Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN)
The biggest blow to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's claims that his state's new law won't lead to discrimination may have come from a fellow Republican governor. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday morning that he
wouldn't sign the very similar law his state's legislature had passed until the language is changed to make it mirror the existing federal law. But that wasn't the only new hit Pence took in the ongoing backlash against the law.
- The five living mayors of Indianapolis, including former Sen. Dick Lugar, have written an unhappy op-ed:
We, the five living mayors of Indianapolis, are distressed and very concerned by the fallout from the enactment of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The local, national and international response threatens to undo many of the efforts we have made, going back to 1967, to build an inclusive, caring, and hospitable city.
Four of the five are Republicans.
- Speaking of mayors, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser prohibited official travel to Indiana. Oakland, California Mayor Libby Schaaf did likewise.
- Pence has also lost Big Cracker.
- Indiana business owners are airing their disapproval of the law: When the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette tried to sell ads to businesses announcing that they'd serve everyone, the owner of the Firefly Coffee House had another idea:
We feel that maybe those businesses who wish to discriminate ought to have to put signs on their doors stating their support of this draconian law and then list the requirements for being able to be served.
- In his Tuesday press conference, Pence said that "I think the Indiana press has had this right from early on." Well, not only did Indiana's largest newspaper, the Indianapolis Star, run a front-page editorial against the law, it's followed that up with an op-ed flaying Pence as "a stunningly ineffective leader" and "above all an ideologue ... [who] doesn't truly understand what it takes to take on the state's massive challenges."
Political observers everywhere are saying bye-bye to any presidential hopes Pence might have had, while Indiana says bye-bye to conferences and concerts and a good chunk of its reputation, what with people like this in the news and enabled by the state government.