For 32 days and counting, Indiana State House Democrats have hid out in Illinois, obstructing all legislation and abandoning their jobs they were elected to do.
While the similar flight of State Senate Democrats in nearby Wisconsin received the bulk of national attention, the Indiana situation is potentially even more significant.
The Democrats fled for one reason: To protect the forced-dues powers of union bosses to compel hardworking Hoosiers to pay union dues or "fees" or be fired.
But why are Republicans letting them get away with it?
This week, the National Right to Work Committee launched a $100,000 media campaign urging Republican Governor Mitch Daniels and Speaker of the House Brian Bosma to use their authority to force the Democrats to come back to work.
Our campaign unleashed a tidal wive of media coverage, including this TV news segment.
The Indiana Constitution allows the majority party to authorize stiff fines and other remedies to force law-breaking legislators back to work.
The fact is, the numbers Republicans have in the Indiana legislature if translated to Congress would be a 261 to 174 GOP edge in the U.S. House and a 74 to 26 majority in the U.S. Senate.
The Democrats fled precisely because they know the votes are there to pass a Right to Work law in Indiana.
But Governor Daniels, a potential Republican presidential candidate, has given in to their demands to kill the Right to Work bill -- even though he acknowledges that Indiana loses jobs because it does not protect the Right to Work.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker showed great resolve when Democrats in the State Senate fled to Illinois last month.
He didn't back down, and his government-sector monopoly bargaining reform bill passed.
Governor Daniels, however, hasn't just demonstrated a lack of leadership by surrendering to Big Labor. Like many politicians, he's playing fast and loose with the facts, as I wrote recently at National Review Online.
For instance, Governor Daniels claims that the Right to Work issue came "out of nowhere."
But over the past seven years, there have been three votes, a public hearing, and dozens of members of the Indiana General Assembly have been elected with Right to Work as a major campaign issue.
It's time Governor Daniels did the right thing by forcing the absentee legislators back to work and passing pro-worker freedom legislation supported by 80 percent of Hoosiers.
Sincerely,
Mark Mix
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