How to lose Indiana

     With presidential primary season approaching, those politicians who seek a chance at obtaining the highest executive office in the United States of America may want to examine their strategy as far as it relates to what the residents in the various individual states want.  Having suffered so much economically, Americans value the prospect of higher pay, and for many the existence of any job at all, above a politician's personal socialist philosophy.

Take Indiana, for instance.  The politician who wins that state will gain 11 electoral votes.  So, what should one's strategy be?  Begin by examining the economic and philosophical landscape.

The biggest corporation based in Indiana is pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY)--with a current market cap of about 98 billion dollars.  As a politician, is the wisest strategy to stick it to Lilly and/or the entire Big Pharma industry?  Would an Eli Lilly employee who sees this done forget about the absent Xmas bonus, or lost job that the research success which Eli Lilly & Co. was having had promised?  Are the economically secondary workers who trade with those who work for Eli Lilly unaware that what's good for Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) is good for oneself?  What about those who trade with them?  Etc...

Indiana has made national news, recently, for another issue.  The state passed a bill that limited LGBT liberties.  However, one fact that is less well known is that Eli Lilly rallied against the RFRA and was instrumental in overturning it.

In summary, my argument in this blog is that if a politician is going to win the votes of a state, one should turn one's attention to the biggest businesses that reside where one is campaigning.  And, if one wants to lose, destroy: the jobs, individual liberty, and finally the votes that could have been cast with one's name on them.

Paul Wharton
Special thanks to Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY)