State Representative R-Martinsville, District 60 (Johnson, Morgan, part of Monroe Counties)
Gun Safety
April 16, 2023
Tired of thoughts and prayers for one mass shooting after another? Look no further than our state legislature where voters have lost leverage to big money donors.
District 60 Rep. Peggy Mayfield (R-Martinsville) voted yes to repealing the license requirement to carry a handgun. This, despite State Police Superintendent Doug Carter telling the lawmakers that “if you choose to support this bill, you will not be supporting us.” And even though it was the Senate resolution honoring the National Rifle Association (NRA), which is holding a convention in Indianapolis this weekend, Mayfield sponsored a house bill doing the same thing.
Follow the Money
Mayfield has been a member of the Indiana House of Representatives since 2012 after Hoosiers were badly gerrymandered the first time.
DARK MONEY financed the nation-wide REDMAP strategy to take over state governments, and that is when Indiana voters were packed and stacked into voting districts to suppress their voices. This gives the supermajority dictatorial control over state laws concerning gun control, without regard to public opinion, and continues to this day.
The term “dark money’ comes from Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional a century of campaign finance regulations.
The Democracy for All Amendment will empower Congress and the states to regulate campaign financing. Please let our 9th District Rep.Erin Houchin (R-Salem) know of your strong support for bringing this proposal to the House floor.
Reproductive Freedom
August 23, 2023
In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, Indiana became the first state to pass a near-total abortion ban August 2022; two lawsuits hoping to stay this ban were immediately filed in state court, but the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ban June 2023. A petition for rehearing temporarily stopped the ban from taking effect, however, that petition was just denied by the Indiana Supreme Court 4-1 August 21.
Hoosier women have now lost reproductive freedom—despite the fact that the majority of voters in Indiana support choice.
District 60 Representative Peggy Mayfield (R-Martinsville) voted yes for this ban that has some narrow exceptions for rape and incest, but it is worth noting she voted against even those exceptions in the House on an earlier vote. Luckily, more moderate Republicans prevailed on the final bill.
Why would Mayfield want to take this choice from Hoosier women in cases of rape and incest?
Because she is a Roman Catholic? She has authored several bills restricting abortion during her 11 years in office. Because she is a conservative? She has benefitted from the extreme gerrymandering in 2011 and again in 2021 shifting the district’s center of gravity into much of Morgan County. Because she had a primary challenger from the right in 2022? A combination of religion, philosophy, and politics? Whatever the impetus, it is worth knowing how her bread is buttered.
Follow the Money
The Republican Party in Indiana is shifting to the hard right and away from democratic norms, so if you want those campaign donations to continue from the Party, you do their bidding.
Former CEO of Netflix and California billionaire Reed Hastings donated $700,000 to a pro-charter-school Indiana PAC called Hoosiers for Great Public Schools (HGPS) in the 2022 election cycle—again. He did the same in 2020. Both he and Texas billionaire John Arnold want to support the spread of charter schools, but to do that in Indiana, you end up also supporting a hard-right agenda. Mayfield not only received $2,500 of that money outright from Hastings but also another $17,727.45 from The House Republican Campaign Committee, which got $190,000 from HGPS.
The good news is that Mayfield is up for re-election in 2024. Decisions are made by those who show up.
Defunding Public Education
December 4, 2023
Monroe County had another education referendum this year following the one in 2022 because the state has been steadily defunding public education since the 1990s. The state wants to give our tax dollars to voucher and charter schools, so our local public schools are left trying to do more with less.
State Representative Peggy Mayfield R-Martinsville District 60 consistently votes to defund public schools. In 2022 she voted to expand vouchers; she voted to share referenda monies with charter schools; and she voted to give parents more authority over curriculum to satisfy unfounded fears about “critical race theory.”
“More than one-third of this year’s K-12 [state] funding increase goes to private schools, which serve fewer than 8 percent of Hoosier students, via an expansion of Indiana’s voucher program.” “We have another situation where our funding continues to fall further and further behind inflation,” says MCCSC¹ Superintendent Jeff Hauswald.
Follow the Money
Groups that promote taxpayer funding of private schools, such as Hoosiers for Economic Growth (HEG), spent almost $1.3 million during Indiana’s 2010 election cycle to produce a Republican majority in the Indiana House, which they did. Mayfield has been serving since 2012 as a result of gerrymandered districting.
More recently California billionaire & former CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings (through the Hoosiers for Great Public Schools PAC) has funneled over $1 million to Republicans who will vote to privatize schools in 2020-22. The Arkansas Walton family PAC Hoosiers for Quality Education (formerly HEG) gave over $1.3 million.
Although Hoosiers have never voted for school choice, every time we re-elect these Republican legislators, they defund public education, which results in the need for referendums.
Mayfield is on the 2024 ballot.
Indiana Wetlands Under Attack
April 18, 2024
If you like clean water, nature saving water for droughts, and don’t like floods, then what’s happening right now to Indiana’s wetlands is important to you. Whether you visit Monroe Country’s BeanblossomBottoms Nature Preserve or not.
A bill to further weaken wetlands protections was signed into law 12 February 2024 by our Republican super majority, and goes into effect 1 July. It was the first bill to hit the desk of Gov. Eric Holcomb in 2024, and builders and developers are thrilled. Republican Representative for House District 60 Peggy Mayfield voted in favor of this; she is up for re-election this November.
Why would anyone vote against our water?
Follow the Money
In the last election cycle (2022) Mayfield banked $148,994 in campaign contributions. Her top four contributors were the House Republican Campaign Committee for $17,272.45, Insurance PAC for $16,000, Indiana Realtors PAC for $11,000, and Indiana Manufacturers PAC for $3,300. A close look at the House Republican Campaign Committee shows large donations from housing and realtor PACs.
This fall you will have a choice.
Democrat Michelle Higgs, who graduated from Martinsville High School, wants to protect Hoosier water for the voters of District 60. And she is not receiving thousands of dollars from building or manufacturing groups or realtors.
Our Follow the Money alerts may be found on the RCU website.
Early voting is under way for the Primary May 7th.
Voter Supression
August 12, 2024
If you’re upset with Indiana’s lack of reproductive freedom, think about gerrymandering aka voter suppression.
If you’re upset about energy rate hikes, think about gerrymandering aka voter suppression.
As CEO of Women4Change Indiana Rima Shahid says, “Any single issue that you take, you can take it all back to gerrymandering, voting access and fair votes.” This affects voter turnout where Indiana is almost dead last. “It’s not that people in Indiana are apathetic. . . . . they are disenfranchised.”
So how did Indiana’s political districts become weaponized?
After Barack Obama won the state in 2008, the state adopted some of its most stringent election laws, but it was The REDMAP after the 2010 census that weaponized redistricting. The Republicans saw that states would be redrawing their maps after the census, so in order to stay in power, a handful of them spent $30 million to win key state legislatures. And it worked.
Follow the Money
That is when State Representative Peggy Mayfield HD60 beat incumbent Democrat Peggy Welch in 2012 with monies funneled through the House Republican Campaign Committee of Indiana to the tune of $223,973 for her seat alone. And with weaponized gerrymandering she has been in place ever since–consistently voting against reproductive freedom, public schools, and consumers.
Michael Leppert states in the April 2024 Indiana Capital Chronicle,
“Indiana is not 80% Republican. But the Indiana Senate is. Indiana is also not 70% Republican. But the Indiana House is. Even the congressional districts have been drawn to be safely Republican in seven out of nine, or 77% of them.”
You have the power to change these politicians who put party over people this November.
Candidate Michelle Higgs is running to represent Morgan County and parts of Monroe and Johnson counties in district 60. The second redistricting by Republicans after the 2020 census even carved out Mooresville from this district because it leans blue now.
Reverse Citizens United 