The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : The Curious Case of Dan Burton

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The Spectacle Blog

The Curious Case of Dan Burton

By Ryan L. Cole on 6.1.09 @ 6:39PM

The Indy Star opines on what will likely be one of the most crowded primary races in the country in 2010. Republican Dan Burton, who has represented Indiana's 5^th District since 1983, has spent the past few decades amassing a legacy of missed votes, questionably funded golf trips, embarrassing misstatements and dubious personal behavior and little in the way of legislative accomplishments.

Because of all of this, Burton will face at least four Republican challengers in the 5^th district primary. The challengers include former and current State Representatives and an Indianapolis physician who challenged Burton in 2008.

Burton is most likely looking for all the challengers to cancel each other out. Still the sheer number of candidates looking to knock him off will most surely send a message to the voters about sorry state of Burton's reputation both in Indiana and Washington. Should be interesting to watch.

View all comments (3) | Leave a comment

MattSwartz| 6.1.09 @ 10:05PM

Perhaps one (or even two) of them are stalking horses funded by Burton himself.

If I were Burton that's what I'd do.

MattSwartz| 6.1.09 @ 10:07PM

And it would work, too, coupled with the old Republican hesitance to vote against incumbents in the primary.

There's basically no way an incompetent schlub could lose, depending on the district...

Michael Dooley| 6.2.09 @ 7:32AM

There is no more frustration than being a Conservative and finding himself redistricted into a "safe" Democrat stronghold. This gives me no voice in the Burton contest as I once had in the past.

While it is true Burton is something of a fixture in Hoosier politics (How in the hell did you think Evan Bayh got anywhere. The fact that his father, Birch Bayh, had that Senate seat for years seemed to translate into it belonging to Evan by birthright for the Hoosier voters), it is also true that in my beloved Indiana voters fall for what a politician says with no regard to what he actually does. This results in the old "talk right/vote left" among members of the Indiana Congressional delegation. The fact that Burton at least talks right and votes right gives him cache among Indiana's frustrated Republicans. I prefer his opponent Dr. McGoff by a country mile; but I fear Burton will only be taken out of Congress by being carried out on his back feet first.