Anti-Elite Todd Rokita's Meeting the Elite!

Todd Rokita

It seems that man of the people Todd Rokita just can't seem to catch a break. In last Friday's Indianapolis Star September 1, 2017 Brian Slodysko reported more on Congressman and Senate Candidate Todd Rokita's management style both as a Congressman and former Indiana Secretary of State. IR recently reported on Todd Rokita's treatment of his drivers here. We are curious to see what other insights are to be gleaned about a man who desires to be a United States Senator. Also we will be delving a little bit more into some aspects of good old Todd's background that he would perhaps prefer people avoid. But as Mr. Rokita is seeking an office of great public trust. And as his allies have seen fit to start off by using scorched earth tactics against his Senate Primary opponent Congressman Luke Messer. We shall see if Rokita can take it as well as dish it out.

Brian Slodysko reporting for the Associated Press writes:

Staffers in tears. Pay cuts for small mistakes. Aides who walked out of the office — and never came back.

Working for four-term Republican Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana is an exacting job with long hours, made more difficult by a boss known for micromanaging and yelling at his staff, according to 10 former aides who spoke to The Associated Press.

All but one of the former staffers spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern of retribution from the congressman. They include five former congressional staffers, three who worked for Rokita when he was Indiana’s secretary of state and two who worked on his political campaigns.

But even in Congress, where ambition and ego can go hand-in-hand, Rokita’s behavior is outside the norm, according to the former aides, most of whom have worked for other elected officials.

“Todd’s a hard boss to work for. He’s got some staff turnover issues,” said Tony Will, who was a constituent service representative for Rokita for nearly three years. “But he is a very hard worker.”

One moment Rokita could charm at a GOP fundraiser. The next he would belittle his aides or question their competence over the route they took to the next event, or their choice of parking spot, three former staffers said. Some say he turned angry over small details, like the kind of letterhead used on office or campaign documents.

A Jasper County teacher asked Rokita to leave his high school civics class in November 2016 after a talk that was supposed to be about the Constitution got off on the wrong foot, according to two students.

Rokita had asked the class if they were taught about “American Exceptionalism.” But when a number of students seemed puzzled by the concept, he had a testy exchange with their teacher, Paul Norwine, whom he criticized for not including it in the curriculum, the students said.

“Mr. Rokita got very angry and said, ‘You have an American congressman in your class, what are you doing?’” said Marcus Kidwell, 19, a Donald Trump supporter who was a senior at the time. “He seems like a pretty hot-headed guy. That disappointed me because he’s a Republican and I was pretty excited to meet him.”

A review of records maintained by the Congress-tracking website Legistorm shows the rate of turnover in Rokita’s office is roughly double that of his fellow Indiana Republicans in the congressional delegation. The analysis excludes temporary workers, interns or employees who are shared by multiple members of Congress.

At least two staffers were fired after they said they intended to quit, according to three people with direct knowledge of the firings. Rokita also docked the pay of at least two congressional aides for mistakes, like a minor error in a news release, according to three former aides with knowledge of the actions. Another two staffers simply walked out on the job, according to four former aides.

Mr. Slodysko's citing that Rokita has a much higher staff turnover rate than Indiana's other congressmen lends credence to the allegations that Rokita has a problem managing his staff. If Rokita does have such a huge problem managing his own staff than one has to question his suitability to be a senator. Also for a man who claims to not be an elitist, his attitude towards his workers is confusing. Tony Cook wrote a piece for the Indianapolis Star on August 24th, 2017 titled "Indiana's anti-elite Senate candidate Todd Rokita to hold swanky California fundraiser". 

Here are some excerpts from Tony Cook's article:

U.S. Senate candidate Todd Rokita, the Indiana congressman running on an anti-elite campaign theme, is holding a swanky fundraiser in California next week.

An invitation to the Aug. 30 event  requests contributions as high as $5,400 — the maximum allowed for federal elections — and the luncheon will be held at Wayfare Tavern, a restaurant founded in 2010 by celebrity chef Tyler Florence of Food Network fame.

"With the news of Rokita's list of rules for chauffeurs and now this exclusive California fundraiser, maybe Congressman Rokita should change his catch phrase to 'meet the elite,'" said Jason Kneeland, a Messer campaign advisor.

Our staff in the course of our research came across two interesting observations made about Todd Rokita by the late great Gary Welsh on his Advance Indiana blog back in 2006. We thought we would share them with you all. 

Welsh wrote the following about Todd Rokita in 2006: "Rokita, who formerly lived in a downtown condo above a gay video store on Massachusetts Avenue as a bachelor, recently moved to Pike Township after getting married last year."

Gary Welsh also had this to say about both then State Senator Brent Waltz and Todd Rokita: "There are those among us who think that Rokita and Waltz have a distinctive similarity, but their OUTward appearance is not one of them."

We are not sure if Gary was privy to some information about Todd Rokita and former State Senator Brent Waltz's private lives or not. But based off of rumors that all of us have heard over the years about Waltz and Rokita. It wouldn't surprise anyone here if Gary was onto something about these guys.