OnTheCusp.org

How did the Arts in Indiana do this election???

Everyone now knows the results from Tuesday's election. Pretty much a sweep by the democrats from the local level all the way up to Congress. So what does this mean for the arts, particularly in Indiana? Annually, the Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC scores house members and gives them grades based on:

1. Four major votes and one minor vote on arts funding
2. Introduction or cosponsorship of arts-related legislation
3. Signatures on "Dear Colleague" letters to the Appropriations Committee, asking it to increase funding for the NEA or for arts education
4. Membership in the Congressional Arts Caucus

Based on votes the last two years in the House of Representatives, Indiana ranked 45th in a state-by-state comparison. Below were the grades given to members of Congress representing Indiana pre-Tuesday (and yes I recognize this post would have been better Monday but I was ignoring everything art related for a few days - sorry).

District - Representative (Party) - Score - Grade - Election Result

• 1 - Visclosky (D) -- 82 -- B --- victor
• 2 - Chocola (R) ---- 28 --- C --- loser
• 3 - Souder (R) ----- 25 --- D --- victor
• 4 - Buyer (R) ------- 6 ---- D --- victor
• 5 - Burton (R) ------ 6 ---- D --- victor
• 6 - Pence (R) ------- 0 ---- F --- victor
• 7 - Carson (D) ----- 94 --- A --- victor
• 8 - Hostettler (R) - 0 ---- F --- loser
• 9 - Sodrel (R) ------ 76 --- B --- loser

So the two Democrats that kept their seats in the House received the two highest grades on this list. Surprising to me was that the Republican Sodrel lost his seat in a highly contested battle and he had by far the best grade of any of the conservatives. Somewhat scary is the 6th District, in which Mike Pence won by a very large margin. What's so scary about that? Not only did Pence get the lowest score possible, he is one of the few being mentioned to lead the now minority party in Congress. Let's hope the new majority can increase our batting average...