Indiana GOP leaders ignored warning of firestorm
Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star
When Denise Moe privately warned Republican legislators months ago that a proposed “religious freedom” bill could blow up in their faces, she was hoping they’d listen. ... For 20 years, the Hendricks County mother of two has been a Republican party activist: stuffing envelopes, knocking on doors, raising money and managing campaigns to get GOP leaders elected across the state.
... Warnings from Republican allies had come long before. Kevin Brinegar, head of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, had been telling legislators and Pence’s inner circle that RFRA was something Indiana business leaders never wanted and never needed. But Republican social conservatives, stung by the defeats last session on same-sex marriage, very much wanted it and needed it.
... Howard County Republican Chairman Howard Dunn, writing in Howey Politics Indiana, called it a “political disaster of Biblical proportion.” ... “The Republican brand has been severely damaged and the public revulsion to the legislation, right or wrong, may lead to major election blowback on the horizon,” Dunn wrote.
Moe is furious that the party leaders she helped put into place were tone-deaf to the warnings from those outside the tight circle of the religious right that still hold sway in the Indiana Statehouse.
Read more: http://www.tribstar.com/news/news_columns/state-of-the-statehouse-gop-leaders-ignored-warning-of-firestorm/article_a55514a0-4945-56c1-bf39-6c77883ffc54.html
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