The contest for the Indiana House is another battle drawing plenty of attention. Last week, The Indianapolis Business Journal wrote its preview of the race:

The stakes are high. Republicans are expected to maintain their firm hold on the Indiana Senate, where they enjoy a 33-to-17 majority. But Democrats control the Indiana House by a slim 51-to-49 margin.

If they retain control and incumbent Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels wins re-election, House Democrats will be a major roadblock to his legislative agenda, much of which has strong support in the business community. If Republicans retake the House, his plans would have a clearer path.

Last cycle, control of the chamber came down to a single district where the outcome was decided by just eight votes.

This year, that district -- Indiana House District 97 -- held by Republican Rep. Jon Elrod, is again being contested heavily, as are almost a dozen additional seats.

Both parties are relying upon traditional voter outreach to make their cases, but Indiana's position as a national battleground state has led to a huge upswing in voter registration.

In the height of campaign season, it's sometimes too easy to forget that candidates are seeking office so that they can govern.

That's certainly not the case, however, with the Indiana Senate Democrats.

This week, they unveiled a policy agenda for the next legislative session that they are calling, "Hoosier Values: Senate Democrats' Vision For A Better Indiana."

Among the highlights:

· The expansion of full-day kindergarten for every Hoosier child
· Promoting and recruiting more "green" jobs to Indiana
· Ending corporate welfare for companies that do not pay a living wage or do not meet their commitments to the state or their communities
· Creating public-private partnerships to reduce poverty
· Universal access to health care
· Encouraging local governments to increase efficiency and save tax dollars
· Holding employers accountable for hiring illegal workers

Read the full plan here.

Though I haven't seem them describe it as a series, it looks like the folks at Governing's Ballot Box blog are going to continue offering write-ups of the hotly-contested chambers in battleground states for the fall.

Today, Alan Greenblatt gives the Indiana House the horse race treatment:

Indiana Democrats are going to have a hard time defending their slim state House majority this year. They hold the chamber by the narrowest of margins -- 51-49 -- and Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has opened up a big lead in his reelection campaign.

What's more, retirements in some conservative districts are likely to translate into Democratic losses. But Democrats have some pickup opportunities as well.

As Greenblatt notes, Republicans are cheered by the popularity of Gov. Mitch Daniels, while Democrats have an organizing advantage (focused on registering voters and turnout operations).

The bottom line?

When it comes to calling a chamber that has switched hands in each of the last two cycles, no one is willing to wager that either party will gain a certain and convincing margin.

Indiana Speaker of the House and DLCC Board Member Pat Bauer met with leaders from the University of Indiana to announce the completion of a 1,178 miles of fiber-optic cable that forms the backbone of the network connecting more than 40 of the state's public and private universities.

The network will provide campus users with Internet connections up to 20 times faster than what they can access in their homes -- allowing researchers to access massive data collections and collaborate with professors from other schools.

The network also will vastly improve distance learning programs by enabling high-quality video streaming and high-definition learning tools like telepresence, a videoconferencing technology that gives users the impression of being in the classroom.

The state also believes that this kind of technological infrastructure will help encourage the opening of new business and the creation of new jobs.

All of which makes this a pretty good investment for $13 million.

Last cycle, an Indiana Republican named Jon Elrod won a heavily contested race for state representative by seven votes.

Earlier this year, he ran in a special election in a Democratic-leaning Congressional seat and lost. For weeks, he’d been toying with making another go at that race in the fall.

Yesterday, he apparently realized that he didn’t have a chance and decided to seek reelection instead.

But here’s the thing: Elrod dithered around for so long that the filing deadline has passed.

Republicans in his county hadn’t found anyone else to run for that seat, and our candidate -- Mary Ann Sullivan -- has been campaigning for months.

Apparently, the GOP can hold a caucus to put Elrod on the ballot, but this is a guy who clearly looks at the statehouse as a stepping stone for something else. He apparently thinks so little of the job that he can’t be bothered to make a decision about it in accordance with the rules that everyone else follows. His constituents deserve better than that.