Outside interest groups push redistricting campaigns, property tax changes expected to impact Indiana towns and cities, and another member of Trump's cabinet visits the Hoosier State from the television studios at Wfyi Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending November 14th, 2025.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.

New ad campaigns from conservative interest groups will urge Republicans to support redistricting in Indiana.

As Ben Thorpe reports, the push comes as some state Republicans continue to hold out on their idea of redrawing maps.

President Donald Trump has for months been pushing states, including Indiana, to redraw congressional boundaries to favor Republicans.

But Republican leadership in the state Senate has said that there aren't enough votes to support the project, even as governor Mike Braun has called a session to redraw maps.

Now, Marty Obst, chair of the group Fair Maps Indiana, says they're launching an advertising campaign to push Republicans to support redistricting.

And I will tell you that as we go along, if members continue to be hesitant or against it, that we'll have no choice but to be more forceful in that message.

Another conservative group, club for growth, launched a pro redistricting campaign in Indiana as part of a seven figure push for redistricting nationwide.

And with the push to redraw Indiana's congressional maps on our state, Republicans are feeling the pressure.

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel: Democrat, Ann DeLaney Republican, Mike OBrien Laura Merrifield Wilson, associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI So, Mike, well, this pressure campaign influenced lawmakers.

It's too soon to tell.

So I mean, but they got the right guy.

I've been in the trenches with Mario a lot over the years, and so they think they picked the right kind of dude.

He knows Indiana, knows the party.

So this really comes in waves, right?

So the first wave is club for growth run statewide ads run these targeted ads.

Hit him on Twitter.

See who you pick up.

Because some people for some legislators, that might be enough.

So now you move your account.

But then you might have to get a little more granular.

It's going to come down to the individuals.

You have a primary to go threaten to endorse the guy, run it against him, to go recrui and if that doesn't work, do you do you go after his or federal?

You know, we've seen in other states the threat threats on federal funding, the things that they might care about.

So, I mean, it layers in it.

And so we're not really to the pressure part yet.

We're kind of like to the mass media thing where it's easy to ignore the, the bad on Twitter that's, you know, beating you up a thousand times a day.

for some people.

But then at the end, it just kind of it just kind of layers in.

But I think, like there were a couple examples this week of glycine coming out against that senator from, southeast Indiana.

The reason was I wouldn't say that.

So it wasn't in the release.

her grandson, it was a basketball practice.

The boys get done playing.

They go back to the locker room.

They've all got these text messages banging on Gene lysine.

Grandma, Gene and the boys were like.

Forget that.

You're not.

You're not beating up on grandma Gene.

Right.

And so like.

For some of these DC guys, it's like go drive to Oldenburg, Indiana and then convince me that a Twitter campaign is going to matter.

You know, or that there you can put enough pressure in a situation like that or, or Eric Fassler and, you know, what's the advantage of having I'm not retiring this cycle?

but he's just get the guy.

But a thoughtful legislator and well-educated guy, comes out against it.

You know, Kyle Walker today came out against that state senator from north northeast, in a tough district, you know, and so he's like, I'm going to listen, I got to go listen to the boys of the Legion.

I can't go listen to, you know, some super Pac out in Naples.

you know, so it's going to get it.

That's what we're going to start seeing.

We're going to start seeing.

But we have this big mass campaign now, and we're going to see the start isolating individuals and individual circumstances, and where their districts are in the state.

And for someone what they want to do, because there are guys who are like, look, I've had a good run because this isn't the most important citizen legislature.

This is the most important thing I'm doing every day in my life.

So with the white House, make a run at me and make me do something I don't want to do, then that's just, you know, I'm going home, but we're not going to.

We're not going to know that for a minute.

We're not there.

Yeah, we're not there yet.

Well, we were listening to, you know what what Jean Lansing had to say.

And she did say, you know, about her gram, her grandson.

And also she said, you know, the the ads maybe didn't even recognize that she was a female.

And she said, you know, these ads were pushing her towards.

more going the other way.

Right?

I, you know, are we are we going to see that something across the board?

It's not redistricting, okay?

It's stealing an election.

That's what this is all about.

And a lot of Republicans are the thinking Republicans know it's the wrong thing to do.

So they don't want to be bullied into it by by Trump and his minions.

So and frankly, when you talk to voters out there, they don't want it either.

And they're the ones that vote in these elections.

And look what happened in states where, you know, Trump was wasn't on the ballot, I'll grant you.

But his programs were in the shutdown that he initiated.

War was and they lost a huge number in in, Virginia.

They lost a supermajority in Mississippi, the Supreme Court, on and on and on, people saying, we have buyer's remorse with this guy because his policies are hurting the middle class, and we don't want more of him, and we don't want him to have unfettered power.

So I think you're going to have people who are going to stand up to this kind of bullying on the Republican part.

You know, the maps that they drew in 2021 were perfect maps.

They could not be fairer.

I saw the releases and all of a sudden now, are.

You disagreeing with that?

Yeah, well, I do, but not for the reason that you're saying.

That these are.

Not for the fair maps Indiana group.

No, it's it's obviously an attempt to insulate Trump against the voters because they are so unhappy with his presidency, and it's not going to succeed.

Nikki.

We're seeing, you know, Republicans come out and, you know, say for or against the archetype out of the original maps now saying he's in support of redrawing the maps.

Should we be keeping count the what's the code?

We have a whole spreadsheet.

Yeah.

No, definitely by the hour.

Yes.

Senator cook, I think was a big, unknown that dropped this year.

He was the sponsor of the bills back in 2021.

He even has a quote saying these will serve us for the next decade.

He was very proud then about keeping communities of interest together.

That will be hard if they go for A90 map.

And everyone I've talked to says if we're going for it, we're going.

I know that's the only reason to do this.

And so, yeah, we have to keep track.

we're down to 19 people who have not publicly made known, at least in our, in our tracking.

And, you know, we got 4 or 5 of those this week.

So hopefully more and more people will start letting their their stance known.

The voters deserve to know it.

And Laura, you know, I've heard as well that, reluctance because what do these maps look like.

What are we going to you know, what can lawmakers expect when they head back to the state House in the summer?

And that was in Jane Lee.

Things press release two.

She said, I've never voted on legislation.

I didn't know what was included.

I hadn't read before.

And that is one of the things that's kind of at risk and things I think is interesting with fair maps, Indiana and for club for growth is this is much more of an outsider strategy.

There of course will impact like legislators I've seen watch TV and we'll see the ads, but they're really targeting constituents.

They want their constituents to be upset and say, we want in this case, both of these are pro, supporting redistricting movement.

So they want constituents to put that pressure on legislators.

And one thing I have to say is, though this was not in the bingo card for 2025, I do think a lot of constituents are paying attention, and a lot of the polling data suggests that, that people are starting to see how important this is very divisive issue in this state.

But that outsider strategy is a really unique way to approach the situation.

Mike, do you think that more, you know, people around the state, just your everyday person is going to really grasp into this?

Well, I. Mean, we've been talking about it for three months.

Yeah, it's I mean, it's sweet, but it's been on for a while.

I think the National Day Outside campaign is really focused on Democrats.

Did something over here.

We have to do Republican things over here.

or or in, in the state of Indiana.

Not on this part of that campaign.

The fact is that still a dawn of time and but, we've never seen those types of campaigns work before.

In my at my view, where the previous version of this was vote for the Republican congressman here to unseat Nancy Pelosi as a speaker of the House.

Voters don't think that way.

In my experience, they're looking at their guy and they don't really care about this.

You know, Game of Thrones in Washington, DC, they want to know that they're voting for the for the guy here.

So this like cause and effect argument is like, I don't really care.

The Republicans couldn't get it done in the northeast or out in California.

I mean, we had Democrat majorities when I started here, and we built Republican ones, originally based on our arguments, you know.

So let's go back to that model.

So we'll see.

We'll see how we'll see how the outside strategy works as an initial thing.

But I think it's going to get a little a little more granular here.

What do you think about the messaging.

Oh I think it is clear bullying tactics I mean that's what it is.

And there are enough people here who either think, you know, they could be doing something else or aren't going to run again, or that their constituents will listen to their arguments that they could stand up.

And obviously it's a problem for them because they started this three months ago and they haven't been able to call this to bring the special session to a vote.

So they don't have the votes yet.

And that's because there are thinking people out there who say, you're opening Pandora's box.

If you do this, it can happen multiple times in the course of a decade, and it's not the right thing to do.

Yeah, well, we will certainly still see following this.

Issue, a lot of these.

Now it's time for some viewer feedback.

Each week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's questions should out-of-state groups inflate Indiana Republicans over redistricting issues?

Simple yes or no?

Last week's question should snap benefits be impacted during a shutdown?

9% saying yes and 91% answering no.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to wfyi.org/i w I r and look for the poll leaders from towns and cities across the state.

Matt and Speedway this week to draw attention to upcoming property tax changes.

They say well, impacts seriously impact their ability to provide services and numerous areas that council reports.

The meeting focused on the Indiana Legislature's signature bill from the 2025 session that provided property tax relief to property owners, but the taxes are one of the major sources funding local town and city governments.

The official said that the changes will cut deep into their budgets over the next couple years.

Matt Griller is the CEO of Accelerate Indiana Municipalities, a group that advocates for the state's cities and towns.

So the things that citizens use every single day, they will see a reduction in.

It's just a fact of the matter.

less money means less services, and that's what will happen.

The local leaders called for the Indiana General Assembly to address the issue in the next session.

So and our community is about to feel the impact of last year's property.

Tax feeling it.

I mean, you got to hand it to the to the Republican majority here when they did property tax reform, they managed to screw over the richest communities and the poorest at the same time.

I mean, that takes real effort on their part.

I mean, you can look at what's happening.

Hamilton County's already canceled their their domestic violence shelter they were going to build.

There are there are places that are trying to buy $1 million, fire, engine that maybe can't do that or maybe can't staff it if they do buy it.

What the what the legislature did was try to make themselves look good by saying, we're putting we're going to we're going to cap property taxes.

We're going to have an impact on the levy, is what we're going to do.

Okay, fine.

They didn't replace that money and they made it more difficult for for the individual communities to raise the money.

And and without countering it with state funds, they're still cutting the corporate income tax.

They're still cutting the personal income tax.

They're still giving money, voucher money, half $1 billion to people who can send their kids to school without that help, private schools without that help.

But we cut back on all the basics.

We cut back on childcare.

We cut back on on what communities can do in terms of fire and police protection.

It's it's going to be, a real hardship for communities, and they're going to feel it.

And it's all thanks to the Indiana General Assembly's inability to govern.

Well, it did have widespread Republican support when this bill passed last year.

were these, were these, you know, complications foreseen?

Well, usually when you're talking about cutting taxes, you're talking about giving taxpayers more money and government less money.

So just as a principle that's normally like the mission, they're going to come back and they're going to try to fill this midterm gap, because a lot of the features of this bill took effect in 2025, all the way through 28 or 9 or 30, including the locals ability to, or cities, ability to, levy their own local income tax and, and give counties their own levy and kind of separate those.

So the that there's a direct line from the income tax of the service.

There was also an element of this from the House that there was a message sent to local government, they'll come fix some of this.

But one of the messages of local government was we've had enough of that NIMBYism.

We've had enough of you responding to constituents who don't want multi-billion dollar projects in their community that don't require you to build a new school or at fire department, but add to your bottom line and allow you to provide all these services.

You know, we just saw data center get killed on the south side of Indianapolis.

Amazon's putting $12 billion into Cloverdale and they're pissed about it.

You know, they're putting billions of dollars in in Google Cloud and in, in Fort Wayne, you know, and, and and the locals couldn't be angrier.

And I think the legislators had enough of locals coming to the state House saying, give us more.

And when the answer was, what?

Tell me about your development plan.

And they don't.

And if they have one, they're pulling back on it because the constituents don't like it.

That just requires leadership in communication.

They're not going to put more road money into locals if they haven't maxed out their wheel tax.

You know, I think the legislature has had enough of it and they overshot, sure.

But that's just what happens when there's unreasonable decisions being made at the local level in some cases.

I mean, the state level.

The fact is they knew that they had made mistakes in that bill the hours after it passed.

And they were already this year.

Yeah, they had already changed some things.

And another bill, a trailer bill.

Now they know they're going to have to come back and and change some other things, or maybe delay some, you know, effective dates, obviously.

And, you know, look, the bill doesn't cut local revenue.

It reduces how fast it can grow.

They are still going to get more revenue than they have now, but it's not going to grow at quite the pace.

And and they want them to lean more toward income tax or will taxes or something like that.

And and you know, cities and towns, they had not to be fair on their side.

They didn't come asking for more.

Right.

they just wanted to keep what they had and, and so now we will definitely see them have to fix some things and deal with the actual impact of what that bill does.

And that'll be part of the part of the 26 session.

So with a possible property tax fix, you know, what do you think lawmaker will be focused on.

Yeah.

Well, one of the things that Mike had mentioned, maybe one of the things we see accelerate.

Any municipalities suggest, changing that municipality versus city, cap in terms of the local income tax.

So that would take it from 1.2% to 1.9%.

I, I think one of the things that's challenging is constitutionally, local governments belong they are subservient to state government.

And I think you see here a lot of the tension between who gets to make the decisions and who's left with less money, less growth, less opportunity.

Of course, fewer taxes means fewer services.

but you're looking at over three years an estimate of $1.8 billion for municipalities across the state.

And that is no small number.

So certainly I think the legislature will be addressing this.

And there are some recommendations from the Accelerate Indiana municipalities that seem reasonable and also very feasible to do.

It's also is part of the problem is the way Indiana is structured.

If you have 3500 different units of government dependent on these taxes, you poke it in one way, it's going to push out another.

It's just not it is not really.

When you talk about governing and reducing the size and making it more accountable, that's where we ought to be starting.

for that are you start stop.

Sounds good.

Around ten members of President Trump's cabinet have made stops in Indiana this year.

The most recent visit was by U.S.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Fort Wayne this week to address defense contractors for eyes.

Eric Weddle has more.

The Northeast Indiana Defense Summit is a two day forum in support of Indiana's role in national defense, and it's hosted by US Senator Jim Banks.

Hegseth delivered a speech that focused on how the Pentagon wants to streamline the way it acquires goods from the defense industry.

So the objective is quite simple transform the entire acquisition system to operate at a war time or warp speed footing banks and event organizers use the titles of Department of War and Secretary of War to describe excess work.

Though no change to the name, the Department of Defense has been authorized by Congress.

Outside the venue, a few dozen people protested and held up signs in opposition of banks and the Trump administration.

So, Nikki, does this seem like an increased number of high profile stops in Indiana on any given year for us?

Yeah, it definitely is.

A couple of weeks ago, we had three cabinet members in Indiana on the same day.

There was Brooke Brawley, and Secretary Duffey and, Kristi Noem were in, one day alone.

So, yeah, we've definitely had many more of those than we have.

And I think that goes to show that, you know, Indiana is always first on the board for Trump, and governor Mike Braun is a key ally and things like that.

And these are the types of thing, by the way, that I think Braun and other Republicans are concerned about.

If we don't do the redistricting, which isn't so much a hammer of, we're going to take some program away from you.

But more you're just not going to be on our list for things like visits or, you know, we're not going to be the first one they think about for a program, something like that.

And so I think that's that's an example of something that we could see go away if, if they don't get in line, so to speak.

Do you think, Laura, that these visits do have like influence over state lawmakers?

I think they do.

And I think they're also a great reflection of our state's prominence relative to the national landscape.

I remember when we would talk a lot in the Midwest and say like, oh, people think we're flyover country.

And I haven't used I haven't heard that phrase used quite as much.

I'm sure maybe people on the coast say that about us.

yeah, but but there is the prominence of the fact that we do matter.

We are important for the president.

We have a governor who aligns himself with the president right now, and I think that is to our benefit, regardless of party, our ideology.

We want to recognize the fact that we have a lot to offer as a state.

And it's great to see the administration recognizing that, too.

Mike, what do you think the marching orders sound like when they're like after Indiana?

What's I agree with?

I agree with Nikki.

I think that and I know there's a close relationship between Governor Braun and President Trump.

they talk frequently.

you know, and because of that, we we get more than our fair share of attention.

you know, we have a lot of requests before the federal government right now.

And there's there is concern for good reason that if we don't, you know, go down the path of, of redistricting and successfully, you know, pull it off, that some of that's going to get some of that's going to be get pulled back.

I think that concern is entirely legitimate.

Do you think these visits, have any meaning?

You know, I don't know who these people are.

I don't think anybody knows who these people are.

Their intelligence, their ability, their integrity doesn't have anything to do with the fact that their cabinet secretaries, they're just loyal to Trump.

That's the only requirement for being part of this administration.

So you know, yeah, they're sending them here because you know what?

They're afraid to send them some other places because he is increasingly voters are having buyer's remorse with him.

And they're afraid of demonstrations when they go someplace else.

So they send them to Indiana because they'll be safe up in northwest Indiana with Jim Banks.

But I don't think it does anything for us other than convene 100 people who all want a seat at the trough as, Defense Department, procurers, or sellers of different merchandise.

So that's that's what that's all about.

It's not about making, daycare available or dealing with Medicaid or Snap or anything that's important to Hoosiers.

It's whether these guys can more easily sell the government weapons of mass destruction.

Well, we'll be excited to see who comes next to Indiana, right?

In his victory speech after being elected mayor of New York City recently.

So, Ron, mom Danny quoted labor activist Eugene Debs, born in Terre Haute in 1855, Debs was a socialist and political activist who helped found some of the nation's first industrial unions.

And Thorpe has.

More.

But as Eugene Debs once said.

I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.

Allison Dirk is the director of the Debs Museum.

She says she was asleep during Mamdani speech, but woke up to her phone full of text messages.

And she says it makes sense that the labor activist is having a moment.

Mass inequality, the influence of money.

And corporations and.

Politics.

Like, that's not terribly new for us right now, but I also think people are ready to come together and fight back for something better.

Mamdani isn't alone in paying homage to Debs.

Recently, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both visited the Debs Museum in Terre Haute in October, where Sanders received an award.

So, Laura, do you think interest in this historical figure?

Eugene Debs tells us anything about today's Democratic Party?

Oh, I. Do actually, the line that Mamdani use talks about, Dawn and a new day.

I'm a morning person, so I can appreciate that, but it reminded me of Reagan's 1984 campaign, Morning in America.

And one of the things I think is interesting is Mamdani referencing Debs, a self-proclaimed socialist Democrat, the New York City mayor elect.

That's really tricky.

for the Democratic Party right now.

And I think you saw that dealing with the government shutdown and reopening part of the fissure in what is always a weak coalition of individuals, that's every party by definition.

it's interesting to embrace that on one hand, where you see other Democrats, I think that's a harder label to utilize.

And comparing it to Ronald Reagan, who seems heralded now by conservatives within the party, even more so than he was at the time of his administration.

I just find the irony of a New York City mayor, citing evoking a Hoosier, albeit one who's very socialist, especially given the Republican stance, in our state now.

Nikki, do you think that, you know, these historical I've seen a lot of historical like, comparisons and, and just writings about, you know, where we are today and where we were in the early days.

I mean, I think Democrats are struggling, right?

They're trying to figure out a way through and back into some sort of power.

And you can see within the party itself concerns about someone to go more the socialist route.

Some don't want to.

And so I think that was an interesting use of that phrase and kind of shows that Democrats are you know, looking at all options in terms of trying to get in charge of things again because they're really struggling right now.

You don't have to be a socialist to understand that the people are hurting.

You know, the average age for first time homeowner is 40 years now.

20 years ago, it was age 28.

The middle class and working class are struggle, and you don't have to be a socialist to be able to articulate that and appreciate that fact and deal with it.

Well, That's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel has been ... Democrat, Ann DeLaney Republican, Mike OBrien Laura Merrifield Wilson, associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI Join us next week on Indiana Week in Review The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review.

Is produced.

By Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.