How Uni-Gov turned Richard Lugar into Nixon's favorite mayor
Amy Bartner
Modern Indianapolis wouldn't be what it is without a Mayor Richard Lugar, and Lugar's own national prominence wouldn't have existed without his work on unifying the city and county government, a University of Indianapolis professor said.
And it's this legacy Lugar's hometown is, in part, remembering after his death this week at age 87.
"Obviously people throughout the world will know his work on nuclear non-proliferation," said Ted Frantz, an associate professor of history and political science at UIndy and director of a campus institute that houses the mayoral archives of Lugar and several of his successors at City Hall. "That's a legacy that people are going to start with, but what he did for his home city, I think, was incredibly important, without his ability to synthesize and to really envision a bright future, I don't think Indianapolis would've become what it did."
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It was Lugar's efforts on what would later become Uni-Gov in the late 1960s that captured the attention of President Richard Nixon.
"Having created Uni-Gov put him in a position to get on the national radar, and then eventually become successful," Frantz said. "You can't have the next steps without becoming known. And he became known because of Uni-Gov."
Uni-Gov's legacy a half-century later
Fifty years after then-Gov. Edgar Whitcomb signed Uni-Gov into law, the impact of the move to incorporate most of Marion County's suburbs into Indy's citygovernment — and the complicated, nuanced conversation that goes along with it — is still very apparent, Frantz said.
"People don't tend to think of the Midwest more generally as a place for innovation, which is a mistake," he said.
UIndy was preparing for a symposium commemorating Uni-Gov's impact on the urban Midwest on May 15 as news of Lugar's death spread. The event will bring together experts on localism and community governments to talk about Uni-Gov's impact on the economy, race and more.
Although Lugar is credited as the steward of Uni-Gov, it wasn't entirely an original idea, Frantz said. Democrats in Indianapolis attempted to consolidate some of the governing bodies in the county in 1965, but were unsuccessful.
"People realized, Indianapolis doesn't have home rule," he said. "But the ideas had been there, to some degree. The Republicans had done it in a different way. And Lugar was more visionary."
1967 election paved the way for change
When Lugar won the election for mayor in an upset in 1967, the Republican Party had the "unique opportunity because of the political situation in Indianapolis to chart a new course."
"So from there they started talking about how to improve the quality of life in Marion County," Frantz said.
Uni-Gov was born of discussions for how to chart that course, and by 1969, Whitcomb signed it into law.
As for the name, it's not entirely clear who coined the phrase "Uni-Gov," Frantz said.
"Lugar never claimed credit," he said. "I have seen a lot of people try to make a claim for it."
When the idea of creating a consolidated government first emerged with a group of about 10 city leaders that met frequently, they suggested calling it "metropolitan government," Frantz said, but the word "metropolitan" gave them pause.
"In the context of the late '60s, 'metropolitan' smacked of too many urban problems,'" he said. "It seemed almost too technocratic, and Uni-Gov as a unified government kind of came out."
Some Uni-Gov foes thought it could make Lugar a dictator
But it wasn't without its critics, many of whom were on opposite ends of the political spectrum and whose concerns didn't intersect. On the far right, opponents argued that Uni-Gov was too much government and "could smack of totalitarianism, that Lugar was setting himself up as a dictator."
On the far left, opponents were concerned that it could open up housing laws throughout Marion County.
The fact that there was no referendum on the decision-makingprocess was also a pretty sore spot with some, Frantz said.
"Some who argued that if taken to a popular vote, it would've never passed, which the backers of Uni-Gov would've acknowledged," Frantz said.
To those arguments, Lugar would say that the next election would serve as the public's verdict on Uni-Gov. He was re-elected in 1972.
Richard Nixon's fateful trip to Indianapolis
But it was 1970 when Nixon visited Indianapolis and asked Lugar to attend a conference on cities at the United Nations.
"Well, then Lugar came back and invited all them to Indianapolis the next year, in 1971, so this was an international conference on cities," Frantz said. "That put Indianapolis on an international map for something beyond the (Indianapolis) 500."
His rise in the public's consciousness after that was quick.
"Then the next year, in 1972, he was one of the keynotes at the Republican National Convention," he said. "It's amazing. He was introduced by Ronald Reagan. That really marked his star."
"So how did he become Nixon's favorite mayor? Which would later of course become an albatross. But it's because of Uni-Gov."
Call IndyStar reporter Amy Bartner at (317) 444-6752. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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