Michael Leppert

No one wants to be called racist

Feb 26, 2021

A sad chain of events occurred in and around the Indiana House of Representatives last week. The dust up grew out of the debate on House Bill 1367, a bill that establishes a two-year pilot program allowing the John Glenn School Corporation (JGSC) to initiate a...

Civics education bill is the best bill this year

Feb 19, 2021

For regular readers of my column, it should be no surprise that I am unimpressed with the Civics IQ of most people around here. It is a common thread through much of my writing. That entire group of "regular readers," literally dozens of people all over the...

Trump’s insurrection, and his defenders’ cowardice, won’t ever fade

Feb 12, 2021

Lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, quoted Thomas Paine several times as the managers' case was concluded on Thursday in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Paine's Common Sense was the pamphlet many credit with...

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Keeping the Big Ten Network on the Air

One of Mr. Leppert’s successful projects was his media campaign on behalf of the Big Ten Network in its dispute with cable formats for broad distribution of the network during its start-up years. He wrote and distributed press releases, organized supporters to attend press conferences and traveled the state for media events with both Mark Silverman, the original president of the network and Jim Delany, the long-time commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. Silverman has since moved into an executive position at Fox Sports, and Delany has announced his retirement in June of this year. The media output and related responses to it were vital in moving the stalled discussions to a mutually beneficial resolution between the network and cable formats. The Big Ten Network is distributed widely today and is a model for college sports networks.

The three of us were only flagged for speeding one time during the campaign, fittingly on State Road 37, while racing between press conferences at IU and downtown Indianapolis.

Moving Indiana Forward with Bias Crimes Legislation

Mr. Leppert was engaged by the United Way of Central Indiana to design and implement the campaign in 2018-19 for the passage of new hate/bias crime legislation in Indiana. The foundation of this coalition was built by joining two organizations, the Indiana Alliance Against Hate, and Indiana Competes. After several years of resistance in the Indiana General Assembly, specifically since the RFRA session of 2015, this campaign was the catalyst to passage of the new law and removing Indiana from the list of only five states without hate crimes legislation.

More than 800 members of the smaller merged entities were mobilized. Press events were held throughout the state. Editorial boards were visited. Letter writing and phone banking strategies were implemented. The management of this large group, and the short timeframe available to make our impact was an experience. While the law enacted by the legislature did not include all of the protected classes our coalition sought for inclusion, the establishment of hate or bias as statutory consideration in sentencing was established for many classes. Our campaign proved successful.