INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- 
It was clear in 2004. Then-Governor Joseph Kernan and his GOP challenger Mitch Daniels did not want to see LPIN candidate Kenn Gividen in the gubernatorial debates. Their efforts to exclude Gividen from the second debate backfired, not only stamping Gividen's ticket to the Franklin College event, but sending Kernan and Daniels' camps scrambling to point fingers at each other for the oversight.
A cornerstone of Gividen's campaign was putting a stop to the New Terrain route for the I-69 corridor, dubbed the NAFTA Superhighway. Gividen's property rights and tax message was bookended by environmental foes to make one of the strangest coalitions in Indiana politics in years. Gividen was the lone opponent to the new terrain route.
With Daniels' winning the governor's office, plans moved ahead quickly in the state's efforts to seize privately owned land and begin clearing the way for the highway extension. Although destruction of homes began months ago, a private groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for this Wednesday in Evansville at an auditorium at the convention center.
"It's a shame," notes LPMC member Kevin Fleming, who participated in Gividen's 2004 car rally in opposition to the new terrain route. "Over 400 families are expected to lose their homes. The environmental disruption will be enormous. And, INDOT's own documents show a fourteen minute savings over an upgraded I-70/US41 route. Yes, it's a shame."
Earlier this year, Thomas Tokarski, a land owner effected by the highway construction, attempted to photograph several of the homes scheduled for demolition. According to his account posted on the Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads (CARR) website, Tokarski was harassed by state police and his person and vehicle searched while on public grounds.
The Daniels' administration efforts to keep this moving forward quietly steal a page from his D.C. boss, President George W. Bush. Protesters of the official groundbreaking will be restricted to a "protest area."
"Really a shame," emphasized Fleming. "We'll just have to hope voters keep that in mind this November and consider a vote for [Andy] Horning. There would be no difference with Daniels and Jill Long-Thompson."
