INDIANAPOLIS – Like Mike Pence, Eric Holcomb was adamantly opposed to the auto rescue – a rescue that saved nearly 100,000 Hoosier jobs. Holcomb, in fact, supported Richard Mourdock’s lawsuit against the rescue, saying “this is what real leadership looks like.”

Tell that to the hardworking Hoosier middle class.

“Hoosiers needed leadership during the Great Recession, and the Mike Pence-Eric Holcomb team left them to fend for themselves. Holcomb didn’t just support Richard Mourdock’s lawsuit against the auto rescue, he advocated against the 100,000 jobs that were on the line in the state,” said Drew Anderson, communications director. “The fact is, Eric Holcomb sided with ideologues like Mike Pence and Richard Mourdock instead of advocating for the Hoosier middle class.”

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: WITH 100,000 JOBS ON THE LINE, ERIC HOLCOMB AGREED WITH RICHARD MOURDOCK’S LAWSUIT AGAINST THE AUTO RESCUE

Holcomb Defended Richard Mourdock’s Law Suit Against The Auto Rescue, Said Suit Was “About Standing Up For The Rule Of Law.” According to a Mourdock Campaign Release, “Eric Holcomb, Chairman of the Indiana Republican Party commented, ‘This was about standing up for the rule of law and having the character to do so. As Governor Daniels has said in interviews and in his book, Richard Mourdock showed us what real leadership looks like. It is typical form for Senator Harry Reid and Congressman Joe Donnelly to mislead voters, as they are desperate to run from their own failed bailouts.” [Mourdock Campaign Release, 10/2/12]

• Mourdock Said Auto Rescue Was “Illegal.” An October 2010 op-ed in the South Bend Tribune said: “By any traditional legal analysis, fundamental elements of the Obama administration’s Chrysler bankruptcy plan were illegal. It turned 200 years of U.S. bankruptcy law on its head by awarding more value to a select group of unsecured creditors than to secured creditors. Others are apparently willing to tolerate the violation of federal bankruptcy laws simply because they liked the result: It helped their friends. But most Americans, including the Hoosier retirees who had their property stolen away, see such picking and choosing by the federal government as fundamentally un-American.” [South Bend Tribune, Mourdock Op-Ed, 10/9/10]

Without Auto Rescue, 100,000 Hoosier Jobs Would Have Been Lost

Indiana Would Have Lost Nearly 100,000 Jobs Without The Auto Rescue. According to the Center for Automotive Research, failure to implement the auto rescue would have meant 95,709 jobs in Indiana would have been lost. [Center for Automotive Research, 5/26/09]

• Mourdock Challenge Endangered 100,000 Indiana Jobs. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported, “More than 1 million U.S. jobs – and more than 100,000 in Indiana – are riding on whether the bankruptcies of Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. are quick and orderly, according to a prominent research center’s study. But if Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock is successful in stopping the proposed sale of Chrysler – in which state bondholders would take a $6 million loss – it could drag out that bankruptcy and convince some GM bondholders to do likewise, experts said.” [Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 6/9/09]

• Colwell Column: “No State, Other Than Michigan And Ohio, Benefitted More Than Indiana From The Successful Effort To Save The American Auto Industry.” According to South Bend Tribune communist Jack Colwell, “No state, other than Michigan and Ohio, benefited more than Indiana from the successful effort to save the American auto industry. Yet some Hoosier politicians, knowing better but shamelessly seeking to take advantage of voter dislike of anything termed ‘bailout,’ claim that the decisive, successful government effort to save General Motors and Chrysler was neither successful nor needed. Chrysler, rather than liquidating and sending the unemployment rate in the Kokomo area to higher than 20 percent, adds jobs and announces investments there. The still-too-high rate there is dropping, down from 12.6 percent a year ago to 11.7 percent, not much above Indiana’s statewide rate.” [South Bend Tribune, Column, 10/3/10]

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