State Sen. Tim Lanane spent much of Election Day in the cold rain, cloaked against the wind as he greeted voters outside polls around his district in Anderson.
By early evening, as he headed home to watch returns with his family, he wasn’t feeling well. By late evening, as he arrived at Democratic headquarters in Indianapolis, he felt much worse.
The grim results, delivered by historically low voter turnout, put Lanane in a near historic position - leader of the smallest Democratic caucus in the General Assembly since 1952, when a horde of Republicans rode into office on the long coattails of President Dwight Eisenhower.
At 10 members, Lanane’s caucus has so little standing that, by chamber rules, the 40-member Republican super-majority can conduct business and pass bills even if the Democrats don’t show up for work. A similar scenario holds in the House, where Republicans have 71 of 100 seats.
As one pundit put it: Jesus had more apostles at the Last Supper than there are Democrats in the Senate.
Feeling bruised, Lanane’s advice to his Democratic colleagues echoes what he offered them back in 2012, when first elected minority leader by a caucus of 13 members: Keep your chin up and stay in the fight.
“The people who elected us still expect us to do our job,” he said. “And they still expect us to be their advocates.”
Of four caucus leaders in the Legislature, Lanane, 62, has the mildest manner. He can be a vocal dissenter but shies from the bombast that often echoes through both chambers. As I’ve written before, he prefers the policy-making process to political grappling.
And he’s had to adopt a long view. He’s spent all 16 of his years as a lawmaker in a party that’s been in the minority in the Senate since 1978.
Still, he looks for an advantage when he can. Since rising to a leadership role, Lanane has sought opportunities to build bi-partisan bridges.
Next year, look for him to join Republicans from casino communities in a push to loosen restrictive gaming rules – an effort that would benefit Hoosier Park in Anderson, where Lanane lives.
Also look for him to identify issues where he can align Democrats with moderate Republicans who are wary of the social conservatives in their party. These conservatives, having failed in their fight against same-sex marriage, are itching to protect business owners who deny services to gay couples.
Lanane at first worried about the morale of his dwindling caucus when he met with them two days after the election. Their losses included two longtime members -- Tim Skinner of Terre Haute, who’d served 12 years, and Richard Young of Milltown, in the Senate since 1988.
Instead, he found his small battalion energized.
“People expect us to be the counterbalance to the party in power,” he said. “And we’re still fired up to do that.”
It will be tougher for a dwindling group of lawmakers already scrambling to keep up with what’s supposed to be the part-time job of citizen legislator.
“We used to have 13 pairs of eyes watching what was going on, and now we’re down to 10,” he said. “We’ll have to be even more committed to the job.”