In the 1970s, I hosted a radio talk show whose whole purpose was to take on controversial subjects. Threats came with the job. Some arrived by phone, some by mail. I never let them change how I ran the program, but I did take precautions in my personal life that I would rather not have needed.
So I read a New York Times investigation published this weekend with a sense of recognition, and alarm.
The Times reviewed records from more than 100 open records requests, along with court files and dozens of interviews. Reporters found that over roughly two years, violent threats reached at least 44 governors, at least 70 of the 100 U.S. senators, at least 185 members of the House and more than half the nation’s secretaries of state. The targets ranged from county clerks to senators, Republicans and Democrats alike, and often included their spouses and children.
Indiana is part of the story. Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, told the Times that bomb threats and death threats poured into his office after his chamber resisted President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional map. Bray said he changed his daily routine, varied his route to work and asked his family to stay alert.
The cost shows up in dollars, too. Federal candidates spent about $6 million on security in the 2017-18 election cycle. This cycle, they had spent at least $25 million by Aug. 1. Yet prosecutions are rare. The Times found only 53 federal cases over two years in which someone was charged with threatening a public official other than the president.
What concerns me most does not show up in the statistics: the people who never run.
I have talked with capable people here in Fishers and Hamilton County who decided against seeking office. They told me the climate simply is not worth what it could cost their families. The Times reports that both parties are struggling to recruit candidates, especially women. I have watched that same trend play out at our level.
Local government depends on neighbors willing to serve on city councils, school boards and county offices for modest pay and long hours. When the possibility of harm enters that decision, we lose people. Often the ones who step back are exactly the ones we need most: thoughtful, even-tempered people with jobs and young families.
Threats against public figures are not new. I took my share 50 years ago. What has changed is the volume, the anonymity of the internet and how easily a home address can be found and posted online.
So what can the rest of us do?
Disagree, even sharply, without dehumanizing the person on the other side. Hold officials accountable where it counts: at the ballot box, at public meetings and in letters to the editor. Report threats to law enforcement instead of shrugging them off. And when someone crosses the line from criticism to menace, even in an online comment thread, say so.
I never let threats change how I did my job. But I was a radio host, not a school board member with children in the district. We should not ask our neighbors to accept that kind of risk as the price of public service.
