Slapping a bandaid on cancer

The Merc picked up on the latest campaign pledge from Indy goobernatorial candidate Ben Westlund to levy heavy penalties on signature gatherers who break the law. Penalties would also reach the sponsors and treasurers of the initiatives, according to Westlund.

Westlund is promising to crack down on people by enforcing existing laws. Which sounds great. But there's little in the way of specifics so far from Big Ben on how it'll all shake out.

Its easy to pay lip service to the popular idea of cracking down on rogue signature gatherers and their masters. But that's really all it is at this point. There has been no serious discussion from any candidates.

How do I know this? None of them are talking about the fact that the Secretary of State's office doesn't have a full time investigator. Bradbury has tried to get more funding--but the legislature has thus far spurned his requests for more funding. There's not enough money.

But there's enough for the kicker checks. We can definitely do that, right?