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For Northwest Indiana, Visclosky's troubles are just another political cloud
Posted: June 5, 2009
CROWN POINT, Ind.
The front-page headline peering out from a newspaper box on a recent morning here summed up the troubles swirling around Pete Visclosky, this region's longtime Democratic congressman.
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"Subpoenas put Pete in Spotlight," the headline blared.
Indeed, they have.
From Northwest Indiana to Capitol Hill, Visclosky's legal issues are big news. Federal investigators are digging into his relationship with a once powerful but now-defunct defense industry lobbying group, raising questions about campaign contributions the firm gave Visclosky and the millions of dollars in federal earmarks he steered to the firm's clients.
The investigation has political insiders wondering about the future of a man who has represented Indiana's 1st District for 13 terms. Not surprisingly, it also has Republicans taking aim at a politician they've never been able to bruise at the ballot box.
But in Lake County, a place where political scandals drop like rain in the spring, it seems few people worry much about the controversy. It will take more than a little federal investigation -- or even a big one -- to get folks worked up here in the land of infamous machine politics.
"We have a high tolerance for being B.S.'d and putting up with everything else politicians do," an antique dealer named Bob Urban said as he stood in the Crown Point Antique Mall this week. "They all look out for themselves. We understand."
Sadly, those of us with ties to Northwest Indiana do indeed understand. Reading the local paper's political coverage while growing up here in the 1970s and '80s wasn't much different from reading the police blotter. And while I must admit much of my fondness for this region stems from its colorful political history, that history of corruption has helped hold the area back.
"Hey, we're not as bad as Chicago," Linda Lohman, a bookkeeper from Crown Point, informed me as I wandered around the city's charming courthouse square.
Her comment helps explain the tolerance locals have for political scandal. The people of Northwest Indiana live and breathe Chicago sports and politics. They hear more about Illinois' governor than about Indiana's. So would you expect an area that lived through the Rod Blagojevich years and decades of Chicago shenanigans, as well as their own politicians' foibles, to blink at word that a grand jury has subpoenaed their congressman's records?
"It's like a vendetta," Ray Kasprzak, a retired steelworker from Portage, said as he got into his Chevrolet Caprice outside a Walgreens. "With everything else, it's like they're going after the Democrats."
He wasn't worried about the details: Visclosky received $1.4 million in contributions from the PMA Group over the years. His former chief of staff worked for the company. And Visclosky played a part in arranging more than $23 million in earmarks to the firm's clients in 2008.
This is just an investigation, of course. No formal charges have been filed. But the Indiana Republican Party has justifiably pointed to "the ethical cloud lingering over Congressman Pete Visclosky."
That legal cloud is a heavy one.
Still, Visclosky is widely admired here as a champion of the crucial steel industry. Many residents call him simply "Pete." As I drove around his district, I found few people worried about things like ethical clouds.
"They're fed up with it," a man named Harry insisted as he worked outside an American Legion post in Crown Point. "But there's so much of this stuff going on, the thought is, 'Oh, well, here's another one.'
"We're used to it."
And to think that most of those comments were from folks from CP where the GOP is still considered a stronghold. Yes, I think you have a point about nobody caring about corruption in Lake County. Maybe they will once they don't have any money to spend to go to the boats anymore.
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ing level of political corruption of the Lake County Democrats. It is reaching a critical mass.