Two decades ago, after a prolonged and heavy lift through the 2005 legislative session, former Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a monumental piece of legislation into law: establishing daylight saving time in the Hoosier State.

The vote was so contentious that former House Speaker Brian Bosma left the voting machine open for hours, whipping up the votes needed to advance the priority bill for Daniels.

[caption id="attachment_116273" align="alignright" width="214"] Former Gov. Mitch Daniels talks to reporters on Tuesday, August 6, 2024. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)[/caption]

“We just almost had a majority, and then people would switch,” Bosma, a Republican, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “We went up to caucus and I had to press on.”

In the end, lawmakers advanced the measure through the house by a single vote — a decision that cost the voting lawmaker his seat in the body.

Hoosiers first sprung forward in 2006.

Prior to the law, Indiana had a hodgepodge mashup of time zones that varied from county to county. As with today’s dynamic, most Hoosier counties aligned themselves with Eastern Time, but a handful located in the southwestern and northwestern tips opted for Central Time.

Just over a dozen counties clustered near the state’s borders — including all of the counties following Central Time and at least five Eastern Time counties — voluntarily followed daylight saving time with the majority of the nation. But roughly 76 counties didn’t, which meant they switched from Eastern Time to Central Time and vice versa when other states sprung forward or fell back.

“There are 13 states with more than one, but Indiana had three (time zones),” said Daniels. “… as a practical matter, we were in the Eastern zone during the winter, and in the Central zone during the summer.”

Synchronizing all of the time zones to make it easier to do business with national counterparts was critical to Daniels’ first-term agenda, which sought to “make Indiana, once again, a competitive state.”

“Economically, we were at the bottom of people’s lists of places where you might bring jobs and do investment. We did dozens of things: taxes, regulation, litigation, building, infrastructure. Everything that might make Indiana a more attractive place and more prosperous place,” said Daniels. “And daylight savings was a small part of that.”

Because of the confusing time zone distinctions — which The West Wing mocked in a famous 2002 episode — deliveries were missed or rescheduled, conference calls were dropped and even airlines avoided locating hubs in Indiana, Daniels said.

“It’s an interconnected world, more so today than twenty years ago,” Daniels said. “… It used to be you’d have to look at the calendar before you look at your watch.”

Getting it through the chamber

A 2005 story in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported that 43 Republicans and eight Democrats pushed the proposal across the finish line. At noon, the vote stood at 49-48 but 11 hours later, four Republicans changed their minds.

“I’ve introduced and closed on this bill so many times I’m running out of things to say,” said Rep. Jerry Torr, R-Carmel. Torr authored the 2005 measure and retired last year. “It’s past time for daylight saving time. Let’s get this bill passed.”

Bosma said his caucus identified five Republicans it believed could vote for the measure “without political consequence,” believing that Indiana was “losing economic development opportunities, big ones, because of the anomaly.”

“My clearest recollection is getting a call at about 10:30 (p.m.) from (Gov.) Mitch Daniels, while we were in caucus, and the governor saying, “Brian, just pull the plug on this,’” recalled Bosma. “And I said, ‘Governor, I’ve spent way too much capital on this not to complete the job.’”

Returning to the floor, the body still didn’t have the final votes needed, with the tally stuck at 50 votes. After some final debate, one vote flipped — and Bosma told the body’s parliamentarian to lock it in.

“And the 51st vote was the one person that I told, ‘Under no circumstances, are you to vote for this,’” Bosma said. “… Troy (Woodruff) was a Marine, and he saw a grenade and jumped on it despite instructions not to.”

Woodruff, a freshman lawmaker from southwestern Indiana, had a district split between counties observing daylight saving and those that didn’t. He said the final tally came after nearly a dozen rounds of voting, none of which were enough to either pass or kill the bill.

“More than anything, it was just … time to move on and move forward,” Woodruff told the Capital Chronicle. “I just thought, in my head, if this is one thing we can do for free that could help … we really need to do this.”

He went on to lose his seat, but Woodruff said he didn’t regret his actions — even if he still gets the occasional message about a decades-old vote.

“I still get emails to this day about daylight savings time,” he said.

After his term in office, Woodruff was later appointed chief of staff to the Indiana Department of Transportation in 2012, resigning two years later before launching his own business and serving as president of a Fishers-based architecture firm.

The conversation today

The tumultuous 2005 session left such scars that, decades later, some veteran lawmakers say they won’t touch the topic.

“When I got to the General Assembly in 2010, there was a discussion where they said, ‘You can bring up bills for this, that and the other.’ But they said, ‘Whatever you do … don’t bring up the time zones,’” recalled Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange.

Still, there’s usually a bill filed each year on the topic — though they don’t advance. In 2025, three bills were filed to exempt Indiana from daylight saving time but none moved.

Glick, whose district borders Michigan, acknowledged the difficulty for families navigating boundaries where crossing means gaining or losing an hour. Living at the western edge of the Eastern Time zone has its own drawbacks, with later sunrises and sunsets.

“In the evening, it’s still daylight, and kids aren’t ready to go to bed,” Glick said. “… (or) your kids are standing out by the side of the road to catch the bus in the dark.”

Outside of potential safety issues for children, daylight saving time also appears to increase electricity consumption along with car emissions. In the weeks following a shift to and from daylight saving, health risks and accidents spike while productivity dips.

On the federal level, the biannual grumblings about changing the clocks revive the ongoing debate: should states move to a permanent standard time or a permanent daylight saving time?

Moving to permanent daylight saving time would require federal permission — though both Arizona and Hawai’i use standard time year-round. In cases where the states made a change, like with Indiana, the U.S. Department of Transportation ultimately picks the time zone.

But, perhaps due to the pushback from 2005, Indiana is one of just two states that haven’t advanced legislation or resolutions supporting a permanent, year-round time, according to NBC News. Nineteen other states support permanent daylight saving time, while the remaining 27 favor standard time.

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce, a big supporter of the time zone legislation 20 years ago, said they wouldn’t be a fan of moving Indiana to permanent daylight saving time — as proposed by the federal “Sunshine Protection Act.”

“From our perspective, moving to that permanent observance is a significant departure from the established system that Indiana businesses have used since 2006,” said President and CEO Vanessa Green Sinders. “…If there was consensus around eliminating the semiannual clock change, our preference would be standard time because it better aligns with winter daylight patterns and supports morning operational needs for all of our companies.”

Aligning all 92 counties with daylight saving time did bring a small, yet statistically significant job boost to the Hoosier state, but Daniels said it was also emblematic of a changing Indiana.

“I think that for those who were restless about the speed and the dimension of the changes that we were able to make, daylight savings time became a symbol,” Daniels said. “I can’t tell you how often people said, ‘Yeah, maybe (you’ll accomplish) the rest of all these plans, but you’ll never change that.’

“And I think when it did finally pass, it sent a message that we’d turned a corner here in Indiana and we intend to be a leader, not in the middle of the pack.”

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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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“Optically horrible.” A “hard no.” In “bad form.”

Hoosier leaders might be busy taking behind-the-scenes feedback on the prospect of early redistricting, but rank-and-file Republicans are increasingly going public with their opposition.

Statehouse lawmakers redraw districts after each decennial census. They last did so in 2021, and population data shows little change since then.

Indiana Democrats, meanwhile, are joining forces with their Texan counterparts to protest the move, just days after they led hundreds of Hoosiers in a rally to oppose early redistricting.

President Donald Trump is pushing Texas and other GOP-led states like Indiana to redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to ensure a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the rest of his second term.

“On one hand, we feel unlikely as a candidate to approach redistricting. We’ve got seven out of our nine congressional districts (that) are solidly Republican,” said Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Indianapolis. “… You would think you would go after states where you get more than one.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan holds the state’s most competitive congressional district, located in northwest Indiana. The heavily Democratic, Indianapolis district held by Rep. André Carson would be a tougher flip.

But, Wilson said, that GOP strength is also what makes Indiana an “appealing” target from the federal perspective: a “very amenable, very friendly” executive in Gov. Mike Braun and legislative supermajorities in both of the Statehouse’s chambers.

[caption id="attachment_116044" align="alignright" width="400"] ndiana’s existing congressional district boundaries.[/caption]

“You’re looking at a state where you could reasonably get the support you need,” she added.

That’s if lawmakers actually want to do it.

Rank-and-file Republicans speak out

Gov. Mike Braun has stayed noncommittal on the possibility he’d call a special session for early redistricting. The next legislative session is set to organize for only one day in late November before coming back in January — possibly too late to finalize maps by February candidate filing deadlines. He’s looking to Texas — and Indiana’s own lawmakers.

The Indiana General Assembly has complete control in redrawing district lines. There’s no nonpartisan commission. A gubernatorial veto can be overturned with a simple majority votes.

House Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, who lead Republican supermajorities in the state’s House and Senate, haven’t yet made their stances clear. But members are.

Multiple have described themselves as a “hard no,” including Reps. Danny Lopez of Carmel and Jim Lucas of Seymour.

“Just a few years ago, our General Assembly undertook the complex redistricting process based on up-to-date census data, drawing fair maps that ensure every Hoosier vote counts,” Lopez, who took office last year, wrote on X. “We should stand by that work.”

Lucas called the possibility “highly unusual and politically optically horrible.”

“I don’t believe Republicans should stoop to the level of Democrats on this issue. Republicans hold about 90% of all local offices statewide and once the voter rolls get purged of illegals, we will hold an even more commanding lead,” he wrote on Facebook. “Democrats can’t compete with their Socialist policies and ideology and if there are seats that need targeted, we should do it the old-fashioned way and campaign harder in those districts.”

Mooresville Rep. Craig Haggard emphasized that Indiana is a “solid Republican state” that has gone for Trump three times in a statement to the Capital Chronicle on Monday. He added that he’s been “hearing from constituents and I do not believe at this time there is an appetite for redistricting in our communities.”

WEHT reported that Wadesville Sen. Jim Tomes doesn’t think redistricting is needed right now because the lines are fairly drawn. He similarly noted the GOP is in good shape for the midterms.

Wilson believes the risks are more severe for GOP legislators as opposed to Braun.

They “don’t want to be seen as anti-Trump,” but are “maybe most vulnerable (to) the criticism” since they’d be handling any redistricting legislation — and attaching their names to it.

Former GOP House Speaker Brian Bosma said he’s “glad” lawmakers are speaking up.

He oversaw the 2011 redistricting that involved hearing from constituents in nine different cities before crafting new maps, and was in the General Assembly through three redistricting cycles in all. He recalled how, as a brand-new floor leader in 1995, he resisted efforts to redraw Statehouse districts early.

“I think it’s bad form, I think it’s inadvisable. It’s probably contrary to Indiana law, and I’ve expressed my reservation about it to some of our elected leadership,” Bosma said. “The leaders I’ve talked to, and I’ve talked to the top down, are not thrilled about this prospect but because other states are expressing support for this, there’s pressure to do it.”

Democrats push to prevent

Across the aisle, meanwhile, Democrats hope to sway public opinion against early redistricting.

Members of the Indiana House Democratic Caucus are joining forces with their Texan counterparts to host a news conference in Illinois on Wednesday. Texas House Democrats fled the Lone Star State to block redistricting legislation there.

“Together, the two House Caucuses will explain the serious danger mid-term redistricting plans pose to the legitimacy of our democracy,” a news release said. “Democrats in Texas and Indiana will continue to stand up and reject Trump’s demands to rig an election.”

The Indiana Democratic Party has also been active.

Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas drew hundreds to an Indianapolis town hall last Sunday, while hundreds more attended a Statehouse protest on Thursday that was headlined by Mrvan, Carson, and an array of state-level Democratic lawmakers.

Indiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Tallian noted both events were organized with “a couple days notice.” She hopes to keep that momentum going, and didn’t rule out the possibility of more rallies.

“We need public outrage and pressure before they ever make the decision that they’re going to call a special session,” she told the Capital Chronicle. “If you could prevent them from calling a special session, … that’s the best possible solution.”

Tallian, who served more than 15 years in Indiana’s Senate, maintains the current districts already offer Republicans outsized benefits, arguing the seven-two congressional split doesn’t reflect the Indiana electorate.

Voters generally went about 60%-40% in favor of statewide Republicans in the 2024 election.

“How greedy can you get? ‘Oh, they’ve got two. We want all of them,'” she said of the GOP.

Tallian said Democrats considered suing over redistricting in 2011 and 2021.

“Frankly, I’m still hoping that we can bring a gerrymandering lawsuit based on their current maps,” she said. “And now they want to come and do it again? It’s just, it’s outrageous.”

The Indiana Republican Party didn’t reply to multiple requests for comment on early redistricting.

Demographic change a factor

Some are open to the idea.

“Northwest Indiana, there’s a lot of people migrating there from the state of Illinois. It’s kind of the first stop over the border from Chicago, (a) good conservative state like Indiana,” Fort Wayne Rep. Bob Morris told WOWO last week.

“If we have an issue there, we’re going to have to get another, you know, essentially a census done in the state of Indiana by an independent source to see where the numbers are at,” he continued.

Mrvan’s 1st Congressional District includes Lake and Porter counties, as well as some of LaPorte County. The trio collectively grew by an estimated 5,824 people — less than 1% — between April 2020 and July 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Indiana, as a whole, added an estimated 137,688 people — almost 2%.

“There’s nothing to lead … me to believe, at least, that things would have changed so dramatically that the congressional districts are not adequately representing their constituents, and at the end of the day, that’s why redistricting matters,” Wilson said.

Wilson said any changes should be recorded and addressed via data from the next census.

“Every 10 years we do this — whether it’s going to be good for you or bad for you, whether you want to or you don’t,” she added. “… Changing that mechanism means in the future, there’s no precedent. You can say, ‘Well … we want to redraw this right this moment.”

Some fear an effort to flip seats could backfire.

“You can spread out your Republican vote a little too thin so that every few cycles, seats are going back and forth,” U.S. Sen. Todd Young of Indiana told Punchbowl News last month. “And that can sort of cut both ways.”

Others predict squigglier lines.

Bosma said efforts to capture blue districts could undo progress the GOP made in other cycles to make the districts more compact and keep political subdivisions — counties, towns, cities, school districts, fire districts and more — intact when possible.

Map-drawers could “divvy up” northwest Indiana and put Mrvan at risk, he said. They could “run fingers into the center of the city” of Indianapolis to take aim at Carson.

“But … it would not look right, and you’d have to do some pretty serious tap dancing to make it even remotely reasonable,” he said of the 7th District.

Marjorie Hershey, an emeritus political science professor at Indiana University, said it’s “tempting” to look at the early redistricting fight as a “strategic matter of who’s winning and who’s losing.”

She encouraged a broader view.

“Democracy is not self-enforcing. It never has been,” Hershey said. “Democracies do fail, they do die, and we have to take seriously the possibility that that could happen here. Each step has a tendency to make the next step not look quite so bad or quite so distant.”

Senior Reporter Casey Smith contributed to this story.

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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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