Pelath Selected to Lead Indiana House Democrats

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana House Democrats again have turned to State Rep. Scott Pelath (D-Michigan City) to serve as their caucus leader for the upcoming sessions of the Indiana General Assembly.

Pelath, who has served as a member of the House since 1998, was selected House Democratic Leader during a caucus organizational meeting today in Indianapolis. This marks Pelath’s second consecutive term as leader of the House Democrats.

“I am honored and humbled by the faith and trust my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus have placed in me, and I pledge to serve them to the best of my abilities in the sessions to come,” Pelath said. “These are difficult times for Democrats in state government, but we are driven by the knowledge that we fighting for what is right for the people of Indiana.

“As we head into the 2015 session, our goals as House Democrats remain the same: fighting for the interests of the middle class in our state, making our public schools whole again, and keeping the Legislature from spending too much time on divisive social issues that detract our efforts on other, more important issues,” he continued.

“While it is easy to say that our voices cannot be heard over the din of single-party control, I would remind everyone that House Democrats were the only people in our chamber two years ago to sound the need for protecting our public schools and staying away from the unnecessary debate over who can marry whom in our state,” Pelath said.

“Now we hear the House Republicans talk about doing something for public schools, and Hoosiers now have the right to marry who they love, not who the state tells them they can marry,” he noted. “We can be heard, and we will be heard.

“The issues remain the same,” Pelath said. “We will fight for our public schools to get the state support they deserve, and we will fight for the middle class to get the kind of attention that has eluded them these past few years. As I have said before, we will support those issues we feel deserve our support, we will point out where our colleagues have gone wrong, and we will offer alternatives that provide a clear vision of what Indiana House Democrats represent.”