INDIANAPOLIS | Back in April, Gov. Mitch Daniels was asked about authorizing a land-based casino for Gary as a means to bankroll construction of a teaching and trauma hospital in the Steel City.

The two-term Republican reiterated his support for the hospital proposal, an effort to deliver a shot in the arm to both the region health care system and the local economy. But he couldn't resist adding a one-liner about the riches the casino might bring.

"There'd have to be all kinds of protections and safeguards," Daniels said. "This is Lake County, after all."

The governor still stresses the unlocked potential of "The Region," whether the key being contemplated is the hospital idea, long-touted South Shore commuter rail expansion or visions of a more viable Gary airport. But following his re-election victory in November, Daniels discarded the sugarcoating.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., the Lake County Democratic chairman, says he's grown accustomed to the region -- notorious for government largesse and political corruption -- being the butt of jokes. He just doesn't think the head of state should be delivering the punch lines.

"I'm used to people talking negatively about Northwest Indiana, unfortunately," McDermott said. "But usually it's not the governor who's leading the charge. And that's what I think is poor leadership -- in this regard. I'm not saying overall. I'm just saying I think the governor made a mistake saying the things he did when he came to Griffith."

Daniels was seeking to build public pressure at the Statehouse in early March when he came to Griffith, a town where elected officials have made noise about seceding from tax-heavy Calumet Township. He was promoting a local government consolidation agenda in a county where fewer than 500,000 inhabitants pay for 19 municipalities, 16 school districts and 11 townships.

"We shortchange ourselves when we have, for decades, a reputation for terrible government, abusing taxpayers," Daniels said. "I believe in home rule, and you are entitled to all the lousy, crummy, graft-ridden government you are prepared to pay for."

Supporters cheered the stern words, while several local officials echoed McDermott's disdain. State Rep. Ed Soliday, a Valparaiso Republican who represents a swath of Lake County, says the detractors protest too much.

"I don't think the governor is joking," Soliday said. "He, like a number of us, is frustrated in that you can't get Northwest Indiana to agree on anything, so we wind up losing opportunities (at the Statehouse). Indianapolis -- Marion County and the (surrounding) donut counties -- have learned to work together, put their politics in their hip pocket and move toward a goal."

Soliday, among others, remains frustrated by the Porter County Council's April vote to exit the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. Daniels worked in 2005 to help create -- and fund -- the Lake-Porter county co-op as way to bankroll transportation and lakefront development projects intended to boost a region known for balkanization.

The governor explained his new rhetorical intensity toward Northwest Indiana in a recent interview.

"Let me tell you something about sharp language up there. As you say, I just tried to come across as Mr. Sunshine for five years and just look only at the positive and say nothing about any problems.

"I guess I thought when I finally did speak more candidly about things everybody knows are issues that maybe people would take offense. It's just the opposite," Daniels said. "If I say there has to be a change -- an improvement in local government, anti-corruption and so forth -- I get all this positive feedback, like people are starved for more straight talk."

Both Daniels and McDermott note that, despite the considerable attention the governor paid Northwest Indiana during his first term -- more than 60 visits and countless affirmations of the region's potential -- he didn't fare any better at the polls last November. The Republican governor received 35 percent of the vote in the Democratic stronghold of Lake County -- one percentage point higher than in 2004. And he slipped a point in Porter County, earning 43 percent of the vote.

Daniels emphasizes the region's ties to Illinois, which include being served by a Chicago broadcast television advertising market too expensive for Indiana politicians to enter. He says he wants "to bring Northwest Indiana fully into the family of Hoosiers." And, for now, that means more tough love.

"I did say on many occasions from '03 to '08 that there was a reciprocal responsibility," he said. "I took, and really was glad for, the responsibility to try to bring resources to Northwest Indiana, more attention to Northwest Indiana and more appreciation of Northwest Indiana.

"But working the other way, the people there had to, you know, clean up the act. And so to an extent that's not brand new. But I guess I did get a little more specific (of late) about what needed clearing up."