Commentary: May 2, 2013 By Cam Savage TheStatehouseFile.

com You can try to put it off if you want, but with the 2013 legislative session behind us, it seems a natural time to turn to politics and political speculation. But, egads, whats this? There are no elections this year in Indiana? Yep, thats right. New Jersey and Virginia will elect governors and New York City and Los Angeles will elect mayors, but not in Indiana. We could probably all use the break. And before our next opportunity to select our state and federal representatives, lets take just a moment to consider how much turnover weve had among our elected officials in the last few elections. Among the 11 Hoosiers voters have sent to represent us in Washington, all but Northwest Indiana Congressman Pete Visclosky were elected to their current position since 2007. Freshman Sen. Joe Donnelly served in the House from 2007 until this year when he joined the Senate replacing Dick Lugar. Sen. Dan Coats was elected to the Senate in 2010, though he had previously served in that body from 1989 to 1999. Visclosky, first elected in 1984, is the outlier of the delegation in terms of longevity, with 29 years in the House. Congressman Andre Carson is next, with five years. He was chosen in a 2008 special election to replace his grandmother, Julia Carson, and has won three subsequent elections. Prior to the 2010 election cycle, the congressional delegation included Republican Congressmen Dan Burton, Steve Buyer, Mike Pence, and Mark Souder and Democrats Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill. Three years later, all seven have moved on. Pence, of course, was elected governor last year. Luke Messer replaced him in Congress. Buyer retired in 2010 and was replaced by Todd Rokita. Souder resigned in 2010 and voters selected Marlin Stutzman to succeed him. Burton made his 14th term his last and retired in 2012. Todd Young defeated Hill and Larry Bucshon won the open 8th district seat in the 2010 general election, replacing Ellsworth. Susan Brooks won a highly competitive primary to replace Burton and cruised to victory last November. After losing narrowly to Joe Donnelly in 2010, Jackie Walorski won Donnellys congressional seat in 2012 when he ran for Senate. Interestingly, Brooks and Walorski are two of only three Republican women first elected to the U.S. House in 2012. There are seven Republican members of the Indiana House delegation and all of them were first elected in 2010 or 2012. Their average age is 45. They could be around for a while.

There has also been considerable turnover at the state level. In the Indiana House of Representatives, 37 of the 69 Republicans have been elected since 2010, as have nine of the 37 Republicans in the Indiana State Senate. Democrats have fewer new faces, just one new state senator and five new House members since 2010. The longest serving member of either body continues to be former House Speaker Pat Bauer. Bauer was first elected in 1970 and despite being deposed as Democratic Leader in 2012, has chosen to remain in the House as a backbencher. Its sort of like Churchill sticking around Parliament after his third stint as Prime Minister. Wait, actually no. Bauer is nothing like Churchill. Forget I said that. The larger point, of course, is that if youve been one of those folks clamoring for decades to throw the bums out, then your goal has largely been realized. A lot of these folks are relatively new faces. This infusion of new blood is a good thing for political parties, too. Indiana Republicans are particularly blessed at the moment with an unusually large and deep political bench. Any of the current U.S. House members would be credible future candidates for U.S. Senate of governor. But that doesnt mean they will be. Who four years ago would have predicted that Dan Coats would be the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Indiana? Who could have predicted that Buyer and Souder would leave Congress in quick succession? Who could have predicted Evan Bayh would retire from the U.S. Senate after only two terms and the resulting candidate shuffle would cost Democrats the U.S. Senate seat, a U.S. House seat, a state Senate seat and a seat in the state House of Representatives? Joe Donnelly is a senator today. Had he chosen to seek re-election to his House seat instead of running for Senate in 2012, he may not have even won. These are fun things to ponder, especially in an election-free year.

Cam Savage is a principal at Limestone Strategies and a veteran of numerous Republican campaigns and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He is a graduate of Franklin College. He can be reached at Cam@limestone-strategies.com.