The Nov. 5th Indiana Law Blog entry, titled "Is the jury still out on District 46? Who is the jury?" concludes:
Before the election, it was thought by many that control of the House of Representatives might rest upon which way the District 46 election went. However, even with the apparent loss of Distrct 46, the House returns show it now at 52-48 Republican, making, it would appear, resort to a court appeal or House seating fight less pressing.A story today in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star is headlined: "LaPlante concedes District 46: Fighting for seat not important because GOP already controls House, representative says." Some quotes:
Rep.-elect Vern Tincher will not face a legal challenge to his 734-vote margin of victory in the Indiana House District 46 election.Posted by Marcia Oddi at November 10, 2004 01:51 PMHis opponent, incumbent Republican Brooks LaPlante, has conceded the election.
LaPlante called Tincher, D-Riley, about 1 p.m. Tuesday to congratulate Tincher on his victory. LaPlante had until noon Tuesday to file an election challenge in court.
It was an election that brought several court rulings just weeks before the Nov. 2 vote, as Republicans attempted to place LaPlante on the ballot, while Democrats contested the withdrawal of Jeff Lee, the GOP winner in the primary election.
LaPlante finally was permitted on the ballot, but only after many absentee ballots already were cast for Republican Jeff Lee. That led to a possible recount of those absentee ballots, which pushed Tincher from a 63-vote margin to the more commanding 734-vote winning margin. LaPlante won by 804 votes in 2002, defeating Tincher. * * *
The House of Representatives seats its own members and could have opted to claim LaPlante as its candidate. "I personally nixed that and our leadership nixed that because when we discussed options, we looked at the bigger picture. For the House, Election Day is a team event and our team won," LaPlante said.
While he lost his race, Republicans control the Indiana House 52-48 and winning a 53rd seat became less important as Republicans still have a majority, LaPlante said.