Mike Pence in Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg

On Budget & Economy: Economic development grants at regional level, not cities

True regional collaboration proactively working with other cities by sharing resources to grow the economy--was still rare in Indiana. To incentivize better behavior, the state offered a major grant for local economic development work, not to a city but to a region. In order to compete with the funding, all the counties and cities in an area would have to band together, show they could collaborate, and submit a joint application showing how they would share the funds.

On Civil Rights: OpEd: RFRA seen as allowing discrimination against gays

A beleaguered looking Pence appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, trying to reassure a national audience that the bill was not about discrimination. The interview was a disaster. When Stephanopoulos asked, "Do you think it should be legal in the state of Indiana to discriminate against gays or lesbians?" Pence paused, and winced. "George." he began, then sighed.

"It's a yes or no question!" Stephanopoulos pressed. No matter how many times he was asked, Pence would not simply say that the answer was no. (Which means he probably believed the answer was yes, but at least he knew not to admit it.) One national columnist later described it as "very possibly one of the worst appearances by a governor in television history." ÿ

On Corporations: Companies are not persons; should not have religious rights

The language of the bill seemed innocent enough: "a governmental entity may not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion," unless there is a compelling governmental interest at stake. But "person" was defined to include companies, building on the legal theory of the 2014 Supreme Court Hobby Lobby case, which interpreted federal law as giving corporations the same religious rights as people.

Effectively this meant that any place of business, from a restaurant to an auto mechanic shop, could refuse an LGBT individual or couple, provided its owner cited religion as the motivation for discriminating. The bill's actual purpose, its sponsors would later reveal, was to legalize discrimination.

On Environment: Regional Cities Initiative: enhance community appeal

The basic idea behind Regional Cities was that economic development is no longer just a game of luring factories--what some call "smokestack chasing"--from other locations, using tax incentives to essentially buy jobs. Instead, at a time when many people first choose where they want to live and then start looking for a job, it makes sense to recruit people, not just employers. The best way to do that is to enhance the appeal of the community, often called the 'quality of place,' and the initiatives focus was on supporting projects that would do just that.