Indiana Republican Party
Encyclopedia
The Indiana Republican Party is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 (GOP) in the state of Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

. The chairman of the Indiana Republican State Committee is Eric Holcomb, a former aide of Indiana's sitting Governor Mitch Daniels
Mitch Daniels
Mitchell Elias "Mitch" Daniels, Jr. is the 49th and current Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. A Republican, he began his first four-year term as governor on January 10, 2005, and was elected to his second term by an 18-point margin on November 4, 2008. Previously, he was the Director of the...

.

Platform

The 2010 Indiana Republican Party Platform is the most recent release on the party's official stances on key issues, economic, political and social. It stands by the National Republican Party that "limited government is good government.", and believe that "leaner, cleaner government" is the appropriate response to what they see as gross overspending by the Obama Administration and find the Federal government's ballooning deficit troubling. Just as Governor Mitch Daniels
Mitch Daniels
Mitchell Elias "Mitch" Daniels, Jr. is the 49th and current Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. A Republican, he began his first four-year term as governor on January 10, 2005, and was elected to his second term by an 18-point margin on November 4, 2008. Previously, he was the Director of the...

 and the Republican majority had had curbed spending and turned Indiana's billion dollar deficit into a surplus, the Indiana GOP believes that low taxes, decreased government spending, and governmental regulations that are "restrained and reasonable" is what is needed to overcome the current recession.

Indiana Republicans believe that "the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion", and staunchly opposes the exclusion of prayer from public forums. It also understands that the Second Amendment allowing citizens to bear arms, and supports gun ownership by all lawful citizens.

The Indiana GOP concurs with the current Indiana law that "childbirth is preferred, encouraged, and supported over abortion" and objects to current healthcare laws that fail bar tax dollars from funding abortion procedures.

The party also believes that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and that any proposal to change this definition should be decided by the public, not by courts, and that "strong families are the foundation of virtue and that such families bring forth citizens capable of self-government as well as properly motivated public servants so essential for a successful republic."

2007 elections

In the 2007 elections Greg Ballard defeated two-term Democratic incumbent Bart Peterson
Bart Peterson
Barton "Bart" R. Peterson is the former mayor of the U.S city of Indianapolis, Indiana. A Democrat first elected in 1999, he was defeated in 2007 in a bid for a third term in what was widely viewed as a huge upset.A lifelong Indianapolis resident, Peterson graduated from North Central High School...

 to become the next mayor of Indianapolis. The election, which the Indianapolis Star claims "stunned Indiana political circles", puts a Republican in charge of Indiana's largest city after eight years of Democrat leadership. In Terre Haute Duke Bennett won the mayor's race with 50.4 percent of the vote, making him the first Republican mayor in 40 years.

Voter ID controversy

In 2005, Governor Daniels signed a law that required all Indiana voters to produce government-issue photo identification prior to casting their ballots. The law, which is currently the strictest in the United States , was challenged by Indiana Democrats who alleged that the law specifically targeted poor and minority voters, who were more likely to vote Democrat. After being upheld by the District Court and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the case went to the United States Supreme Court in 2008 and ruled 6-3 that the law was constitutional and "eminently reasonable". In its 2010 Party Platform, the Indiana Republican Party supported the Voter-ID Law as a way to "improve the integrity of the election process."

Current Indiana Republican officeholders

The Indiana Republican Party controls both U.S. Senate seats and six of nine U.S. House seats. Republicans control all 7 of the 7 statewide constitutional offices. They hold a majority in the Indiana House of Representatives and a supermajority in the Indiana Senate.

Statewide Officials
  • Governor
    Governor of Indiana
    The Governor of Indiana is the chief executive of the state of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term, and responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government. The governor also shares power with other statewide...

    : Mitch Daniels
    Mitch Daniels
    Mitchell Elias "Mitch" Daniels, Jr. is the 49th and current Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. A Republican, he began his first four-year term as governor on January 10, 2005, and was elected to his second term by an 18-point margin on November 4, 2008. Previously, he was the Director of the...

  • Lieutenant Governor
    Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
    The Lieutenant Governor of Indiana is a constitutional office in the US State of Indiana. Republican Becky Skillman, whose term expires in January 2013, is the incumbent...

    : Becky Skillman
    Becky Skillman
    Rebecca S. "Becky" Skillman is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of the State of Indiana. She is a member of the Republican Party. She was sworn in on January 10, 2005.-Early life and career:...

  • Attorney General
    Indiana Attorney General
    The Indiana Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Indiana in the United States. Attorneys General are chosen by a statewide general election to serve for a four-year term...

    : Greg Zoeller
    Greg Zoeller
    Gregory F. Zoeller is the current and 42nd attorney general of the U.S. state of Indiana. A Republican, he was elected in November 2008 beating Democrat Linda Pence and took office in January 2009.-Early Life and Education:...

  • Secretary of State
    Secretary of State of Indiana
    The Secretary of State of the U.S. state of Indiana is one of five constitutional officers originally designated in Indiana's State Constitution of 1816. Since 1851 it has been an elected position. The Secretary of State has authority of several state departments, and is considered to be the...

    : Charlie White
    Charlie White
    Charlie White is a Los Angeles-based artist.White received his BFA in 1994 from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and received his MFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, in 1998...

  • Treasurer
    Indiana State Treasurer
    The Indiana Treasurer of State is a constitutional and elected office in the executive branch of the government of Indiana. The treasurer is responsible for managing the finances of the U.S. state of Indiana. The position was filled by appointment from 1816 until the adoption of the new...

    : Richard Mourdock
    Richard Mourdock
    -External links:********...

  • Auditor
    Indiana State Auditor
    The Indiana State Auditor is an elected office in the U.S. State of Indiana.The annual salary of the auditor of Indiana is $66,000.-List of auditors:-Territorial Auditors:-State Auditors:...

    : Tim Berry
    Tim Berry
    -Education:Berry graduated from Wayne High School. Berry got a Bachelors degree from Bowling Green State University, and a MBA from Indiana University Bloomington.-State Auditor:He has served in the position of Indian State Auditor since January 1, 2007....

  • Superintendent of Public Instruction
    Indiana Department of Education
    The Indiana Department of Education oversees primary and secondary education in the U.S. state of Indiana. The department is managed by the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, an elected office currently held by Dr. Tony Bennett...

    : Tony Bennett


Federal
  • U.S. Senate
    • Richard Lugar
    • Dan Coats
      Dan Coats
      Daniel Ray "Dan" Coats is the junior United States Senator from Indiana and member of the Republican Party. He was in the United States Senate from from 1989 to 1999, retired, and then returned in 2011....

  • U.S. House of Representatives
    • Marlin Stutzman
      Marlin Stutzman
      Marlin Andrew Stutzman is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives. He previously was a member of the Indiana Senate representing the 13th district, where he served from 2009 to 2010 and he was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 2002 to 2008 representing...

      , 3rd District
      Indiana's 3rd congressional district
      Indiana's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. Based in Fort Wayne, the district takes in the northeastern part of the state and includes Goshen....

    • Todd Rokita
      Todd Rokita
      Theodore Edward "Todd" Rokita is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Republican Party. He is formerly the two term Secretary of State of Indiana...

      , 4th District
      Indiana's 4th congressional district
      Indiana's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. Based primary in the central part of the state, the district consists of all of Boone, Clinton, Hendricks, Morgan, Lawrence, Montgomery, and Tippecanoe counties and parts of Fountain, Johnson, Marion,...

    • Dan Burton
      Dan Burton
      Danny "Dan" Lee Burton is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the , serving since 1983. He is a member of the Republican Party....

      , 5th District
      Indiana's 5th congressional district
      Indiana's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana that takes in the eastern and northern suburbs of Indianapolis, including Marion, Carmel, Shelbyville, and Noblesville and parts of Kokomo...

    • Mike Pence
      Mike Pence
      Michael Richard "Mike" Pence is the U.S. Representative for Indiana's , and previously the , serving since 2001. The 6th district covers much of Eastern Indiana. He is a member of the Republican Party....

      , 6th District
      Indiana's 6th congressional district
      Indiana's 6th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. The district takes in a large portion of eastern Indiana, including Muncie, Anderson, and Richmond, as well as the suburbs of Fort Wayne, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis.The district is currently represented...

    • Larry Bucshon
      Larry Bucshon
      Larry Dean Bucshon is a heart surgeon and the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Republican Party.- Early life, education, and early career :Bucshon was born on May 31, 1962 and raised in Kincaid, Illinois...

      , 8th District
      Indiana's 8th congressional district
      Indiana's 8th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. Based in Southwest and west central Indiana, the district is anchored in Evansville and also includes Terre Haute, Vincennes and Washington....

    • Todd Young
      Todd Young
      Todd Christopher Young is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Republican Party.- Early life:Young was born was born August 24, 1972, the second of three children of Bruce and Nancy Young. He lived in Marion County for several years before settling in Hamilton County, where he...

      , 9th District
      Indiana's 9th congressional district
      Indiana's 9th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. Located in south-central and southeastern Indiana, the district is based in Bloomington....


External links

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