Daniels' Family Nixed Bid

Politico reports:

Daniels’ message by voice and in writing was the same – his wife and their four grown daughters had veto power on a campaign, and they had exercised it. If anyone wondered about the depth of Cheri Daniels’s concerns about the prying eyes of the public, those questions were more than answered in a string of stories and columns focused on her and her husband around the time of her May 12 speech at an Indiana Republican Party dinner.

Cheri Daniels was facing scrutiny not just for the couple’s unusual path—they divorced in 1993, remarried in 1997, and in the intervening years she wed another man in California. Rather, the Indiana first lady was on the receiving end of a growing number of cutting critiques questioning her mothering over the fact that their daughters remained with Mitch Daniels during their time apart.

“Now, because of her husband’s prominence in national politics, Cheri Daniels is facing harsh judgments,” wrote “On Parenting” blogger Janice D’Arcy in the Washington Post just last week, adding readers had used the word “abandoned” in the comments section in connection with the split and her kids.

The question, whispered about by Republican elites and fanned by operatives in some rival camps, was gaining such traction that Daniels himself sought to snuff out the whiff of bad parenting in a strong statement to the Indianapolis Star, delivered separately from the one in which he bowed out of the national race.

Those family concerns clearly weighed heavily on the Daniels clan, and ultimately won the day.