Long issued one other news release today.  It announces the hiring of Adam Harrison as a GOP Senate Policy Analyst.  Is there a disconnect here?

Boots is a member of the Labor committee but was not the ranking majority member who would normally be next in line for chairman.  That’s Senator Brent Waltz (R-Greenwood.)

Waltz has a history of going his own way rather than following GOP leadership.  Sometimes what goes around, comes around.

It’s interesting because he was relatively new to the position of  Chairman of the Pensions and Labor Committee and seemed to like it. 

It means that Senate President Pro Tem David Long now has another committee chairmanship to fill and it’s a move that suggests bigger considerations are at stake.

For example, does Long feel the need to appoint one of the growing number of right wingers to a chairmanship to protect his own position as Pro Tem? 

Is the Pensions Committee a safer place than the Education Committee to put someone who may be more difficult to control? #fb

Republicans, meantime, are upset with one of their own.  Senator Jean Leising voted against the budget (one of 3 Republicans to do so) but sent a memo to President Pro Tem David Long asking why Senators didn’t get per Diem payments on days during the Special Session when the Senate didn’t convene.  Whether Senators deserve the pay is a point that is unclear in the law.

Absolutely clear is the fact that fellow Senators leaked the memo to make Leising look bad.

Then he joined with House Minority Leader Brian Bosma to demand that House Democrats accept the budget as is, eliminating the need for a conference committee.  (Politics)

I asked Sen. Long what changed from one announcement to the next.  He said nothing, but also indicated that there is little to negotiate over, as little as $10 million.  He also said that Senate Republicans will take part in negotiations.  (Confusing)

He says the State Budget Committee (made up of lawmakers and the state Budget Director) should hold hearings on a budget proposal that should come from the governor.

He said alcohol issues are off the table until 2010.  “All alcohol bills are doomed,” were the exact words as Long pointed to a 2-year study of Indiana alcohol laws.  In 2010, he said, the door is wide open to all kinds of possible changes in the way alcohol is sold in this state.

Then, with regard to gambling, Long said that there is weariness among lawmakers when it comes to new gambling proposals.  He labeled a plan to move 500 slot machines from Anderson to an OTB in Fort Wayne “new gambling.”   He called the proposal presumptuous and said it would amount to creating a new casino.

Brandt Hershman gets Kenley’s old post at Tax and Fiscal Policy.

That puts Kenley in charge of the new state budget.

As Secretary of the Senate she held on longer than most after the 2006 defeat of the then-longtime Senate President Pro Tem.  Her departure coincides with an effort by new Senate Leader David Long to create a more open administration.

Reporters fatigued by Mendel’s attempts to shut down the Senate information flow on occasion literally danced in the halls today.

Sen. Ford was tough and determined and proved it in his final days.  Just last Thursday Sen. David Long told me that Ford intended to return to the Statehouse for one final vote this week or next.  Word came to the Statehouse just yesterday that his health had taken a turn. 

Governor Mitch Daniels had a Sagamore of the Wabash delivered to his home yesterday.