Ballentine joins AP legislative team in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Summer Ballentine has joined The Associated Press as a legislative and political reporter in Indianapolis for 2014.

The 22-year-old Ballentine began work in Indianapolis on Jan. 8. She is a native of Fenton, Mich., and an expected May 2013 graduate of Michigan State University.

Ballentine has previously completed internships at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Columbus Dispatch and at Hearst’s Washington, D.C., bureau. With Hearst, she helped cover the 2012 presidential race and analyzed FEC data as part of an internship arranged through The Washington Center for Politics & Journalism.

She also covered the 2012 Michigan primary while working at Michigan State’s campus newspaper, The State News.

She is teaming with Indiana political reporter Tom LoBianco to cover this year’s session of the Indiana General Assembly.