{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/article/tully-sen-joe-donnelly_indianas-man-in-the-middle", "Tully: Sen. Joe Donnelly — Indiana’s Man in the Middle", "2014-12-22", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "IN", "Joe Donnelly", "D000607", "www.donnelly.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Tully: Sen. Joe Donnelly \u2014 Indiana\u2019s Man in the Middle\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                    By:\u00a0\r\n                    Matthew Tully\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            Monday, December 22, 2014\r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            His party is about to be tossed from power in the U.S. Senate, the result of a brutal election year for Democrats, but Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana smiled over a plate of eggs Friday morning and said that, for him, life in the minority offers quite an opportunity.\r\nWhy? Because the rules in the glacially paced Senate often require not a majority of votes, but 60 votes, for anything to move. So while Republican\u2019s 54-seat majority might have the Fox News crowd all giddy, it won\u2019t mean a lot without crossover votes from moderates like Donnelly.\r\n\u201cThey are going to have to have at least six Democrats on everything,\u201d Donnelly said as we talked at the City Cafe Downtown. \u201cSo I think I\u2019m in a great position \u2014 in the middle.\u201d\r\nShortly after the November elections, Donnelly said he approached Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the incoming majority leader, and told him that, \u201cI am here to help you get things done.\u201d\r\nTo be more specific, the lawmaker from Northern Indiana told me that this is what that means: \u201cOn the crazy stuff here or there, on either side, I\u2019ll pass. But on the jobs stuff, on the common sense stuff, on the stuff we should all be able to agree is good for the country, I\u2019ll be there. I just want to get things done.\u201d\r\nNow before my conservative friends fill my inbox with outrage at calling anyone to the left of Ted Cruz a moderate, let me be clear: Like other moderates, Donnelly votes most often with his own party. That\u2019s not a sin (though some will disagree), and it doesn\u2019t disqualify him from moderate status. Just as it didn\u2019t disqualify his Republican predecessor, Richard Lugar.\r\nDonnelly is a gun rights supporter, and he votes more like a conservative Republican on abortion issues. He\u2019s a fiscal conservative in many ways, and he\u2019s certainly no great environmentalist. But beyond the wedge issues, the true spirit of a moderate is about something deeper. It\u2019s about a willingness to work with the other side to get things done and to accept the reality that compromise is usually the answer.\r\nLugar believed that and Donnelly, elected in 2012, believes that. And it would be nice if more lawmakers in Washington believed that; if they did, perhaps Congress\u2019 approval ratings wouldn\u2019t be as paltry as its list of recent accomplishments.\r\nOf course, it\u2019s easier to be a moderate when the politics of your state demand it. Politicians such as Evan Bayh and Joe Donnelly can win statewide; Elizabeth Warren could not. So Donnelly\u2019s stance is both appreciated and a requirement of the job.\r\n\u201cFor me, it\u2019s about being in the position Hoosiers elected me to be in,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about being in the middle and going (to Washington) and trying to support common sense, and not to worry about the parties.\u201d\r\nAnd, so, in what many have labeled one of the least productive congressional sessions in history, Donnelly ended the 2014 session with a significant first-term legislative victory. It\u2019s significant because it could help a lot of people and because of what it symbolizes.\r\nThe legislation is named after an Indiana National Guard member named Jacob Sexton, a 21-year-old who committed suicide in Muncie in 2009. It seeks to give soldiers and veterans more support and encouragement in their darkest days and to proactively identify looming crises. It comes amid a flurry of reports detailing a disturbing and heartbreaking increase in suicides among service members current and former.\r\nThe bill will require mental health assessments each year for those in the service, and it calls for a federal report that will examine existing programs to see if they are working and, likely, to suggest new ones. It seeks to erase the unfair stigma that so often is tied to the decision to seek counseling.\r\n\u201cWhat has to happen,\u201d Donnelly said, \u201cis we have to show (service members and veterans) that this is not a sign of weakness. Part of the focus here is to make them know that there is nothing wrong with talking to someone.\u201d\r\nNot to get carried away, but the legislation\u2019s success is a sign that, even in Washington and even in this toxic political era, things can get done. To get this done, Donnelly teamed up with a Republican, Roger Wicker of Mississippi. And he worked methodically to build support from a vast array of sources: military and health organizations, Democrats and Republicans, and veterans and family members of those serving.\r\n\u201cIt was done the classic way things should be done out there,\u201d Donnelly said. \u201cWith my Republican friend and I sitting down saying, \u2018let\u2019s get this done.\u2019\u201d\r\nWhen portions of the original bill were spiked by more senior senators, Donnelly said he had a choice to make: He could either compromise and get most of what he wanted or let his legislation die out of political stubbornness, as many other bills have.\r\nHe chose compromise. It was a wise choice.\r\n\u201cThat culture has been gone for a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in this period where people in Washington say they have to get everything they want or they are going to hold a press conference and stomp their feet up and down.\u201d\r\nThat\u2019s indeed been the way of Washington of late, but it\u2019s gotten the country nowhere. And it\u2019s a reminder of why Indiana was smart two years ago to send Joe Donnelly to the Senate.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/article/tully-sen-joe-donnelly_indianas-man-in-the-middle"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2309621088206768, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}