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The Campaign Spectator
The Brad Ellsworth Test
Can this Indiana Blue Dog still hunt?
The 2006 midterm elections were ahead and Rahm Emanuel was thinking big. George W. Bush’s approval ratings were in the basement, the Republican Party’s image was in tatters, and the electorate had turned sharply against the war in Iraq. In that climate, it would have been easy for Democrats to gain congressional seats by picking such low-hanging fruit as Republican-held districts in the Northeast. Emanuel, then the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, asked himself, “Why stop there?”
By that point, the GOP was unpopular enough that it was possible to dislodge Republican incumbents in the Midwest, the Interior West, and even the South. But to win in America’s heartland, Emanuel needed candidates who were able to campaign against Republican failures without carrying the Democratic Party’s liberal baggage. He needed Democrats who could run against Bush’s war, spending, and incompetence without representing what another heartland Democrat famously called the party of “acid, amnesty, and abortion.”
In short, Emanuel needed Democratic candidates like Brad Ellsworth. Ellsworth, a career law enforcement officer, was the sheriff of Vanderburgh County in Indiana. He had no legislative record and had never taken public positions on most controversial national issues. Ellsworth was so popular that he ran unopposed in his last race for sheriff. So he became one of Rahm’s recruits, announcing a congressional run before the end of 2005.
Ellsworth was running in Indiana’s Eighth Congressional District, which tends to vote Republican in presidential elections and for Democrats in down-ballot races. At the congressional level, it has been so competitive that political handicappers have dubbed it “the Bloody Eighth.” It frequently flipped back and forth between the parties, until Democrat Frank McCloskey and Republican John Hostettler each held it for six terms apiece.
Hostettler was Ellsworth’s target. The Republican eschewed contributions from political action committees and thus frequently struggled to raise money. To win reelection in a tough district, he relied on a volunteer army of conservative Christians and support from the House Republicans’ congressional campaign committee. But in 2006, the national party’s resources were spread thin and the activist conservative base was dispirited. “When we went back to the district to work the phone banks, there was hardly anybody there this time,” a Hostettler supporter recalls.
On the issues, Ellsworth didn’t do much to distinguish himself from his opponent. He campaigned as a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, anti-illegal immigration Democrat. Ellsworth didn’t even make much hay on the war — in fact, he ended up closer to the Republican line than his opponent. To the extent that Ellsworth’s ambiguous position could be discerned, he was on balance for the war; Hostettler had been one of only six House Republicans to vote against invading Iraq.
Ellsworth raised $1.7 million to Hostettler’s $600,000. While the race was initially rated a toss-up, Ellsworth jumped out to a big lead in the polls. On election night, Ellsworth’s victory was the first Democratic pickup called by the national networks (there were 29 more to come). Ellsworth beat Hostettler 61 percent to 39 percent, the biggest margin by which any incumbent was defeated in 2006. Ellsworth was easily reelected in 2008, as Barack Obama narrowly carried Indiana.
Indiana Democrats are hoping to go back to this well again in 2010. Sen. Evan Bayh retired too late for any Democrats to qualify for the primary ballot, so the state Democratic central committee will get to choose his replacement for November. Not having to worry about a liberal primary electorate, the party bosses are leaning heavily toward Ellsworth, who will once again portray himself as a conservative Democrat. At this writing, the choice of Ellsworth hasn’t been ratified. But the only other viable Democrat in the mix, Ellsworth’s fellow congressman Baron Hill, has withdrawn from consideration. “Brad Ellsworth is a Democrat who fits the Hoosier model,” says one Indiana Republican insider.
What a difference four years makes. The political climate today little resembles the one that elected Ellsworth in 2006 and 2008. Bayh’s retirement suggests that not even he — the incumbent senator reelected with 62 percent of the vote in 2004 even as George W. Bush was beating John Kerry statewide — felt entirely comfortable with his chances. Both Democratic and Republican-leaning polls show Ellsworth is no shoo-in.
A Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll taken in March shows Ellsworth trailing former Sen. Dan Coats, the presumed Republican front-runner, by one point and taking just 36 percent of the vote. Another Republican in the race is none other than John Hostettler. But Ellsworth doesn’t fare very well in the rematch — he actually trails Hostettler by six points, 40 percent to 34 percent. Indiana is trending back in a Republican direction and the race will be competitive even without marquee names like Mike Pence or Mitch Daniels.
An earlier Rasmussen poll, assuming turnout that looks very different from the Daily Kos survey, contains even worse news for Ellsworth. Rasmussen showed Ellsworth losing to Coats by 14 points and to Hostettler by an eye-popping 19. A third candidate, state Sen. Marlin Stutzman, led Ellsworth by 10. In no matchup did Ellsworth get more than 32 percent of the vote. Against Hostettler, he drew just 27 percent.
IN 2006, ELLSWORTH COULD RUN against Bush. This year, Republicans will be running against Obama. In Indiana, only 44 percent of voters approve of the president’s job performance while 54 percent disapprove. Even Daily Kos/Research 2000 finds Obama’s favorability among Hoosiers a net negative. Another poll showed 60 percent of Indiana voters opposing the health care bill that is the centerpiece of the Democratic agenda.
But it’s not just the political climate that could hurt Ellsworth. This time, he has a voting record to run on — and against. “He’s not going to get a pass running in a statewide race,” says an Indiana Republican who is backing Coats. “He will be scrutinized by the Republican-leaning newspapers.” Hostettler says of his 2006 rival, “Someone that ran as someone that was not very liberal in 2006 has a very different record that he gets to run on this time.”
Ellsworth voted for the $787 billion stimulus package that began the Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending spree. But he was against the stimulus before he was for it — he actually voted against the original House-passed version, claiming “there were far too many provisions that would provide little to no economic stimulus.” Then he took a ride on Air Force One with the president, who was able to bring him into line. After the conference report, Ellsworth voted for the final version of the bill.
“I think any economist will tell you, if you spend money, it will create jobs,” Ellsworth told the Evansville Courier & Press. He parroted Obama’s line that the stimulus would create 3.5 million jobs and predicted that it would “save or create” 75,000 jobs in Indiana. The state’s unemployment rate jumped from 9.4 percent when the bill passed in February 2009 to 9.9 percent in December.
About the Author
W. James Antle, III, author of the new book Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?, is editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation and a senior editor of The American Spectator. You can follow him on Twitter @jimantle.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (105) | Leave a comment
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moron| 4.2.10 @ 6:58AM
I look forward to watching this dog get hunted.
1FreeMan| 4.2.10 @ 8:32PM
If you voted for the destruction of America's healthcare system and voted for the stimulus package (which failed miserably) you get voted out. PERIOD. No second chance for traitors!!!
Purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 9:38PM
Destruction? Can't you read? Can't you add? Without the HCR bill, 1/2 the country couldn't afford healthcare in 15 years... now we can, YES WE CAN!
Dave| 4.3.10 @ 10:13PM
With the health care reform bill that the Dems passed, in 15 years no one will be able to afford healthcare... then we won't, YES WE WON'T!
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:45PM
How insightful ... then y'all have your way - your on your own baby .. the Republican Way. Screw the people who aren't as blessed as you - but you screw yourself in the process, but you don't see it do you? Hell no, you don't!
Regis| 4.3.10 @ 11:05PM
Not as blessed or not as hard working? Get a job, purple.
johncarens| 4.4.10 @ 12:30AM
Well, purpleguy, I have this to say: Once upon a time, this was a free country, where the "blessings" to which you refer were the gifts of liberty and freedom, to make of your life what you would-- not to steal from your neighbor because you feel entitled to his belongings and property. The Republican Way, if such a thing exists, is to look at even YOU, Mr. Purpleguy, as a fully realized adult, created in the image of God, who should be afforded all the rights and privileges of a freeborn Man who is capable of doing magnificent things, so long as the iron first of autocracy isn't at your throat. You see, Mr. Purpleguy, Government Governs, it cannot nurture, it cannot provide succor, it can only coerce with force. This is the definition of "Government". Coercive force is the opposite of nurturing love, which is why Government, even if its intention is to provide something as beneficent as "Health Care" can only spread misery. It cannot relieve misery, and the proof of this is everywhere, and everything, government touches. Methinks you complain too much, and you are projecting onto freedom loving Americans your own inner demons.
Achilles Toejam| 4.4.10 @ 1:41PM
Johncarens, here here well said!
Tom Harkin IA (Dem) stated in front of the nation that they were creating a "Right" and furthermore this was only the first step a starter home as he called it with the end goal of a single-payer government run plan which Americans have been fighting against for over 50 years. Government cannot give rights only privileges that can be twisted and maliciously misused to deepen dependency punish our control ever-increasing aspects of our lives, our founding beliefs in this country states that our rights are unalienable and come from God why then would you ever except counterfeit rights from the corrupted hand of man?
"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat in our drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labors and in our amusements, for our callings and our creeds...our people.. must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live.. We have not time to think, no means of calling the mis-managers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow suffers. Our landholders, too...retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must...be contented with penury, obscurity and exile.. private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance.
This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering... And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." Thomas Jefferson
SCARYHARRY| 4.4.10 @ 8:35AM
You must have turned that vivid color by holding your breath for any of the bennys of HCR. 2014 is a long way off. cant wait to see your shade then.
JP| 4.2.10 @ 7:51AM
Well, Ellsworth cannot get away with running as a Pro-Life Blue Dog. And, before election day, Obama will put him and other so-called Moderates to the test by pusing some version of Cap and Trade, as well as Amnesty. Either he votes with the President, or he thinks of his own career and votes against him. We've seen how easily these Blue Dogs can be made to jump and roll over.
Ellsworth will lose by 8-10 points this November.
JB| 4.2.10 @ 8:35AM
This race is a great opportunity to get new, solidly conservative thinking in the Senate. While the Washington types look first at Coats or Hostettler, Indiana is paying attention and coming to recognize Marlin Stutzman as the best candidate for Indiana's future.
I look forward to Marlin emerging from the primary to beat Ellsworth by 10 in November.
Scott| 4.2.10 @ 9:54AM
Marlin won't get 10% in the primary.
loulou| 4.2.10 @ 10:32AM
I don't live in IN but my impression is that quality-wise it's ranked like this: Stutzman, Hostettler and lastly Coats.
JayT| 4.2.10 @ 10:55AM
Stutzman is a guy who's proved his pro-business, anti tax-and-spend principles in the Statehouse, but he's never LOST to the Democratic nominee like Hostettler and he sure never lobbied for Venezuela.
Yehaa| 4.3.10 @ 10:31AM
Jay T - Marlin voted for the largest tax increase on business in the history of the state according to the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. What are you talking about? Then he voted to postpone it. Hostettler is clearly the guy.
Mightycline| 4.3.10 @ 11:24AM
loulou; I live (love) in Indiana and you have it exactly backwards. It is our respected old man Coats in 1st with Hostettler in 2nd losing to Coats, after a landslide victory over Stutzman in 3rd (read last) in the primary. You cannot imagine how wrong you are until the dust settles soon enough. But then so what, you do not live here........we do and we will see mandatory rejection of this liar , and fool for Obama who is the real target here and do not cite racism. IT IS ABOUT LIBERTY & INDIVIDUAL FREEDOMS AS WELL INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. ILLEGALS BE DARNED and NO MORE DUAL CITIZENSHIP FOR ANYBODY please.
Mightycline| 4.3.10 @ 11:35AM
Ooops, anyway Coats or ANY republican wins and I forgot who Hotsteller is anyway, he is not going to win and if he does he wins in the fall too because he is a repub so what can I add now? Nothing more.
dan| 4.2.10 @ 8:42AM
And let's not forget that in their desparation to hold on to the Senate seat, the Democrats put the 8th district seat into play. Van Haaften is an A list candidate, but will probably loose in what's shaping up to be a Republican year.
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 9:41PM
Indiana has turned purple, so while on district may still go Republican, the whole state has a good chance of electing a Democratic Senator in November.
johncarens| 4.4.10 @ 12:34AM
Uh-huh. "Turned Purple"? Maybe with laughter at statements like yours, Purpleguy.
Scott Brown, call your office.
Achilles Toejam| 4.4.10 @ 2:04PM
Johncarens they're scared and they should be, you can tell because they're trying to demonize legitimate grassroots opposition with false claims of coming violence pushed by their willing toadies in the media and bused in union thugs.
Hey, wasn't it a pack of those SEIU thugs that beat down a black man at a town hall meeting a while back? That's right I remember the purple shirts standing around kicking him when he was down.
What was that that Andy Stern said "we will use the power of persuasion and if that doesn't work the persuasion of power," that statement right there should tell you what side of the freedom Street these people are working.
Speedypete| 4.2.10 @ 9:28AM
Hoosier reporting. As far as the polls go at this second it is Hostettler, then Coats, then Martin and Ellsworth is dead last. Post a few billboards across the state with Pelosi, Reid, Obama and Ellsworth and you might as well not run. He will rubber stamp everything which as we all know is Stupak.
Heatpacker| 4.2.10 @ 9:29AM
I sent Ellsworth an email prior to the House Obamacare vote, telling him that if he voted 'yes' his chance of winning the Senate election would disappear. I received a return email yesterday, telling me how great Obamacare would be for me and for the state of Indiana. The email explained that, because health care is so complex an issue, this bill is necessarily so complex that it is hard to understand, and that I needed to go to his website so that I could discover the truth about it.
What DRIVEL!
This email was so presumptuous, so condescending, and so insulting that my initial response was laughter. Upon further consideration, I realized that I should be grateful to Mr. Ellsworth for finally allowing us to see who he really is - not a thoughtful, moderate Democrat, but a cowardly tool of the radical left who is willing to sell his soul for the chance to advance his career.
Mr. Ellsworth, please, PLEASE ask our Dear Leader to make the trip to Indiana so that you can stand on stage with him and tell all of us Hoosiers how the benevolent, paternalistic state is going to make our lives blissful.
Perhaps the rubes in Evansville will take you back when you are forcibly retired from national politics.
Brian | 4.3.10 @ 1:30PM
I wrote the same email and received the exact same response. Mr Ellsworth is toast in the general election.
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:00PM
ObamaCare as the positive, centrist package of reforms. Why the hubris? Why are you so full of yourself not to consider the valid arguments of your Congressman who made the best decision he could on the merits? I don't remember "Thou Shalt Not achieve near-univeral coverage" as one of the Ten Commandments.
Everyone seems to agree that it is the right thing to do to end rescission/denials due to pre-existing conditions. The problem is, if you just outlaw it, then people will game the system and avoid buying health insurance until they get sick. Since they don't pay in, all the responsible people that buy insurance get hit.
So, to end pre-existing condition practices, you need to also ensure everyone is in the system. The disruptive approach would have been to abolish the insurers and go for Single Payer/Medicare4All. But Obama took the centrist course and choose the individual personal responsibility mandate, and build/enhance the current market based system of private insurance.
Mitt Romney applied the same approach in Mass. But Obama and the Democrats went farther than Mitt and actually made sure the bill was PAID FOR.
Look again. I think your ideology may be clouding your judgment.
RealAmerica in Indiana| 4.3.10 @ 8:33PM
Ellsworth sent me the same drivel after I too warned him...
Goodbye Brad, we hardly got to know ya, but what we saw was enough
brad| 4.3.10 @ 11:49PM
this evansville rube knows he can catch dogs
Pingback| 4.2.10 @ 10:07AM
News-Sentinel.com links to this page.
loulou| 4.2.10 @ 10:30AM
If Blue Dog Ellsworth had any value, he'd be a Republican. And not a RINO, either.
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:08PM
Typical parisan, ideological response. Why not consider the actual issues?
wodiej| 4.2.10 @ 11:25AM
got the same response from Ellsworth. I will vote for the best Republican in the primary who can beat him in the Fall. Sounds like any 3 will do it.
Michael Tomlinson| 4.2.10 @ 11:47AM
Time for this typical liberal blue lapdog to be put down like the rest of the mangy curs who tout being conservatives, but consistently vote as their masters (Obama, Pelosi and Reid) order.
Hopefully, conservatives and moderates have learned this simple political equation -- a vote for a blue lapdog equals Democrat leftist laws and policies that kill jobs, raise taxes and appease our enemies like Muslim terrorists.
Brad Ellsworth is a loser.
blarset| 4.2.10 @ 12:14PM
Only a few more months until the november elections. Then we hem in the liberals agenda until the one term is expired . Then we elect a new
executive branch director (Newt Gingrich)."The electorate revolution", of 2012.Move over Gingrich we are about to make history.
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:14PM
The economy will be in fantastic shape come 2012. Nasty Newt wouldn't have a chance now, much less then when the Obama economy is in full swing.
JP| 4.2.10 @ 1:13PM
It shall be interesting to see how Coats does in the primaries. He of course is the favorite of both the RNC and state GOP. The former Senator has name recognition, establishment credentials, money, and will be able to raise lots of cash. However, Hostetler beat him in a starw-poll in Warsaw Indiana last Feb. Warsaw is part of Mark Souter's district, and is one of most conservative areas of the Hoosier State.
While straw polls are anything but scientific, they do show were the energy is amongst the base. Many conservatives see Coats as a professional pol, who has made a nice living off his past connections (he's been a lobbyist since he lost to Bayh a decade ago). Coats was a rather undistinguished Republican during his time in the Senate. Many conservatives in Indiana do not really trust him. It's not that he has said anything to upset them. But, they do not see as being anything than a consensus Republican.
Heatpacker| 4.2.10 @ 1:33PM
Dan Coats is a good man, but his time has passed. He is too much of a squishy, country club, old-guard, semi-conservative Republican for me. Plus, I remember how he retired rather than face an election contest against Evan Bayh - not exactly a show of courage or confidence.
Ralph| 4.2.10 @ 6:17PM
Conservative Democrat is an oxymoron. Anyone with a D needs to go. (D)efeat them all. Boot his butt out.
Liberty2010| 4.3.10 @ 9:32AM
This lapdog is finished. It's amazing how quickly he succumbed to the liberal Dem party bosses. He made a good sheriff from what I understand. The IN GOP needs to strongly support STUTZMAN as their next Republican Senator!
Peteykay| 4.3.10 @ 9:57AM
Please Hoosiers...vote Ellsworth out! Thank you for your consideration.
Black Saint| 4.3.10 @ 9:58AM
In the final analysis local races matter little in the longer view point. If the Democrats can ram Amnesty thought like they did health care adding 10,s of million of Democrat Welfare voters that will in effect assure that the future of this Nation is a One Party Socialist dictatorship controlled by the Democrat party!
slindiana| 4.3.10 @ 10:29AM
I live in the most Democratic region of Indiana - the northwest corner - and even here, Ellsworth will not be an automatic with voters. When a notable portion of my Democratic neighbors (broadly speaking) are ready to vote for the GOP in this race, I can only imagine how poorly Ellsworth is doing in the more conservative parts of the state.
As far as the primaries, John Hostettler has a lot of support in this region. He gives well-thought out opinions on complex issues that are rooted in the Constitution. He is a man of principle who has a proven record of being willing to stand up against his own party's leadership when warranted. (If the GOP would have followed his voting patterns more closely, they likely would not have lost the House.) I believe he has the gifts to function as an effective statesman in a deliberative body like the Senate.
Having seen all of the candidates in person, I generally like Stutzman, but do not feel he is the most qualified to make this leap. I also am disappointed in his recent state senate vote (didn't pass) to take away the right of local schools to even set their own school calendars. (The GOP has historically been a stronger advocate of local government.) And like so many others, we do not like that Coats has not even lived here for more than ten years and was hand-picked by the state party. Yet, many primary voters are not engaged enought to know these things and the battle will be one of name recognition.
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:11PM
Yeah it's pretty sad that people can't see what progress Obama has been able to make in recovering from the Great Bush Recession. They have such blind, non-thinking rage that they would put the people back in charge that created the mess.
Absolute insanity. I'm getting to the point where I feel most people don't deserve the vote.
JmsA| 4.3.10 @ 7:47PM
"They have such blind, non-thinking rage that they would put the people back in charge that created the mess." You mean like Mr. Clinton, who not only did away with Glass-Stegall, the last vestige of the regulating law separating banks from investment houses, leading to the banking collapse from fraudulent mortgage loans packaged as commodities by Wall Street, the same Wall Street that contributed to the democrats and Obama's campaigns at least 2:1 versus McCain's and republican candidates. Did you conveniently forget about Mr. Clinton's justice department threatening to sue banks to force them to extend mortgage loans to unqualified borrowers, as did also Mr. Obama to Citigroup? Or how about democrat Barney Frank, head of House Banking Committee, who repeatedly denied any and all problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, until they had to be bailed out by the taxpayers? How about democrat senator Chris Dodd's shady deals with Country Wide? Did you forget that, too? Did you by any change also forget Mr. Obama's tripling of the deficit in less than one year in office? And please don't blame Bush, for not only did Mr. Obama asked him to release funds from TARP, but also pushed through an 870 billion so-called stimulus package, which has done zilch. The only ones propelling the economy forward are the hard working American people, not the dictatorial democrats that just passed an illegal health-care law, against the wishes of 60 percent of the people. Remember, he who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind, and it is you, and democrats like you, that will be torn asunder by it.
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 9:54PM
All I'll say is those that don't pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it... Nice list of Republican talking points - it doesn't change the fact that Bush left office with fewer jobs in the economy than when he started (only President since Hoover to pull that trick) .. but as Bush said, " I started with a Recession, and I end with a Recession" ... Sensitive guy, that's your buddy!
JmsA| 4.3.10 @ 11:35PM
I've spoken (written) my piece, and you haven't refute it. November 2, 2010. Remember that date, and don't forget to vote; you're going to need every vote you can get (and steal)--and still won't be nearly enough.
Mimi| 4.3.10 @ 10:40AM
TO ALL: Grab a kleenex, and see WE THE PEOPLE on you tube. WE'll know how to vote in November!!!
DKS| 4.3.10 @ 10:48AM
I also got the same response from Ellsworth. He is a man without honor. His word is worth absolutely nothing. I have also known John Hostettler since his first win in 1994. Indiana and the U.S. need men of his caliber and integrity. He is an engineer with a Rose Hulman degree and stands for principle and the Constitution. He will thump Ellsworth in November.
Liberty2010| 4.3.10 @ 11:07AM
To slindiana & DKS :
Thanks for your comments about Hostettler. I agree he is a principled Constitutionalist conservative and votes his conscience. He would make a superb U.S. Senator.
democrat in exile| 4.3.10 @ 1:02PM
My wife and I are both registered Democrats living in NW Indiana. We saw this Liberal train wreck coming in 2008 and supported McCain. Because we want to see a corrective turn to the center we will be supporting the Republican candidates running against Ellsworth and Donnelly. When the Democrat party returns to its senses we will no longer be ex-pats and return to vote for Democrat candidates to counter-balance the excesses of the conservative wing of the Republican party (once the Liberals have been utterly discredited).
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:15PM
I call BS. You're no Democrat. Enjoy your new home with the Republicans.
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:00PM
Liberal? There is no single-payer, no Medicare for all; Drilling off the coast; Surge in Afghanistan; tax cuts from the Recovery Act; none of those are liberal. Obama is almost right down the middle on most issues. He's very practical and mainstream, but you can't tell if you listen only to Fixed News and Talk Radio. Too bad they got you conned into believing their talking points
Pingback| 4.3.10 @ 1:42PM
The Brad Ellsworth Test | ControversyToday.info links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Go_Figure7722| 4.3.10 @ 1:47PM
We desperately need to clean House (and Senate) come November. The country always fares better when the parties have to share power. The absolute power (and resulting absolute corruption) held by Democrats needs to stop. Please stop it in November.
Marc Jeric| 4.3.10 @ 1:57PM
Who invented this "blue state" and "red state" nonsense? It should be the opposite: "red" states are those that vote Democrat i.e. socialist i.e. communist; and "blue" states are those that vote for small government, low taxes, more freedom.
Michael Tomlinson| 4.3.10 @ 10:15PM
Until the 2000 election it was red states = Democrats and blue states = Republicans. I think it was Democrat media fear of their party being labeled correctly as Marxist Reds.
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:41PM
Small government? - rich get richer, 'cause they can control a smaller govt.
low taxes? - 90% of our taxes are paid by 10% of the people - who's taxes are they lowering? who's taxes you talking about?
more freedom? - remove bankruptcy protections; deregulate the financial industry so they can dupe you with wild ass promises; inhibit a woman's right to choose; force school prayer; lock you up and throw away the key; torture; eavesdrop on all communication -
that's what you get when you vote Republican... oh, but I guess you can carry concealed weapons, 'cause we got bogeymen to be afraid of.
Gerald Stephens| 4.3.10 @ 3:36PM
Mr. Ellsworth should have respectfully declined the plane ride, and remembered a mid west truism that when one sleeps with pigs you can bet you will smell like pigs.
Now that we all have the smell of pigs identified and imprinted, shouldn't have any November problems.
interested in fairfax| 4.3.10 @ 3:56PM
Ellsworth is just proof that party affiliation IS still important. no such thing as a conservative Democrat. They will all cave at the most critical time. He will be voted out of office and hopefully will never even be elected dogcatcher in Indiana. The people of Indiana will not be fooled again.
valwayne| 4.3.10 @ 4:12PM
A vote for any Democrat in Nov is a vote for Obama, Pelosi, and Reid! A vote for any Democrat in Nov is a vote in favor of the Louisiana Purchases, the Cornhusker Kickback, the Florida Gatoraide, the $60 billion union payoff, and the rule of the Chicago Way of our nation. If average working people don't restore balance to our Government in Nov the corruption, the debt, the massive Government takeovers will continue.
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:17PM
Yes, a vote for any Democrat in November is a vote for effective American government. Any vote for a Republican rewards their irresponsible intransigence strategy that leads them to oppose every Obama initiative no matter how much he reaches out to Republicans.
We'll hold in November, and in January we put the mad elephant out of its misery by reforming the filibuster and holds on a majority vote.
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:04PM
How stupid ... do you just parrot what you hear? If average working people vote Republican, you deserve what they will do to you - make the richer richer, and you poorer - but you believe their propaganda hook, line and sinker... No doubts? My point is made. Chicago Way? OMG are you uninformed.... very sad
Michael Tomlinson| 4.3.10 @ 10:16PM
Frankly, purple puke your full of BS!
Purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:35PM
Ahh, another low-information voter... what a superlative response ... u wanna beer with that Chuckie?
Michael Tomlinson| 4.3.10 @ 10:16PM
Frankly, purple puke your full of BS!
DonkeyPunch| 4.3.10 @ 4:28PM
Now it's 2010 and he has a record to defend! They can't hide behind the phony "blue dog" mask any longer. Ellsworth and the rest of Rahm's stooges will be turned out. God save the Republic!
lance sjogren| 4.3.10 @ 4:41PM
Ellsworth's not too bad for a Democrat, but Hostettler is more reliable as someone who will stand with the people.
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:06PM
Who do you think Ellsworth is serving? When faced with a decision in office he goes with his best judgment on the merits. I guess he could have taken the easy route and subjugated his better judgment to opinion polls of people who have no clue about the problems at hand.
The founders established a representative democracy, not a direct democracy. Most people don't have time or inclination to learn all the ins and outs of the big issues. So we elect professionals to be dedicated to do the job for us. That's how it works.
Flayer| 4.3.10 @ 7:36PM
Professionals do not vote for bills that they haven't read, don't understand and contradict the Constitution that they swore to uphold. Professionals do not say one thing when asking for your vote then do something entirely different. Elected officials are elected to represent their constituents not the Executive Branch. If just a ride on AF1 is all it takes to go back on your campaign promise to your constituents then what else will it take to buy your vote in the future?
Purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:06PM
Ever wonder how gullible you sound? you've drunk the KoolAid of the far right ... and you are loving it... my point is made.
Jeff Lee| 4.3.10 @ 6:02PM
Democrats have screwed the little guy. Ellsworth is dead meat.
jhoger| 4.3.10 @ 7:02PM
What? You've got to be kidding. Now if the "little guy" makes $250,000 a year, then I guess I can kinda see it. But the fact is that this reform bill brings health security to all Americans, and does the most for the poor, and working poor by providing either Medicaid or subsidies.
Jeff Lee| 4.4.10 @ 5:50PM
We're tired of taking it up the butt for you and your banker friends.
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:16PM
Now that's just a stupid comment. There were fewer jobs in this country when Bush left office then when he started, and he almost left us with a depression. Thank God he wasn't president 3 more years like Hoover was, we'd all be in soup lines by now. You and your buddies ought to think about that when you get so high and mighty about the Dems. Ask your Grandparents what the Depression was like; did you not hear every economist left, right and center say we were about to collapse economically. Good God, when will you people wise up and stop listening to the propaganda. Bush did one great thing - he signed the TARP bill that you all hate so much .. but it saved your ass and mine bud. And Obama has continued the rescue. Go learn something.
Michael Tomlinson| 4.3.10 @ 10:20PM
When President Bush and Republicans in Congress were leading the country the economy was booming and unemployment was 4-5%. Only when Democrats took over Congress and protected their political cronies at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was the economy undercut. The reality is we're in the Obama depression. Just like the failed FDR there are years the market will be up, but working people will be continually screwed until Democrats become a cringing minority and Obama is driven from the White House.
The real job loss and crash of the economy came after Obama won the Presidency and the stock market dropped 2,000 points the day after the election (a first in US history).
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:32PM
Nice try, ditto head. Democrats could not pass anything without Bush agreeing since 2007, so you're feeding misinformation. When Bush left office, 750,000 jobs were being lost every month, and that started in 2007! The stock market was 14,000 in 2008, and fell to 8500 by the time Bush left office. Don't you remember 1000 point losses in 2008? After Obama's inauguration, and since March of 2009, 1 month after Obama took office, the stock market is up 60% ! Now the stock market is ALWAYS the first to improve, and unemployment is the last to improve. But we have stopped losing jobs and now are starting to gain, small gains, but gains in jobs. You should be thanking God that Obama is president, with the TARP program started by Bush and what Obama has done, together they saved all our asses - or we'd be in soup lines today. Go learn something and stop spouting only what you hear.
Jeff Lee| 4.4.10 @ 5:52PM
All I know is that I had work until Obama got in and now I don't. The rest makes no difference to me.
mlindop| 4.3.10 @ 7:47PM
jhoger...
have U noticed...others on this board have decided to ignore you...you are an obamafreak and frankly...no one cares what you have to say!
purpleguy| 4.3.10 @ 10:11PM
He's not alone out here in the Red Wilderness... I used to be Republican; voted for Reagan twice and Papa Bush too... then I started to see the dismantling of our country with deregulation and deficit spending under Reagan - giving tax cuts while at the same time increasing the military budget. He was no fiscal conservative. Then I saw decisions coming out of the Supreme Court that were definitely right leaning. That doesn't mean I love the Democrats either, but all I hear now from Republicans is cost, cost, cost ... at least I hear some care, care, care from the Dems.
Pingback| 4.3.10 @ 8:10PM
The American Spectator : The Brad Ellsworth Test American Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
in44| 4.3.10 @ 9:43PM
I live in Indiana and he should win the repubs are laughable. I think that it will be painful for all of you when the president wins in 2012 no matter what because who do the repubs have to run that is not awful the president will win by 6 - 8 points in 12.
JmsA| 4.4.10 @ 1:33PM
Does IN44 in any way reflect the one's latest job approval rating at 44%? Just asking.
Pingback| 4.3.10 @ 10:20PM
Audit Test links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.3.10 @ 10:20PM
Audit Test links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Shauna| 4.4.10 @ 1:01AM
How funny!
There really are two people in America who think Obama is doing a good job! Ha ha ha ha ha! It must be so lonely for them! But it's hard to feel sorry for them... they are just so stupid in the arguments they keep repeating, over and over and over as though if they say it more it will somehow be true! Ha ha ha ha!
I miss Bush, Clinton, even Nixon would be better than Obama! Maybe not Carter... hard to call that one....
I hear grape is the favorite flavor at the troll rallies!
mike,| 4.4.10 @ 7:14PM
AAAH yes, where Have I seen Purpleguy before, Racism, Class Warfare, and Victimization, you really should get something new, been tootin that horn for 50 years, I think the public is FINALLY waking up!?