Since Evan Bayh surprise retirement a lot has happened in terms of candidates.
The following have declined interest or did not qualify.
*Joe Kernan- Like I said he likes retirement too much.
*Jonathan Weinzapfel- He has also stated he will not run for Congress if Ellsworth runs for Senate.
* Bart Peterson- Shocker
* Tamyra d’Ippolito- Yes!
*Joe Hogsett- Who cares?
*Pete Visclosky- I suppose he will be to busy with his family. Or it could just be that he is fighting corruption charges.
* Roy Dominguez- He is the Lake County Sheriff and I never considered him to begin with.
Also from what I have heard it sounds like Tim Roemer likes his current job too much, but nothing official yet.
We also have one announced canidate Thomas McDermott, Jr., the mayor of Hammond and chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party. I don’t know a whole lot about McDermott, but he sounds like a serious candidate.
Ellsworth has said he is seriously considering it, and from what I can tell he seems like he wants to do it. He will do an 18 county listening tour, and that sounds like he means business.
Hill is currently on an overseas trip with the troops and has not given any comments regarding the run, although there are many rumors circulating that he is already collecting signatures for the run, although I don’t think that is true. It was a rumor originally created by Tamyra d’Ippolito, and I would not call her the best place to get political news from.
Also there is currently a draft John Mellencamp effort going on. While I love Mellencamp and his music, I really don’t think its going to happen.
I will try and update this as much as possible.
Update
Joe Donnelly has now declined to run, looks like its down to Ellsworth and Hill.
Loading ...
Is it possible Ellsworth would defer to Hill, given his seniority, position in the Blue Dog leadership, experience running statewide against Coats (albeit unsuccessfully)?
would kill McDermott if he ran. Isn’t Indiana the state that calls its most densely populated/liberal area “The Region?”
I realize this is a bit out of the blue, but what about David Orentlicher? He’s smart, credentialed and has no connection with the current Congress. I would imagine his resume and smarts would contrast VERY well with either Coats or Hostettler.
OTOH, from what I hear his congressional race was not good and he dropped a bid for Marion County Prosecutor recently.
Anybody have any thoughts on this? If it turns out that Ellsworth doesn’t run, is Orentlicher someone Indiana Dems should consider?
and they elected Sherrod Brown.
Anyway, it will probably be Hill or Ellsworth (whose districts might be harder to maintain than the whole state of Indiana). Both would probably be in the same vein as Bayh (I know Ellsworth is worse on abortion rights), but in this climate, I’ll take almost any win.