OPINION: Indiana House division conceals voting record on Rockport plant

The way it happened was fascinating political theater — one that involved a vote-counting tactic that should infuriate voters because it allows lawmakers to make critical decisions without having their positions counted on the official record.

The Indiana House was considering an amendment offered by Rep. Matt Ubelhor, R-Bloomfield. He was proposing to rewrite a bill that developers of the Rockport plant said would have killed their efforts in a way that is much more likely to result in the project going forward.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, had expected Ubelhor’s amendment to be defeated. So did House Utility Chairman Eric Koch, R-Bedford, who had drafted the previous version of the bill, and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville.

But Bosma and House Minority Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, knew it was a tough call for their members either way. They seemed to be in sync in deciding that they didn’t want those members’ votes to be recorded through a roll call.

Instead, they used an option called a “division.” The supporters of Ubelhor’s amendment stood and were tallied by hand, and then the opponents stood and were tallied by hand, without any official record of who voted how.

As supporters of Ubelhor’s amendment stood, it became clear that Bosma had miscalculated. The amendment passed, 48-42.

On the vote, the rest of Southwestern Indiana’s delegation broke with Crouch, Bosma and Koch. In favor of Ubelhor’s amendment — and therefore saving the Rockport project — were Reps. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville; Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes; Wendy McNamara, R-Mount Vernon; Thomas Washburne, R-Evansville; Ron Bacon, R-Chandler; and Mark Messmer, R-Jasper.

Perhaps more significantly, another supporter of Ubelhor’s change was Rep. Tim Brown, the Crawfordsville Republican who chairs the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee and whose decision to break from his party’s leadership is highly unusual.

Afterward, Bosma admitted he was “surprised.” A similar reaction likely took place in the office of Gov. Mike Pence, who had expressed his support for the bill in its previous form.

Now, the question is what will become of the Rockport issue — and the answer suddenly seems much less clear.

The author and sponsor of Senate Bill 510 — Sen. Doug Eckerty, R-Yorktown, and Crouch — believe the bill they had championed, and which is scheduled for a vote in the House on Monday, is now useless.

The next few days will be important to watch.

Crouch could call the bill down for a vote in hopes of overhauling it later in a joint House-Senate conference committee, but that would carry the risk of the bill being defeated and the entire issue dying.

Or she could let the bill founder without a vote in hopes of amending its contents into another bill — possibly even the state’s budget — during the conference committee stage.

If a Rockport-related measure gets that far, the final votes in the House and Senate would pit Indiana’s most powerful outside interests against each other.

On the side of the plant’s financier, Leucadia National Corp., will once again be coal lobbyists and the Indiana State Building and Construction Trades Council, which handed lawmakers a set of talking points last week that touts the 1,500 construction jobs, 300 coal-mining jobs and 200 plant jobs it says the Rockport project would create.

Opposing the plant’s construction and seeking to get the bill back into the form that cleared the Senate or the House Utility Committee will be Vectren Corp. and a roster of allies that includes the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the Indiana Manufacturers Association and several environmental and consumer groups.

The Senate — and particularly Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne — will now play a critical role in determining what happens.

Also an essential part of the Rockport debate — one that could hang a cloud over its outcome — are a series of what at least look like potential conflicts of interest.

Consider this:

Ubelhor, who pushed the pro-Leucadia amendment last week, manages Indiana coal mines for Peabody Energy — a company that could be a leading bidder to sell coal to be converted into natural gas at the Rockport plant.

Senate Utility Chairman Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, works as vice president of corporate affairs for the Indiana Rail Road Co., which carries coal from Peabody’s enormous Bear Run mine in Sullivan County and therefore could do business with the Rockport plant.

House Utility Chairman Eric Koch, R-Bedford, is heavily invested in dozens of energy companies, many of which are tied to the natural gas industry. There are no immediately apparent conflicts disclosed on the statement of economic interest form that Koch filed with the House. Still, as natural gas goes, so goes Koch’s portfolio — which at least offers an indication of his personal analysis.

Whether those potential conflicts affect the outcome of the issue, and whether they play into legislative leaders’ thinking as they decide how to handle it, will be key questions to watch as this year’s session enters its two final, chaotic weeks.