The right to work bill is suddenly the hottest issue in the General Assembly.  But one lawmaker has been working quietly to get it passed for 9 years.  Carmel Republican Jerry Torr first filed a right to work bill in 2004.  He tried to convince the governor to support it even before Mitch Daniels took office.

It now appears that his persistance will pay off.

Rep. Torr admits to experiencing some heartburn in the effort to win support for right to work.  When asked if there days when he wonders what you got into, he says, “I do, but I really think this is important public policy for the state of Indiana so I don’t have any regrets.”

The idea that has prompted vigorous union opposition was first presented to Torr by a South Bend businessman in 2003.  He says he studied it,  and instructed house staffers to do research.  “And I became convinced that it would be a job magnet for Indiana,” he says, “especially without a right to work border around us.”

That means that if Indiana passes right to work it will become the only right to work state with no right to work states as neighbors.  “But I’m not anti-union at all,” says Torr.  “In fact I believe the right to work law makes a union stronger because it makes it more responsive to the individual members.”

Torr says he is disappointed in the tone of some of the opposition and the behavior of some of the Democrats who have fought him on it.  He encouraged, he says, by the prospects that right to work will be become law this year.

And while it would be a big accomplishment for him, Representative Torr says he worries that a vote for right to work will make some of his fellow Republicans political targets.  Nevertheless, his plans call for a right to work win in the Indiana House next week.