Northwest Indiana businessman unmatched powerhouse in GOP political funding

But absent his leading donations to the state's party in power, Northwest Indiana has a proportionately small amount of monetary skin in the political game, a Times Media Co. investigation of Indiana campaign finance records shows.

Crown Point and Merrillville businessman Dean White pumped nearly $4 million into five of the Indiana GOP's six largest campaign funds between 2011 and 2014, The Times probe shows.

In fact, White was the number one, two or three overall donor to those five campaign funds, which include the Indiana Republican State Committee.

One state political analyst who reviewed figures culled by The Times noted Indiana Democrats have no equivalent to the monetary muscle White provides Hoosier Republicans.

The millions of dollars in campaign and party fund contributions during the past four years may seem a pittance compared to the overall fortunes of White, a billionaire hotel and hospitality mogul. White is worth $2.5 billion and ranks as the 268th richest American in 2015, according to Forbes Magazine.

But his GOP donations represent a significant portion of the party's largest state campaign war chests.

They also represent significant potential access to and influence over the political party currently in control of legislative supermajorities and the governor's office, at least three state political observers concluded.

But White's massive Republican contributions also raise questions about the true access and influence of heavily Democratic Northwest Indiana in a Hoosier Capitol controlled by the GOP.

With White's money, Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties collectively account for nearly 11 percent of the funding that flowed into the Indiana GOP's six largest or most influential campaign funds, The Times investigation revealed.

Take away White's money, and donors with Northwest Indiana addresses accounted for only 2.2 percent of the money received by those funds between 2011 and 2014.

Meanwhile, the actual influence White and other major campaign contributors have over the political process can be hard to identify and typically is more subtle than swaying actual policy votes in the Statehouse chamber, a Region political science professor said.

Sweeping support

A review of White's donations to Indiana Republicans' largest campaign funds — and lack of contributions to equivalent Democratic funds — shows his potentially sweeping influence within the state GOP.

The Times probe shows that between 2011 and 2014, White contributed the following:

• Nearly $1.1 million to the Indiana Republican State Committee, the Hoosier GOP's main overarching fund. White was the third largest donor to this fund.

• Nearly $1.1 million to the House Republican Campaign Committee, a powerful partisan war chest fueling the political fortunes of dozens of Statehouse delegates throughout Indiana. White was the biggest single donor to this fund.

• $775,000 to Gov. Mike Pence's campaign fund. White was second only to the Republican Governor's Association, which provided $1.1 million to Pence's campaign.

• $675,000 to Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma's campaign, making White the largest single donor to the top legislative Republican's campaign fund.

• $375,000 to the Indiana Senate Majority Campaign fund, making White the second-leading contributor to the political fortunes of Senate Republicans. Only Indiana Senate President David Long contributed more to this fund, with $733,800.

Long's individual campaign finance reports reflected no contributions from White.

White was unavailable for comment on The Times' analysis of his campaign contributions.

But state political analysts and GOP party faithful were quick to trumpet the importance of White's contributions to the Republican agenda.

Unmatched influence

"He is in a league all by himself," said state political analyst Brian Howey, of Howey Politics Indiana.

"There's no Democratic counterpart to him. He by himself has positioned the Republican political committees into a much better position. I think it's translated into the supermajorities that we're seeing not only in the general assembly, but the Republicans also dominate the congressional delegation and also the constitutional officers at the Statehouse."

Howey acknowledged he's never met White and isn't sure "what's in it for him."

But he said White's "sequoia" status among state political contributors can't be denied.

The GOP political power brokers who've received White's money over the years expressed gratitude.

"Gov. Pence has a tremendous amount of respect for Dean White as a businessman and a philanthropist," Pence campaign spokesman Robert Vane said. "We are extremely grateful for his support."

But how much political sway do those dollars buy?

Swaying laws, policy

Determining the precise influence major campaign donations have over law, policy and an elected officeholder's behavior can be difficult, Indiana University Northwest political science professor Marie Eisenstein said.

"It isn't a one-way arrow, and it's very complicated and complex," she said. "The linkage between money and votes is a gray area at best — and votes aren't really where the influence is at."

More often, the influence of money in the political process manifests itself in more subtle ways, including the precise language included in legislative bills or whether a proposed measure ever makes it to the Statehouse floor for discussion, Eisenstein said.

"We know the influence is there, but it becomes complicated and nuanced," she said.

But Eisenstein said one truth to money in politics remains clear: "If you don't contribute, there's less opportunity to present your case."

White and other top donors are far more likely to get "face time" with the political leaders they support, Eisenstein said.

"Contributions of that nature make it much easier to get into the offices of elected leaders to present one's views."

Region benefits?

Though Northwest Indiana is home to one of the top contributors of the party in power, White is the only major Region funding source feeding GOP politics.

Of the nearly $5 million that flowed to the GOP's six largest campaign funds from Lake, Porter and LaPorte county contributors between 2011 and 2014, $3.9 million, or about 79 percent, came from White.

But what impact does that have on the fortunes of Northwest Indiana, an area characterized by its perennial support of the Democratic Party, the state's political minority?

"There are several factors that can play into the political fortunes of regions within a state," said political researcher Pete Quist, of the National Institute on Money in State Politics. "Certainly campaign contributions may be a piece of that."

But in the end, legislators "still have to be elected by the people in their districts, so the legislators from Northwest Indiana, at least, would benefit from providing for the people in their districts" regardless of overall political ideologies, Quist said.

For years, Northwest Indiana public officials and political observers have alleged the state's Republican majority has ignored important region initiatives, including replacing the Cline Avenue bridge.

But Pence campaign spokesman Vane disputed that the governor and other state Republicans have denied attention to Northwest Indiana issues because of meager campaign contributions.

"I don't think the evidence shows Gov. Pence has ignored Northwest Indiana in any way, shape or form," Vane said, noting the governor's support of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority funding and charter schools as education alternatives for families in the region's struggling urban core.