Debut of a new Daniels? (03/27/07)

Anyone who wondered how the last election would change the way Gov. Mitch Daniels does business got a clear answer on Saturday.

The governor, in a move that would have been unthinkable during his first two years in office, backed away from a couple of toll road proposals because they had proved unpopular with the public.

The old Mitch Daniels would have bulldozed ahead anyway, convinced in the rightness of his thinking and his ability to bend the public will to his purposes. That was the approach when Major Moves was pushed through.

The new Mitch Daniels first floated the idea of a 75-mile toll road connector around part of Indianapolis and a 10-mile toll road in northwest Indiana. Then he listened to public reaction and comment. And then he backed off.

"It is clear to me that we are far from the degree of consensus that is necessary before the embarking on major public works projects of high local impact," he said in letters to legislative leaders on Saturday.

Neither proposal was winning many followers, and the Indy connector was running into serious objections from the communities that would have been involved.

Politically, the smart thing to do was to take the proposal off the table.

By doing so, the governor removes an issue that could have been a problem for Republican lawmakers in the next election.

At the same time, he recasts himself as a more flexible chief executive, an image adjustment that will be important in any bid for his own re-election. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]