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Under Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, the number of employees in Indiana's government has dropped to the level the Hoosier State employed in 1975, and the state boasts the lowest number of government workers per capita in the nation compared to the 49 other states.

According to data provided by Indiana officials to RealClearPolitics, 29,008 people were employed by the state's government as of Sept. 30. That number is down from 35,276 full-time employees when Daniels took office in January of 2005 - a reduction of 17.8 percent during Daniels's nearly six years in office.

Indiana employed 29,210 state workers in 1975, meaning the state has fewer full-time workers now than it had 35 years ago.

"The vast majority of this reduction was achieved through attrition rather than layoffs," said Daniels's chief political aide, Eric Holcomb.

Holcomb also noted that under Daniels, Indiana's law enforcement has grown by more than 250 state troopers, which helped the state achieve a modern-day low in traffic fatalities. Eight hundred child case workers also were added to the state payroll.

U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2008 Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll revealed that Indiana had the fewest public employees per capita. Illinois was just behind, and Wisconsin was ranked third.

As Daniels ponders a bid for the presidency in 2012, the example he set with the Hoosier State's government could set a tone for contenders in the GOP primary now that limiting government has emerged as a leading campaign issue for Republicans this year.

GOP candidates have called relentlessly for reducing the size of the burgeoning government in recent years and have turned the talking point into a legitimate campaign issue in these midterm elections. Now that the tea party has thrust the issue into the spotlight, a divide is emerging between GOP officials and politicians who want to eliminate federal agencies versus those who push to slash redundancies and institute piecemeal cuts.

The staunch conservative Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King believes in the attempt to abolish certain agencies but has sought to offer other cuts, too. He said the party has more work to do to determine the ways it will cut government.

"I don't think I'm picking up a consensus on that issue," King said in an interview with RealClearPolitics in Des Moines earlier this month.

Indeed, several high-profile tea party-backed candidates running competitively for Senate seats this year are advocating for the closure of major federal institutions such as the Department of Education and the Department of Energy.

In a September interview with RealClearPolitics, John Raese, the GOP Senate nominee in West Virginia running competitively against Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin, advocated shuttering both departments.

"I'm for the total abolishment of the Department of Education. I think it should go," Raese said, suggesting that many other members of Congress likely agree with him on the proposal.

"Couldn't we consolidate a lot of things or couldn't we just eliminate a lot of things? Do we need a Department of Energy? I can't figure out what the Department of Energy does. They don't drill any wells. They don't do any mining," he said.

Raese said eliminating federal agencies is absolutely on his radar, and he will pursue it as an agenda item if he is elected next week. Republican Senate candidates Joe Miller of Alaska, Christine O'Donnell of Delaware, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sharron Angle of Nevada join Raese in his call to eliminate certain federal departments.

But Republicans who did not emerge from the tea party movement, such as North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and Ohio former Rep. Rob Portman, who is seeking a Senate seat, see the issue differently.

Asked in an interview last year to name one policy idea that the GOP should discard, Burr replied, "I would tell you that we ought to abandon our belief that we can close agencies of the federal government, because we're never going to do that."

And asked in a recent interview on his campaign RV in Columbus what he thought of Republican campaign proposals to shutter federal departments, Portman responded, "I agree with all those candidates that spending is a huge issue, and we have to get spending under control. How we do it, I may differ with some of those candidates."

In the lower chamber of Congress, the House Republican Conference's "Pledge to America" includes a section devoted to cutting government should the GOP regain control. The House minority has already begun to offer some of their ideas in legislation.

Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, said, "For years, no time has been spent considering cutting spending in this city, and through our YouCut program we are trying to reverse the ship little by little so to transform the culture of spending into a culture of savings."

The program allows for one spending cut to be offered on the House floor each week and is designed to implement incremental change rather than large, wholesale cuts.

The House GOP's pledge also proposes to freeze the hiring of non-security federal employees, and it promotes ending duplicative government programs, but it does not mention dissolving federal agencies entirely.

The divide could provide some clues on how the competitive presidential primary takes shape over the next 18 months. Outside of the tea party, a group of potential Republican presidential candidates including Daniels will face extensive questions about their visions for cutting government, and each has a record on the issue to offer.

Mitt Romney consolidated small pieces of Massachusetts' government, including communications staff, in his term as governor.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune offered an amendment on a short-term budget bill to reduce federal spending by five percent across the board except on security measures. His proposal was defeated in September. Thune also proposed a deficit reduction bill earlier this year that would have created a Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction; established a biennial budget cycle; and returned discretionary spending to 2008 levels.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty launched a program through executive orders called the Drive to Excellence initiative to eliminate duplication in the state government and improve efficiency. Estimated savings to taxpayers in the state is $570 million.

Pawlenty also merged two agencies in the state government to deal with environmental permits and other services, and he combined a cabinet-level agency with the Department of Administration to deliver state services more efficiently. The latter cut $3.3 million from the state budget and 30 employees out of the state workforce.

But in the establishment wing of the party, Daniels appears to have the deepest record on the issue.