With the screech of a public chastising in their ears, Indiana Republican leaders moved quickly earlier this year to amend language in a controversial law seen by many as a license to discriminate against gays.
But some political analysts say millions of campaign dollars may have been another key force behind the state Republican hustle to fix the measure.
A Times Media Company investigation of Indiana campaign finance records shows the same Republican leaders who backed the infamous Religious Freedom Restoration Act also relied heavily on some of the party's top campaign contributors whose interests may have been threatened by the RFRA's scathing reviews in the court of public and consumer opinion.
From the campaign fund of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to the massive Indiana House Republican Campaign Committee war chest, billionaire hotel and hospitality mogul Dean White, of Crown Point, ranked at or near the top of contributors to Republican campaign leadership.
Between 2011 and 2014, White alone pumped $4 million into five of the Indiana GOP's six largest campaign funds, The Times probe shows.
The state's hotel, convention and tourism sector were among the industries most threatened by event cancellations in the wake of RFRA. White, who never publicly spoke out against RFRA, wasn't available for comment on the matter.
And some perennial donors to the Hoosier Republican cause, including former Angie's List CEO William Oesterle, were among RFRA's most vocal critics.
Oesterle contributed $220,000 to various Republican campaign funds between 2011 and 2014, including $150,000 to Pence's political war chest, The Times probe found. In fact, Oesterle was the 12th highest contributor to Pence's campaign while White was the second largest at $775,000.
The Pence campaign and other Hoosier Republicans denied past or future campaign donations had any link to the "language fix" Republicans rushed to adopt just days after the controversial law passed the Indiana Legislature and was signed by the governor.
But one state political analyst and another national campaign finance researcher said the potential sway political money holds over such matters can't be overlooked.
The fix is in?
The amendment to the religious freedoms law seemed to arrive almost as quickly as the law's passage, said Hoosier political analyst Brian Howey, of Howey Politics Indiana.
Gov. Pence received from the Legislature and signed the RFRA law on March 26. The public outcry over a perception that it opened the door for businesses to discriminate against gay customers was so red-hot in the following week that the Legislature passed and Pence signed an anti-discrimination amendment to the law on April 2.
There is little doubt among political observers that the language fix to the religious freedoms law was prompted in large part by the nationwide outcry from critics who saw the Hoosier state as living in the dark ages regarding gay rights.
"RFRA was more so a public relations debacle," Indiana University Northwest political science professor Marie Eisenstein said. "That's what induced the quick fix."
But Howey said he sees other potential influence having played a role.
"You had to think him (Dean White) being in the hospitality industry maybe convinced the governor to go along with the fix," Howey said.
Though the public opinion backlash against RFRA was immense, Howey also said the scathing reviews it received from major GOP donor Oesterle couldn't be overlooked either.
Though he said he couldn't speak specifically to the political influences behind the RFRA amendment, national political researcher Pete Quist said major campaign contributors can wield powerful influence with the dollars they give.
"Certainly major donors get access to policymakers, although that doesn't necessarily mean they set elected officials' positions," said Quist, research director for the National Institute on Money in State Politics. "In addition, depending on the scope of the backlash from the public and/or political donors and the scope of the 'fix,' making the change may have simply served as a way to quiet concerns without taking too big of a step away from the wishes of the interests backing the RFRA."
Pence campaign spokesman Robert Vane dismissed claims that a campaign finance fix was in where RFRA was concerned.
"The governor called for the fix because it was the best thing to do for Indiana and all Hoosiers," Vane said.