Best Governor of Indiana in the Last 50 Years

[Health Over Wealth]

Winners
Alabama: Don Siegelman (1999-2003)
Alaska: Tony Knowles (1994-2002)
Arizona: Bruce Babbitt (1978-1987)
Arkansas: Mike Beebe (2007-2015)
California: Jerry Brown (1975-1983) (2011-2019)
Colorado: Jared Polis (2019-Present)
Connecticut: Lowell Weicker (1991-1995)
Delaware: Jack Markell (2009-2017)
Florida: Lawton Chiles (1991-1998)
Georgia: Jimmy Carter (1971-1975)
Hawaii: Neil Abercrombie (2010-2014)
Idaho: Cecil Andrus (1971-1977) (1987-1995)

[Mr. Smith]

Daniels.

[Cokeland Saxton]

Daniels. Last time we had a remotely good governor. Pence was insufferable and Holcuck hasn't done anything actually productive in his two terms. Now we're about to end up with Pence 2.0 in about 6 months.

[Health Over Wealth]

Daniels made Indiana a right-to-work-for-less state and Kernan expanded public healthcare. I'm surprised that Daniels is so highly regarded by left-leaning posters.

I would say that he passed the competence test 100% though.

[インターネット掲示板ユーザー Punxsutawney Phil]

Daniels made Indiana a right-to-work-for-less state and Kernan expanded public healthcare. I'm surprised that Daniels is so highly regarded by left-leaning posters.

I would say that he passed the competence test 100% though.

This was a case of vote-splitting, combined with such low feelings towards more recent GOP govs, that produces such a result.

[JSojourner]

Daniels was a disaster. I lived under his horrible regime. He gutted the ISP and Indiana Toll Road system. While he was governor, tolls increased and so did the number of potholes, craters, and piles of dog sh**t at ITR rest areas. I remember one - near Angola - that was so disgusting I wanted to puke. The piles were at least 6” high.

Daniels also funneled taxpayer money into far right religious charter schools and he looked the other way when it came to private, fundamentalist Christian “reform schools”. They could rape students w beat them mercilessly under both Daniels and Pence.

Frank O’Bannon was a good Governor. Not great. Bayh was popular, but very mediocre. Actually, the guy who might have been Indiana’s best governor was Joe Kernan. If he had only been given a chance.

I also think Paul Helmke (R) and Jill Long-Thompson (D) would have been brilliant governors. But Hoosier voters prefer extremist, right wing  candidates.