiana Democrat Party during the walkout, every penny of which went to pay off the $84,953.70 hotel tab.
I think he meant to say every penny of the hotel tab came from the contributions, but his point is still clear. And attorney Gary Welsh at the Advance Indiana blog argues that this might put House Democrats in felonious territory:
Indiana law prohibits lobbyists from paying for out-of-state travel for state lawmakers. Further, the law prohibits lawmakers from soliciting or accepting campaign contributions while the legislature is in session. The walkout was staged by the House Democratic caucus in an effort to kill right to work legislation and other legislation opposed by labor unions. A strong argument can be made that Democrats violated the law by soliciting contributions for this purpose, which is a Class D felony, from the very special interest groups that stood to benefit from their bolting the state and remaining there until they were assured of obtaining concessions critical to their key constituency.
As he also points out, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller seems to have no interest in pursuing the matter. And I haven't seen any news reports about the issue, or even heard any Republicans speaking about it other than the chairman. Maybe they're hoping this will just go quietly away.
