There's a diary on the recommended list right now lauding Angie's List for their threat to halt expansion in the state. A lot of people are jumping on this as a reason to support the company. Folks, I'm going to let you in on a little secret: Sometimes people do the "right" thing for the wrong reason, and this isn't something for which they should be praised.
Let me explain. Angie's List may be threatening to pull out of Indiana now, but it's highly likely this has nothing to do with opposing RFRA. It's far more likely that Angie's List is speaking up up now in order to coerce taxpayers into forking over the cash to fund their corporate expansion.
Angie's List CEO is Bill Oesterle, who was former GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels 2004 campaign manager. When Mitch Daniels wasn't tooling around the state, campaign in his souped up RV, it sat sucking up parking spots at the company's corporate campus on East Washington St. The company itself contributed over $15,000 in in-king contributions to Daniels gubernatorial campaign.
Come the 2012 campaign cycle, Angie's List itself stayed out of the governor's race. But Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle?
$150,000 in campaign contributions to Pence's 2012 campaign.
So forgive me if I'm skeptical about Oesterle's, and Angie's List's, intentions. Oesterle says he is dismayed at this law.
"We are putting the 'Ford Building Project' on hold until we fully understand the implications of the freedom restoration act on our employees, both current and future," said Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle in a statement. "Angie's List is open to all and discriminates against none and we are hugely disappointed in what this bill represents."
But anyone who's been in the same room as Mike Pence knows that his catch phrase is, "I'm a Christian first, an American second, and a Republican third."
It isn't like you couldn't see this crazy train rolling out of the station.
Oesterle funded the campaign of the man who made this law happen, and now he wants to claim he's shocked. I call bullshit.
If you take Oesterle, and Angie's List, at face value jumping on the #boycottIndiana campaign is an act of courage, but if you have the background that seems unlikely.
Oesterle's statement that Angie's List would halt their expansion came out at 11:33 AM EDT. Angie's List has been pressing for tax breaks to fund the company's expansion for several months now. The measure has bounced back and forth from committee to the full city-county council. News came out today at 12:33 PM EDT that the council has finally decided to move ahead with the $18.5 million tax break proposal.
Forgive me, but this whole set up looks like an effort to pile on to a city that's actually come out against RFRA in order to take taxpayer's for millions of dollars. That just doesn't seem all that laudable to me.