Mess reflects leadership void
-Legislator proposes putting issue to statewide vote in 2006.

Every once in a while, an issue comes along that is so contentious and divisive that it splits a state along political lines, along philosophical lines, or along emotional lines.

The time zone debate is one of those issues.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, who has spent almost half his life living in the elite East, created a mess with his lack of understanding of Indiana.


Indiana is not the East; it is the Midwest. If we want the sun to be overhead at noon, as nature intended, we need to be on Central time. That's a fact, and it applies to the whole state, not just a few select counties.

It's a basic concept of natural law that even Daniels, with his Princeton education, should understand.

All of that book-learning failed to teach the guv'ner good old Midwestern common sense. If it had, he would have known better than to mess with Indiana clocks.

Born in Pennsylvania, Daniels has acted more like a bumbling Keystone Kop than a down-home Hoosier.

He has taken stands on every side of the time issue. During the campaign for governor in 2004, he said he was in favor of Central time, because it would place Indiana within two hours of every other time zone in the country.

After winning the election, he said he was undecided between Central and Eastern, but the people of Indiana should decide. More recently, he indicated that St. Joseph County should not make a decision contrary to Elkhart County. In other words, we should go Eastern.

Is that how Republicans lead?

To capitulate now to Daniels' fellow Republicans, the bullies in Elkhart County, would be a major mistake. The skunks showed their stripes during the public hearing at IUSB. Their weak attempt later to say

Nancy J. Sulok

Commentary

Nancy J. Sulok is a Tribune columnist.

of Notre Dame, has written a couple of essays in which he argues convincingly that if St. Joseph County goes to Central time, Elkhart probably would petition within a year to join us.

St. Joe is the Big Kahuna. If Elkhart wants to split from us on this issue, let it suffer the consequences. Officials in St. Joseph County should not cave in.

That's a message state Rep. Jackie Walorski, of Lakeville, should take to her constituents there. Instead, she is once again showing no spine on the time issue.

While speaking publicly in favor of Central time, she seems ready, willing and able to cave in to her Republican buddies in Elkhart County.

Her Nov. 18 letter to Norman Mineta, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, does not take a stand in favor of Central time, but instead says it makes no sense to split St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties between different time zones.

At the Nov. 21 hearing at IUSB, she said if Elkhart cannot switch to Central, she would prefer the other counties to stay with Elkhart on Eastern. It's a case of letting a minority viewpoint prevail in detriment to all of her constituents who favor Central time.

Walorski is the state representative who wimped out of voting on the time issue when it potentially could have been killed in committee earlier this year. She said she had another committee hearing to attend that was crucial to Elkhart County, and she couldn't be in two places at once. Whether she could have gone to both was a point of contention.

Walorski is trying to redeem herself now by saying she will file legislation to repeal daylight-saving time if federal officials put Elkhart and St. Joseph counties into different time zones.

State Rep. B. Patrick Bauer, a Democrat and proponent of Central time, noted that Walorski and Steve Heim, another Republican from Marshall County, had two opportunities during the legislative session to vote in favor of putting the issue to a statewide referendum. Both times, they voted against the idea of a referendum.

Now that the issue has (predictably) torn apart the state, another state representative has resurrected the idea of a referendum.

Rep. David T. Crooks, D-Washington, is sponsoring House Bill 1014, which would place the following question on the November 2006 election ballot:

"Should Indiana petition the federal government to place all of Indiana in the Central time zone except Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, Harrison and Ohio counties?''

Indiana should have one time zone for the entire state, Crooks said. If enough constituents lobby their legislators in favor of his bill, he said, it might get a hearing and perhaps a vote in the 2006 short session of the Indiana General Assembly.

Even Walorski has changed her tune when it comes to a referendum.

"I think there would be a ton of support in the state Legislature for a referendum,'' she says now.

If daylight-saving time is really so essential for Indiana (and I'm not convinced it is), the issue of Eastern vs. Central time should be decided statewide by a public referendum. It should not have been tossed to the counties to let them decide in a piecemeal fashion.

Here's a news flash: Elkhart County needs St. Joseph County more than St. Joseph County needs Elkhart County.

John F. Gaski, associate professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame, has written a couple of essays in which he argues convincingly that if St. Joseph County goes to Central time, Elkhart probably would petition within a year to join us.

St. Joe is the Big Kahuna. If Elkhart wants to split from us on this issue, let it suffer the consequences. Officials in St. Joseph County should not cave in.

That's a message state Rep. Jackie Walorski, of Lakeville, should take to her constituents there. Instead, she is once again showing no spine on the time issue.

While speaking publicly in favor of Central time, she seems ready, willing and able to cave in to her Republican buddies in Elkhart County.

Her Nov. 18 letter to Norman Mineta, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, does not take a stand in favor of Central time, but instead says it makes no sense to split St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties between different time zones.

At the Nov. 21 hearing at IUSB, she said if Elkhart cannot switch to Central, she would prefer the other counties to stay with Elkhart on Eastern. It's a case of letting a minority viewpoint prevail in detriment to all of her constituents who favor Central time.

Walorski is the state representative who wimped out of voting on the time issue when it potentially could have been killed in committee earlier this year. She said she had another committee hearing to attend that was crucial to Elkhart County, and she couldn't be in two places at once. Whether she could have gone to both was a point of contention.

Walorski is trying to redeem herself now by saying she will file legislation to repeal daylight-saving time if federal officials put Elkhart and St. Joseph counties into different time zones.

State Rep. B. Patrick Bauer, a Democrat and proponent of Central time, noted that Walorski and Steve Heim, another Republican from Marshall County, had two opportunities during the legislative session to vote in favor of putting the issue to a statewide referendum. Both times, they voted against the idea of a referendum.

Now that the issue has (predictably) torn apart the state, another state representative has resurrected the idea of a referendum.

Rep. David T. Crooks, D-Washington, is sponsoring House Bill 1014, which would place the following question on the November 2006 election ballot:

"Should Indiana petition the federal government to place all of Indiana in the Central time zone except Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, Harrison and Ohio counties?''

Indiana should have one time zone for the entire state, Crooks said. If enough constituents lobby their legislators in favor of his bill, he said, it might get a hearing and perhaps a vote in the 2006 short session of the Indiana General Assembly.

Even Walorski has changed her tune when it comes to a referendum.

"I think there would be a ton of support in the state Legislature for a referendum,'' she says now.

If daylight-saving time is really so essential for Indiana (and I'm not convinced it is), the issue of Eastern vs. Central time should be decided statewide by a public referendum. It should not have been tossed to the counties to let them decide in a piecemeal fashion.

Nancy J. Sulok's columns appear on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays.