As John Gregg finally makes official he's now a candidate for governor and not just exploring a run for governor, he wants to clear up one point. "I'm not a career politician," Gregg tells the Star's Mary Beth Schneider in spite of his 16 years as a State House lawaker, including six years as Speaker of the House. Schneider adds, "He pointed instead to his resume as an attorney who has held jobs with two Indiana coal companies, Peabody and AMAX." "It's odd that the Democrat is the one that's worked for two Fortune 500 companies," he said. Gregg omits the fact that he worked as a lobbyist/attorney for the coal companies and has been a registered lobbyist for a big law firm since leaving the State House. And let's not forget that his crowning achievement near the end of his tenure as a legislator was to sneak into law lifetime health insurance benefits for retired lawmakers, including himself and his family.
State GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb gets in some knocks against Gregg. "John Gregg would light up Leno or Letterman," Holcomb said. "But his record as a former speaker of the House is no laughing matter. The stakes are too high to return to the days when Mr. Gregg blew through our state reserves, passed unbalanced budgets and refused to live within our means."
