State’s Dem Party chairman resigns post

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SOUTH BEND (AP) — Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker announced Monday he is stepping down after seven years, saying it’s time for a new leader.

The announcement comes following big losses by Democrats two years ago and heading into an important election year when Indiana residents will pick a new governor and vote for president.

“It is time for a new leader to embrace our past successes and take up our future challenges,” Parker said in a news release announcing his decision.

The Democrat’s State Central Committee will consider who should replace Parker when it meets on Saturday.

Parker saw some big wins and losses during his tenure. President Barack Obama in 2008 became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Indiana since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But in 2010, Republican Dan Coats won the U.S. Senate seat after Democrat Evan Bayh decided to retire and Republicans won two U.S. House seats and control of the state House.

Brian Vargus, a political science professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said he didn’t sense any great dissatisfaction with Parker, but there was a feeling that the party needs “new blood.”

“They want somebody who will reinvigorate the party. All you have to do is look at the governor’s race, you’ve got an old, old Indiana politician in John Gregg, a former speaker, who has been out of the limelight for a long time who is running,” Vargus said. “A lot of Democrats don’t regard him as new enough blood.”

The 57-year-old Gregg, who is from Sandborn in southwestern Indiana, was House Speaker from 1996 to 2002 before surprising lawmakers by retiring from the Legislature. Vargus said the problem for Democrats was there weren’t a lot of other options.

“Where was the young candidate? They don’t have any. They haven’t developed any. I think that’s one of the major criticisms of Parker,” Vargus said.

Parker said the state party’s future looked bleak when he took over in late 2004 after the Democrats lost control of the governor’s office for the first time in 16 years and also lost their majority in the Indiana House. He noted that under his leadership Democrats scored big wins in congressional seats as Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill ousted incumbents in 2006 to help regain power in the U.S. House of Representatives after a dozen years in the minority and Democrats took control of the Indiana House that year as well.

Before becoming state party chair, Parker worked as Bayh’s state director for three years and was previously an aide to then-Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and caucus director for Indiana House Democrats.

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Tom Coyne can be reached at http://twitter.com/TomCoyneAP