President Donald Trump’s failed push for an Indiana congressional redistricting exposed divisions among Republicans who dominate the state Legislature and with Gov. Mike Braun.

The question of just how much the months-long debate bruised those relationships will be a question when lawmakers return to the Statehouse in three weeks for resumption of their legislative session.

Several legislators interviewed following Thursday’s Senate vote rejecting the House-approved redistricting plan said they anticipated cooperation come January. Some put most of the blame for any animosity on national groups that tried to pressure legislators into supporting the new maps.

“I don’t think anybody wants to have a lasting impact,” said Sen. Sue Glick of LaGrange, who voted against redistricting. “There will be some hard feelings. But I thought that we kept it under control. There didn’t seem to be the acrimony on the floor that you might have anticipated. Most of that was coming from outside.”

Republican ties frayed by debate

But some were clearly offended by Braun’s threats to support election challengers against Republican senators who didn’t support the redrawn maps — including the chamber’s GOP leader, Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray.

Sen. Jean Leising of Oldenburg, who has been a senator for 25 years and voted against redistricting, said she believed Braun owed Bray an apology.

“I don’t know if he will,” Leising said. “If he were asking me, ‘What should I do next?’ I’d say, ‘You need to apologize to Senator Bray, our pro tem.’ Because he actually said that he wanted to work against him.”

The governor’s office did not reply to a request for comment about Leising’s remarks.

In a statement following the Senate vote, Braun said he “will be working with the President to challenge these people who do not represent the best interests of Hoosiers.”

Bray acknowledged the redistricting debate as a “hard one” but downplayed the possibility of an ongoing split between the Senate, the House and the governor.

“There’s been a difference here, but we’ve got lots of important things to do over this next legislative session and over the next few years,” Bray told reporters after Thursday’s vote. “I have zero doubt that we’ll get that done together.”

Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said he was “disappointed” with the Senate vote while expressing optimism for the legislative session that’s set to resume Jan. 5.

“I’m confident we will have a productive session that will address the issues that most impact Hoosiers,” Huston said in a statement.

Will grudges remain?

Bray repeatedly said mid-decade redistricting had insufficient Senate support for it to pass, even with a pressure campaign that included two trips by Vice President JD Vance to Indianapolis and phone calls by Trump to individual senators.

Some senators, however, denounced what they regarded as bullying to win support for the proposed maps crafted to produce a 9-0 Republican delegation. It aimed to do so by carving up the two districts currently held by Democratic Reps. André Carson in Indianapolis and Frank Mrvan in the area along Lake Michigan near Chicago.

Several senators opposing the redistricting plan cited their support for Trump and hopes to see Republicans retain their U.S. House majority after the 2026 midterm elections.

But some redistricting advocates framed the debate in stark terms, such as when Senate Majority Floor Leader Chris Garten called on senators to be “active agents of American greatness” by supporting the 9-0 map plan.

Democratic Rep. Ed DeLaney of Indianapolis, who was first elected to the Legislature in 2008, said he was frustrated with the time he believed was “wasted” on the redistricting debate but that Braun was “duty-bound” to patch up his relationship with lawmakers.

“I get along with him, I see him more than any governor I’ve ever seen,” DeLaney said. “I think he’s got the right personality to say, ‘Let’s just do the job, move forward under the facts as they are.’ I think he does. Now, whether he gets pushed from Washington to be a cheerleader in a raid on Indiana.”

Republican Sen. Eric Bassler of Washington said he believed Bray and Huston were “rationalists about running things” and would not hold grudges over the redistricting dispute.

“There’s going to be some wounds between the governor and our chamber,” Bassler said. “But my hope is that the governor and his staff and team will be adult about this and work well with us, just like I hope that the Senate will be adults about it and work well with the governor.”

Senate leadership shakeup?

The split among Republican senators — 21 voting joining 10 Democrats against redistricting and 19 in favor — prompted speculation over whether Bray was secure in the president pro tem position he’s held 2018.

That possibility was dismissed by senators following Thursday’s 31-19 outcome.

“Absolutely not,” Leising said. “No, and his vote was even a little stronger than I predicted. I was, in my mind, saying 27 to 30 (against redistricting), and it was 31 so that made me really happy for him.”

Glick said she doesn’t expect any threats to Bray’s leadership, noting that “I can’t reveal what we discussed in caucus, but I can tell you that while all of this, the yeas and the nays have both complimented him on its fairness, on his willingness to address their issues.”

One fallout from the debate was the decision by Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, to step down from her position as Senate assistant majority floor leader in charge of communications while remaining a senator.

Brown said in a statement that she and other redistricting supporters “recognize the consequences of what it will mean to have socialists control Congress” and that the Senate had “failed our conservative voters.”

“Our caucus will have rebuilding to do to repair communication and trust with voters, and I will focus on that effort outside of Senate leadership,” Brown said.

Republican Sen. Linda Rogers of Granger was among the 10 senators who had kept quiet about their redistricting stance until Thursday’s vote, when she pushed the red “no” button on her desk.

When asked whether there would be lingering hard feelings over the map's decision, Rogers said: “I hope not, I don’t think so.”

“Some of my very closest friends here and I voted differently,” she said, “and we are still very close friends.”

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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.

The post Questions linger about statehouse fallout following redistricting debate appeared first on News Now Warsaw.

Lawmakers pivotal to a Hoosier casino’s license relocation bid say the move is worth a look — and maybe more.

Full House Resorts says Rising Star Casino Resort, in the city of Rising Sun, is the worst-performing location in its portfolio, according to Hannah News Service.

It wants to move 150 miles north to New Haven, just east of Fort Wayne. Full House has already begun the process, a Rising Sun councilor confirmed on Facebook.

License relocation would require legislative approval, however.

Gambling-related legislation has largely been on pause since the last time Indiana relocated licenses in 2019.

Those moves — from the lakeshore to Gary and Terre Haute — involved an attempted quid pro quo that put one former lawmaker behind bars.

Post-recession sink

Rising Star was originally the Grand Victoria Casino & Resort, which opened along the Ohio River at Indiana’s border with Kentucky near the end of 1996.

In 1997, it admitted 3 million people, awarded upwards of $90 million in winnings, paid $35 million in gambling taxes and had 1,300 employees to manage it all, according to an Indiana Gaming Commission annual report.

[caption id="attachment_98181" align="alignright" width="410"] Rising Star’s yearly win totals. Awards drop off after 2008. (From 2024 Indiana Gaming Commission report)[/caption]

Fast forward to 2007, and its attendance dropped below 2 million people. The casino awarded about $150 million, paid $43 million in taxes and maintained a staff of nearly 1,000.

Metrics further dropped off in 2008 and haven’t recovered. Full House closed on the property in 2011, according to WTHR, then renamed it.

Casinos no longer report admissions, but in 2024, Rising Star awarded about $$40 million and paid less than $4 million in taxes with a 300-person crew.

It’s not the first relocation attempt Full House has made.

In 2017 and 2018, it hoped to move unused gambling games to a supplemental Terre Haute location, according to a news release, or to take the casino elsewhere in Indiana, Ohio-based WKRC reported.

The company appears to be gearing up for another push at the Legislature. It didn’t return a request for comment.

Any move would also mean a referendum vote by citizens of Allen County — as other casino locations have done.

Key lawmakers seem receptive

Rep. Ethan Manning, a Logansport Republican who chairs the House’s Public Policy Committee, said the move is “something we should consider.”

Sen. Ron Alting, the Lafayette Republican leading the Senate’s Public Policy Committee said Indiana needed to “adapt” to growing casino competition along its borders. He said that, from a business perspective, he understood the desire to move.

Gambling legislation typically goes through the public policy committees, so chairs can either provide early support to related legislation, or an early death.

Both men said data would be key to the decision.

“I’m still formulating my personal position on it, and a lot of that has to do with … the data,” Manning said. “You know, if we cannibalize from Ohio and Michigan, that’s awesome, right? We’d much rather have that revenue than give that to other states.”

But, he said, he wanted to ensure any relocation would be a net gain for Indiana and its communities — “not taking from one property to go to another.”

Alting, meanwhile, said he wanted to listen to the lawmakers who represent both Rising Sun and New Haven and make sure both communities are treated fairly.

New Haven Community Development Director Zach Washler said the city has been in discussions with Full House “for several months” and that talks have included state and local electeds.

The city plans to hold community listening sessions in the fall, but early conversations have indicated support for a casino-anchored entertainment complex, Washler wrote, via email — as long as it’s not next to a church, school or park.

Mayor Steve McMichael said he’s looking forward to the listening sessions but said the development could provide “hundreds of jobs, opportunities to enhance public safety and health and create quality of life opportunities for generations to come.”

McMichael said he’s “confident,” based on Full House’s preliminary plans, that “any potential negative impacts would be very small” compared to the potential benefits: “from mental health counseling to property tax relief and funding for the community’s needs for generations to come, needs which currently exist without a current funding stream.”

Rising Sun didn’t return a request for comment about compensation for the casino’s departure.

If a deal comes together, Alting said he’d “be happy to support that and author the bill in the Senate” — with the “blessing” of his Senate colleagues and the chamber’s leader.

The committee chairs agreed that Rising Star’s prospective move would be different from 2019.

Manning said the current proposal is “more straightforward” because Full House is one company seeking to move one license it already controls, rather than the previous two-license, open bid debacle.

“The good news is the system worked,” he said. “All of all the stuff based on the previous bill several years ago has been working itself out, and we’ll let all that play out.”

“But gaming is a big industry in the state — lots of jobs, lots of investment, lots of revenue for the state and for local communities —  so if there’s an opportunity overall to help the industry move forward, then this is one part of a larger conversation,” Manning concluded.

Alting, meanwhile, called Full House a “professional company,” noting that it does business across the country.

“They have a long, long history … they know what they’re doing,” he said.

“I think everyone is going to be dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s on this due to some problems that’s taken place in the past,” Alting added.

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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.

The post Lawmakers consider relocating casino to New Haven area appeared first on News Now Warsaw.

Preschool was a high-profile issue this session, as lawmakers debated how much to expand a state program that sends poor children to preschool. They ultimately found agreement, with an added provision for the in-home preschool services.

Some education experts remain wary about such computer-based programs' effectiveness in promoting behavioral or social learning.

Early education advocates say they're pleased with the overall investment in preschool, which nearly doubles the funding and expands the program for poor children from five counties to up to 15.

But they question sending funding toward the online programming ahead of proven high-quality preschool programs.

The post Indiana sets aside $1M for online programs for preschoolers appeared first on News Now Warsaw.