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Senate Voting Analysis
State and Local Politics 237
Dr. Crawley
Spring Semester 2005
4/25/05

   When trying to understand why an Indiana state senator votes a certain way on a bill, it’s important to look at details and information that may have influenced them in their decision. A few ways in which to do this is by, first, looking at background information about the Senator and the name and description of the bill he/she voted on, second, analyzing whether public opinion had an effect on the way the senator voted, and lastly, checking to see if political party influence had any impact on the senator’s vote.
     In order to understand why an Indiana state senator, such as Allen E. Paul, voted a certain way on a bill, it’s important to know some biographical information about him and the exact bill he voted on. Allen E. Paul represents Indiana District #27, which consists of Jay, Randolph, and Wayne County. Senator Paul lives in Richmond Indiana with his wife Terri and their son Allen. He was President of Innovative Industries Incorporated, a Lt. Colonel of the Indiana Guard Reserves, and served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Senator Paul attended Howe Military School and received his Bachelors degree at Parsons College. He’s a member of the Rotary Club, Howe Military Alumni Board of Directors, VFW, American Legion, YMCA, Marine Corps League, Wayne-Richmond, Winchester, and Portland Chamber of Commerce, and United Way. He was elected to the Indiana Senate in 1986 and has served as a Senator ever since. While in the Senate, he served on a few committees such as, the Insurance and Financial Institution, Natural Resources, Rules and Legislative Procedures, and Government and Regulations Affairs. In the 1998 election Senator Paul ran for the Republican Party unopposed and received 22,679 votes: 2,974 of those from Jay County, 5,038 from Randolph County, and 14,667 votes from Wayne County.
     In March of 2000, Senator Paul voted on bill H.1018, which was an Act to amend the Indiana Code concerning education. The Senate was voting on the addition of a new chapter concerning the Interscholastic Athletic Associations, to section IC 20-5-63 of the Indiana code. The new chapter included seven sections covering the definitions of associations, case, panel, parent, and state superintendent within context to interscholastic athletics and the requirements schools must achieve in order to be a part of the association. The definitions presented in the bill were very straight forward and well defined, however when looking at the listings for the requirements that schools were expected to comply with in order to be a part of the association, it was easy to see that there would be people who would disagree with the terms. This fact was proven by the fact that a 50 to 0 vote was not passed, but a 32 yeas to 18 nays was passed instead. Senator Paul voted on the side of the majority, with a vote of yes, good enough to pass the new chapter.
     When looking at the context of the bill, I thought that it was a very good addition to the Indiana code concerning education. Now days athletics is a huge part of education and many teachers are expected to encourage their students to be a part of extra-curricular activities such as athletics. So, including a bill that established an association that is dedicated to serving student’s rights as an athlete to the education code, is well worth the Indiana Senate’s time.
     After looking at Senator Allen E. Paul’s biographical information and one of the bills he voted on, it’s important to analyze public opinion to see if it had any affect on the way he voted on the bill. Any senator’s ultimate goal is to get re-elected in the following election, so he/she is going to want to pay attention to the opinions of the people they are representing. There are a few issues that senators who are seeking re-election are going to want to pay attention too when examining their potential voters. First, they are going to want to look at those voters within their district who are a part of the issue public, or those who have definite opinions on issues, and how large this population of people is. If the issue public is large, then the senator has greater potential for votes. Secondly it’s important for a senator to know those who are politically active within his/her district, because they are people that he/she will want to pay more attention too and want on their team. Next, the senator will want to look at the intensity associated with the issue he or she is voting on. Are people intense in their beliefs about this issue? Lastly, the senator will want to pay attention to the cohesion of those who are able to vote. Is their a significant majority of people on a certain side of the issue?
     Senator Paul ran unopposed in the previous election with 100% of the votes, which would leave some to believe that public opinion may not have affected his vote on the athletic bill since he had no one to compete with for his district’s votes. However, despite knowing that the more competitive an election is the more influenced a senator is through public opinion, I believe public opinion affected Senator Paul’s vote for a few reasons. My first reason for thinking this is because in the previous election from Jay County, Senator Paul only received 2,974 votes. Living close to Jay County and knowing that there are more then likely over 2,974 registered voters in that area, I’m lead to believe that some of the voters didn’t vote for Senator Paul. If I’m aware of this chances are that Senator Paul is as well, and in order to encourage those who didn’t vote for him to vote for him in the next election, he took into consideration intensity on the issue of athletics in Jay County. When looking at the area that Senator Paul represents, it’s safe to say that many of the potential voters within this area have at least one child in the school system, therefore the intensity on such an issue as education and athletics is going to be very high. Also, in the district that Senator Paul is representing, there aren’t many big cities, therefore, attending sporting events and participating in sports is a way that many of Senator Paul’s potential voters and their children pass time and chances are this would encourage cohesion between those siding with the bill, in effect causing political opinion to influence Senator Paul’s vote on the bill.
   Public opinion is very important in determining a senator’s vote on a bill however, political party has a strong influence as well, when it has negative sanctions that affect the senator’s goals. Some of these sanctions include control of legislation and naming of committee members. When the majority of senators in the Indiana Senate belong to a certain party, they create negative sanctions for the opposing party and thus have strong influence on whether a senator from the opposing parties goals are achieved. This is also true when it comes to naming committee members, the party in the majority can create negative sanctions for a senator from the minority, by putting him/her in a committee where they can’t achieve their goals.
     When looking at Senator Paul’s vote on the bill, I don’t think that political influence had much to do with his decision to vote yes on the bill. Senator Paul was part of the Republican Party which was the majority in a Senate, consisting of 31 Republicans and 19 Democrats, so on partisan issues, Senator Paul’s goals were never hindered from being achieved by negative sanctions. However, the vote on the Interscholastic Athletic Association Bill was not partisan. The vote consisted of a mixture of Republicans and Democrats voting both ways, with the final vote being 32 yeas to 18 nays, 0 senators not voting, and 0 senators excused. This leads me to believe that many of the senators weren’t focused on following their party, but were instead focused on their goals that best represent their constituents. Most of the districts that the senators were representing are filled with schools heavily involved in athletics, this would explain why most of the senators voted yea for the passing of the bill dealing with athletics and disregarding political party influence to do so. Senator Paul was one of those senators whose interest, in this case, was to serve the goals of his constituents and not his political party by passing the bill. Since Senator Paul was never on a committee dealing with education and the passing of the bill was not partisan, it seems that the only valid conclusion I can come to is that he voted according to what would serve his district best and promote re-election for himself, not according to party influence. However, I only think this is true of Senator Paul on this Bill. Because of the fact that his district was uncompetitive, I think that on a majority of bills he would have been more inclined to be influenced by political party than public opinion, but because of the nature of the bill and the fact that it was not a partisan bill, the outcome was different.
     When analyzing the way an Indiana State Senator votes on a bill, a few pieces of information and details should be looked at to better understand why he/she voted the way they did. First, it’s important to look at the senator’s biographical information and the bill that he/she is voting on, second, it’s important to look at public opinion and what role it played in the senator’s vote on the bill, and lastly, it’s important to see if the political party in government had any influence on the senator’s decision pertaining to the passing of the bill. These steps leave those people looking on the outside of a senate decision, well aware of the reasons for certain senator’s decision to pass or reject a bill.

     Comments: Dr. Crawley gave me an 84 out 100 on this paper. He left a few comments as to why I received this score. On the first page and he wrote that I should have mentioned the party split in the 2000 election, along with the 1998 election like I had done. On the third page in the first paragraph, he said that I should have explained why a senator should look for intensity on certain issues and that I should have mentioned within this paragraph how an electoral coalition figures in. Dr. Crawley also reminded me that my senator’s district only included part of Jay County, not the full county. In the second paragraph on the fourth page, Dr. Crawley wanted me to list more sanctions and why they work, however I only listed a few because I didn’t want to go over my page limit. On this page, he also wanted to know the party split, which I had not done when I gave the final vote. I received my score depending on how clearly I understood what factors senators look at, that may eventually influence their vote.