The vice president returns to the Hoosier State to push for redistricting.

Social media posts lead to questions about crime in Indianapolis and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation receives a forensic audit from the television studios at WFYI Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending October 10th, 2025.

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

With Vice President JD Vance heading back yet again to encourage Hoosier lawmakers to redraw Indiana's congressional districts, some big questions remain.

Will the Republican dominated General Assembly go along?

And if so, when?

Indiana Public Broadcasting's Lauren Chapman reports that lawmakers have a couple of options for drawing new maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Laura Merrifield Wilson is a political scientist at the University of Indianapolis.

She says as we get closer to Organization Day, the ceremonial kickoff to the 2026 legislative session, two options become most likely.

You could have something where, rather than calling a formal special session, people are already coming back for Organization Day, and they could deal with this as a matter of policy.

Or lawmakers could tackle redistricting at the beginning of the 2026 session.

That first week focused on the issue of redistricting, and then move all the other policy priorities to the latter half, the latter points in terms of the session.

Wilson says the second option would have lawmakers racing against the clock for candidate filing deadlines.

Governor Mike Braun has floated the idea of a November special session for redistricting.

Another visit from the VP and a lot of talk about timing.

Does that mean redistricting is a done deal?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week and review panel.

Democrat Ann DeLaney.

Republican Mike O'Brien.

Oseye Boyd, editor in chief of Mirror Indy.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief of Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana lawmakers and interim host of Indiana Week in Review.

Ann, should Hoosiers be prepared for new maps?

Well, you know, obviously, this is an attempt on the part of the vice president to to intimidate, Republican, leaders in the Senate who think that this is improper and it is improper, and they're going to threaten them, they're going to intimidate them, they're going to bully them.

And they and they feel they have to do that because, frankly, the chaos that that Donald Trump has created in the economy has made him extremely unpopular.

I mean, he has not controlled inflation, which he bragged he was going to do on day one.

Unemployment is rising.

And when we look at the completely unconstitutional and illegal acts that he's doing by sending, sending, National Guard troops from one state to another, it is if if these lawmakers fold, they're going to have to tell their grandchildren at someday that they are responsible for every one of these illegal and unconstitutional acts that Donald Trump is doing.

I don't know whether they'll give in.

I hope that they have enough backbone to hold out.

They're worried about this because they have people that are concerned about the institution and about our democracy, and about the checks and balances of the the legislative, the executive and the judicial.

I mean, Donald Trump sending those those, National Guard from California to Portland against a judge's order.

Now, you made reference to the hold up being in the Senate.

Does that mean you're suggesting the House?

Not sure.

The House is unanimous on the Republican side either.

We know it's I was going to say it's not unanimous because, you know, one your husband.

No, no no, no.

I mean, the Democrats are not going to vote for.

But I don't think it's unanimous even among Republicans in the House.

So we'll see what happens with this.

But I'm hoping that these people have enough backbone to tell him to go back to Ohio or wherever he's from, and leave them alone.

Mike O'Brien, your take.

It's going to take a lot of backbone.

I really I long for the days of our old redistricting debates, the quaint ones that were normal.

When it was perfect after 2020.

Remember, those were perfect districts after 2012.

They were lauded by a lot of people.

They were lauded.

They were.

It was.

Great.

There you go.

You don't need no need to change.

I got an A on the map.

you know, and I and lawmakers, if you talk to lawmakers, they still believe that this is a a blunt political move, right?

I mean, it's it is not a coordinated campaign.

No one said anything publicly in support of this in Indiana.

Really?

nobody.

Nobody.

They can move the ball.

Even the governor's like.

I think it's a decent idea, right?

I mean, he's but but deferring to the legislature.

the congressional delegation couldn't get all the way this fast enough.

you know, and the party has been silent, which is kind of strange to me because, like, political parties are built for, like, you know, I was the county chairman.

I was on the state committee.

I was a congressional district chairman.

I've run every campaign you can think of.

And in the state and you're just a soldier in the party and you're told to run up that hill.

Whether it makes any strategic sense or whether everyone's going to die.

And that's that's what you do.

And no one's been asked to do that, which is very strange to me.

Jim Jordan was at the Hendricks County Lincoln Data in our last week.

Didn't mention one word of this.

You go to I go to GOP club events.

Nobody's talking about this.

And when they to the extent they are, it's a deep sigh because it's so uncharacteristically not Indiana because it is a Washington DC power move.

And it'd be better for me if you could get me to the why?

Like we it's it's intuitive, of course and political parties that you want to have the majority but there needs to be a reason to hold that majority and and no one said anything about the second half agenda.

Why do we need a Republican?

I mean, of course, you want a Republican majority when you're in the Republican Party.

Why get me to the why?

And I think you get some easier.

I think you could talk more people into this, but none of that's really been done.

So this is going to have to just be brutal, like, just kind of intimidate.

It's just it's just leverage.

It's just that there is some backbone or resistance.

Do you agree?

It's in the Senate and not in the House.

Is that I just want to get the playing field.

When I thought the characterization that, like the vice president had to come to town because we've lost momentum, there was no momentum.

I mean, this was brought up two months ago.

No one was talking.

It was a politico before the day it came up.

Right?

Yeah.

And the implication was that that Rod Brady is standing in the way, you know, hide behind his caucus and and the Senate is it's not built that way.

It's a it's a Senate.

There's 40 independent contractors that you've got to convince individually to do things.

And yes, of course they have a leader.

But it is not a top down, you know, beat them up kind of operation over there.

But I also don't know I don't know if the house is in line with this.

I know, I know, the guys who drew those maps in 2020 are are not happy about the fact that they're being told they got it wrong, you know, so but at the end of the day, these guys are going to experience pressure on an individual level that they are not used to.

What we're seeing.

I think that, you know.

We've been focusing on 100 members of the House, 50 members of the Senate, the governor.

Let's talk about some other people who might be bit players in this Hoosier voters.

We saw another poll.

there's a bit players that, suggested 53% across the board don't like this.

And that was a poll, I think the firm that did that was for independent Indiana.

But it actually was a polling firm that worked for a lot of Republicans, very closely mirrored a poll.

We saw, what, a month or so back that said pretty much the same thing, 52% opposed.

Tell me what Hoosiers, should.

Are they angry and what role, if any, will they have in sending their message to lawmakers?

Well, I think that is what lawmakers are trying to figure out, right, is what to do.

There's this tension of what the voters want and don't want versus what the Trump administration wants.

And so it puts them in a pretty puts in between a rock and a hard place, because you want to follow the party, but you also want to want to keep your spot safe.

Your seats, say, for the next, midterm.

And it could be for the next election and it could be in jeopardy.

So I think that's why we're seeing this, slow motion to action, because people are trying to figure out which way to go.

and and to your point, like redistricting was done, people were happy with it.

There's a lot of work that went into that.

No one wants to do that all over again.

And I think it's also setting us up for every time someone not happy.

Now we can go back and redistrict because at some point, Democrats could be back in power and so are they going to go back and change because we're just setting ourselves up for this over and over and more than we're already doing it.

so I think, the problem is that they're afraid of what could happen because who knows?

You know, we've seen we've seen these visits, certainly by the vice president.

We've seen polls, we've seen rallies on both sides and we've seen petitions.

Does any of that matter in the end?

I don't think I've seen a rally in support of it yet.

Okay.

There was a rally of one.

I think it was getting off the plane.

Yeah, I think Jim Banks was with the vice president.

Yeah.

Jim Banks was a judge.

Certainly was, headliner.

And again, along with Ed Delaney, I believe, at a at a rally against.

I mean, look, I do know that Rod Barry talked to reporters just a little while ago today, and he called the discussions productive and fruitful, which is more than he said the whole time.

He said they're working on getting the votes they need.

so it seems like maybe this is going to kickstart it again.

I think the Republicans are going to try to just run out the clock right quietly and let it let it just run out the clock.

Those pesky filing deadlines got in the way.

That was actually the plan.

Yeah.

Trump administration was like, you know.

A long attention span.

Maybe they'll focus.

Exactly.

And so but I don't know that they're going to be able to resist this secondary push.

So a special session, you're thinking if it's unlike if it is likely, will it be limited to this other things on the table.

There'll be other things on the table.

There's that absolute absolute certainty of that.

I mean, you can't cut what you're cutting for Medicare.

You, Medicaid.

Excuse me?

You can't do what you're doing to child care and those issues and say, this is the only thing that merits a special session is this.

Oh, go ahead.

Anyone can fire anything.

But that doesn't mean they're going to hear anything about.

They'll limit it to what they want.

So smart session or special session is the smart money bet on this is.

I think there's going to be a special session.

And I think it's going to I think it's going to pass.

Imagine being on the elections committee and it's like it's eight Republicans and five Democrats, and you're like the one guy that's going to like, hold off.

They were.

Nervous already.

And now if they not now, they may not even want to work.

And that's just pressure that none of these, none of you know, no one's accustomed to here because we don't operate a lot.

Of new.

Territory in is what it is.

A lot of new territory.

Let's move on to some other new territory.

When Fox Sports analyst Mark Sanchez was stabbed last weekend in Indianapolis, state Republican leaders criticized city Democrats for out of control crime.

WFYIs Eric Weddle reports.

Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez was charged with felony battery and other misdemeanors after allegedly attacking a truck driver early on October 4th.

Both were injured.

Sanchez pleaded not guilty before police confirmed Sanchez's arrest.

Indiana Republican Governor Mike Braun posted then deleted social media comments blaming Indianapolis Democratic leaders for public safety problems.

Indianapolis Police Chief Christopher Bailey pushed back on the idea that the city is dangerous.

Downtown Indianapolis remains a safe and welcoming environment for the people that live here and the people that visit here.

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears also responded on social media with a message saying Braun was exploiting senseless violence for political gain without knowing any facts.

As I say in the NFL.

Upon further review, Mike, is there at some point or at what point should state officials and federal for that matter, weigh in on municipal crime problems?

I say that they already do, because both the state and the city, the city that controls the convention center, obviously needs to be secure and safe.

And they interact a lot with the sheriff's department and Impd and state police.

That's all that's already happening.

And that's why how it needs to happen needs to be collaborative.

No one disagrees that, like, there are challenges downtown that need to be need to be addressed.

But look, I live I'll take the unpopular Republican opinion that is that I'm pretty bullish on Indianapolis in downtown Indy.

you know, an easy measure of the progress of a city is how many cranes do you have in the air?

And we've got the you know, I know you have IU Health Development, you know, on 16th Street, we've got the convention center expansion, the new hotel.

there's talks about developing the US postal, site next to Lucas Oil Stadium and redeveloping that to a bigger, you know, football, experience and Circle Center downtown, like, the renovation of Circle Center is going to transform downtown.

So, you know, she fast forward five years, downtown's going to look a lot different, than it does right now.

And that is what helps.

Whatever perceived or actual crime problem you have is bringing density to your downtown core.

And that's what I know.

Todd Houston and, the mayor's office have been have been really focused on that.

Downtown needs to be needs to thrive, and it needs to be and it needs to be safe.

And it largely is.

I think Chris Bailey is a great time.

PD chief, you know, but of course we have.

Of course, the city's got challenges that need to be addressed.

But, you know, the trigger finger on, on, and going on Twitter needs to be a little, a little slower as well.

After after the Wolf.

Maybe, maybe to.

Maybe get a. Second, maybe get the facts.

In your mouth.

The governor's defensive, everybody's defensive tweeted about it.

Nobody thought Mark Sanchez was the was going to be the guy to the stabbing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well he was getting.

Getting stabbed because he deserved it.

Yeah.

After the whoopsie I mean Democrats put out several statements as we noted saying, hey, not so fast.

Is there political gain to get from calling out Republicans for trying to politicize crime?

That's clearly what they were trying to do.

And I should do a disclaimer, first of all, because my son is involved in this case.

Okay.

But having said that.

He principles.

No, no.

One of the.

AG making that clear to the.

Attorneys.

But my point is only this wasn't even about crime in downtown Indianapolis.

This was only about scoring political points.

And they opened their mouths and published it without knowing any of the facts.

Okay.

And what happens to the presumption of innocence in there?

I don't think these political officials ought to be waiting in on an ongoing investigation under any circumstances.

I mean, that's what's going to be, for example, when you look at Donald Trump, I will be shocked, frankly, if a judge doesn't dismiss the indictment against me and also against Tisha James, because all he's done is make it political by opining that they need to be investigated and opining that they need to be charged, and firing anybody who won't follow his directive.

When you get into that, actually, what you're, you know, you're arming, you're arming the justice system, which is supposed to be non-biased.

You're supposed to base whether or not you charge and who you charge by a proper investigation by the police and the prosecutor's office of what the facts are, and then decide you don't need Ron or Beckwith wading in with their interpretation.

You know, crime has been a potent political issue for as long back as any of us can remember, but it does seem that it's taking on new prominence.

What can we make of that?

Well, yeah, I mean, that's part of the national, you know, theme we have going on where, you know, they're kind of denigrating Democrat, right?

Whoever is at.

Fault.

And and of course, there are there are discussions we can have about lenient plea agreements.

And why is that?

Is it because the judicial systems are overloaded, our judges giving light sentences because our prisons and our jails are full?

I mean, let's have those discussions, but, you know, not sort of damage Indianapolis in the meantime with, you know, false narratives, because obviously, of course, there's crime, but much of the crime is related to people, you know, being involved in drugs and gangs and, you know, things like that.

And.

Yeah, and so, you know, let's have the larger discussions, but maybe in a more nuanced way, which I think is perhaps a little too optimistic on my part.

You know, was given this faux pas, is this going to change the tenor of these kinds of things?

Or in other words, will be people be a little more reluctant to fire off those those social media messages or give it a week in.

Are we going to be back to same old just.

Saying, have we learned lessons here?

There you go.

No, it's going to be the same thing.

because we're trying to prove points that this Democratic run city is, it's run amuck, it's out of control.

And that's, that's really damaging to people who live in this city like me, who support this city, people who work here and, have community and family, but also thinking about the long term, impact, because short term, there's some short term gain of making the city look bad.

But what are the long term impacts?

We're trying to we want people to move here, businesses to come to Indianapolis.

So then how do we harm in Indianapolis if we keep painting this picture of that, it's out of control because it's a Democratic run city.

All right.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question Does Indianapolis need outside help to enforce public safety?

Yes or no?

Last week's question should lawmakers prioritize extending subsidies for those getting health insurance on the federal marketplace?

90%.

I'd say that's a majority said yes.

Only 10%?

No.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to wfyi.org/iwir and look for the poll.

The state's long running forensic audit of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation details various conflicts of interest and a lack of oversight.

It also touches on reforms already underway.

IDC's former chief innovation officer, Dave Roberts, left to become CEO of the Applied Research Institute in 2022.

The audit says more than 80% of Robert's salary stemmed from an IDC contract suggesting, quote, a potential violation of post employment restrictions.

Roberts was replaced as CEO during the review.

The audit also found a symbiotic relationship between the IDC and donors to its nonprofit arm, the Indiana Economic Development Foundation.

About half of the foundation's donors receive payments or tax credits from the IDC within the audits review period.

The report also highlights travel expenses that it calls, quote, excessive in nature.

The foundation, for example, paid more than $86,000 for international car race tickets and events.

The report says ongoing reform efforts represent a positive step in promoting transparency and accountability.

Niki, how significant are these conflicts and in the scheme of things, how significant are they?

Yeah, I mean, I think this is pretty bad.

I mean, I think everyone sort of knew that the IDC was I think slush fund might be a little too strong.

But, you know, this was an old boys network, a good old boys network, you know, and who you knew and what you could get out of it.

And especially the foundation which was accepting donations from companies who were getting grants and, and yet some of that was secret.

So I think it's pretty significant.

And people are questioning, you know, what's going to be different going forward as they should.

you know, we're still waiting to see how that plays out.

Yes.

They've made some changes on how the votes go.

Hopefully they'll do more of actually disclosing conflicts of interest.

It seems like the IDC was kind of ignoring the ethics stuff over here, whether it be, you know, after your employment, after you leave the state or actually filing conflict of interest disclosure.

So hopefully we'll see some improvement in that.

But I think the main issue is that you've eroded trust in that whole and that whole AGM.

There's an entirely new board now compared to when this all took place.

So she our Hoosiers paying attention to this, and if not, should they be?

I don't think the regular person paid attention to these kind of things, because I think that it operates the way people think government operates is in, secrecy.

Good old boys network.

Yeah.

People call it three kings giving their friends cronyism.

I think people just think this is how the government works anyway.

So what's the difference?

but we should be paying attention because it should be, transparent.

We should know how things are operating.

So, yeah, I think this is sheds some light on.

Okay.

Things should not operate the way they have been.

So what can we do?

Because when you have, me giving my friend business and gatekeeping all these things going on, it, it doesn't destroy faith, in government.

And it makes people feel like how they already feel.

We don't trust government.

People do not trust government right now.

And it's being exploited that we don't trust government as well.

Like, is this the end of the line for this?

I'm reminded that there is still a referral to the inspector general, the governor's office, his spokesperson alluded to that this week.

He had called for it back in April when this all got underway.

Are we done with this or is more is another shooter drop or one?

I think the governor's doing the right thing to take a look at it.

It's a lot of money that flows through there, but it costs a lot of money to do to accomplish the big things that the Holcomb administration did, which was to attract record investment every year, increase wages.

You look at $86,000 in race tickets and go, how dare they?

And but then, you know, MacLaren's building a headquarters in Brownsburg, we, the United States, has an F1, team now that that with the Andretti family.

that's $200 million headquarters being built for fishers.

That's not doesn't happen by accident.

Happens because you get on a plane and you go to Italy, you know, and that that costs money.

And could there have been more transparency along the way, given how the ITC has to operate in competition with other things?

Transparency can't be what what it is in, in other parts of government.

But of course, it could have been more transparent.

There should have been a maybe more a more public conversation along the way about like, hey, here's where we're going and why.

but we're in competition with other states.

and I hope, I hope it isn't the end of the ITC being the engine helping be the engine of that.

And how to try Strauss, Indiana.

Several Democrats, in the legislature, including one, you know.

Well, Ed Delaney same last name by coincidence, said, hey, we need to have a legislative probe.

We need to look at this and we need legislative fixes.

Is that going to gain traction?

I don't know, because it's clear that the, the broad administration wants to say it's walled off.

It's done.

I'm fixing it.

No.

No problem.

$500 million went through that agency.

Okay.

And, yeah, you may have to go to Italy.

You don't have to travel first class, and you don't have to stay in a five star hotel.

And you don't have to go to a michelin restaurant.

$5 million in travel in three years.

I mean, these are the kinds of things and the self-dealing and where the money went and all of that, that need to be probed so that we know that the money that's already been spent wasn't spent in a in the wrong way.

It's going forward.

Fine.

Do what you can do to make it better.

But in the meanwhile, we need to look at what happened in the past.

Has the governor done, a good job of insulating himself from any fallout?

Do you think, Niki?

I mean, he wasn't in charge then.

No, but when the when the refiners came out this week, I notice they came out, as part of a release from elevate Ventures, which was one of the entities, that was prominent in the audit.

I mean, they sent a release.

Sure, because they wanted their quotes in there, too.

But, I mean, they were released from the state government.

He didn't have to push that audit.

So I give him credit for that.

Obviously, he doesn't want it to hang on as a big hangover for months and months and and harm their long term economic development goals.

But we know a lot more since he became governor than we did before.

And we know we don't know a lot more because a lot of the auditing between the redactions in, in that, in that forensic report and the things they didn't look at are still questions that need to be answered.

All right.

We've got to wrap this up.

Are you football team.

My goodness.

Looking great.

You know I had to talk about this.

And what do you think I won't say slam dunk against Oregon, but give me your assessment.

You know I think they're going to surprise everyone.

I think they've surprised everybody already.

And I think they're going to continue to do that.

And I that the quarterback is good.

The line is good.

We could do we could go down.

I've got to have some unanimity on this.

Michael O'Brien.

Oregon's got the longest home winning streak.

Attached to break sometime.

So they're do.

They have tape.

They don't have it I'm out of it.

Done with that.

I doubted the fever getting out of the first round.

So I'm going to pull I'm going to pull and say there you go.

That's right.

All right.

Go.

Hoosiers.

Well that's Indy in Indiana week for review I know the show for this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Ann DeLaney.

Republican Mike O'Brien.

Oseye Boyd, editor in chief of Mirror Indy.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief of Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana Lawmakers.

Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana Week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by the Indy Chamber.