Archive for April, 2008

The National Rifle Association has released the following endorsements in the following selected Statehouse races:

State Senate

Brent Waltz - State Senate District 36 - A rated and endorsed

State House

Donald Lehe - State House District 15 - A rated and endorsed
Bill Ruppel - State House District 22 - A rated and endorsed
John Ulmer - State House District 49 - A rated and endorsed
Phyllis Pond - State House District 85 - A rated and endorsed
Mike Murphy - State House District 90 - A rated and endorsed

Yesterday was a good day if you were one of the 50 or so people who got five gallons of gas free courtesy of the Puckett for Congress campaign. Taking the record high gas prices as an opportunity to let people know that real solutions exist, Luke Puckett and his team pumped gas for South Bend motorists while Puckett talked to drivers about his plans to bring gas prices down.

Unlike the outmoded solutions that Joe Donnelly is talking about, Puckett advocates the removal of regulations that prevent new refineries from being constructed and the opening of domestic oil and natural gas reserves in Alaska, the Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Recognizing that drilling and refining techniques have been improved, Puckett is ready to push for genuine energy cost relief that reduces our dependency on foreign energy supplies that often come from sources that are at best ambiguous and at worst hostile to the concept of freedom.

The Puckett campaign turned out this little gem to inform folks as to what Joe Donnelly’s energy policy is:

Disclosure: I wrote this piece not because I work for the Puckett campaign but because the Puckett campaign agrees with what many conservatives have been advocating for.

In the heart of Indiana’s 2nd Congressional district, the price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline yesterday was $3.75 a gallon. For premium, motorists had to shell out $3.95 a gallon. The price of gasoline has risen over 55% since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007 declaring that they had a solution for the high cost of fuel.

So far, Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN02) has responded to the high price of gas by holding a press conference at a gas station just outside of South Bend saying he has sent a letter to President Bush requesting that 20 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve be sent onto the market and that the SPR stop taking any more deliveries until prices go back down.

According to Donnelly, if the SPR followed through on his plan by releasing 20 million barrels of oil onto the market, prices would drop by about $0.25. That’s a pretty optimistic number considering that our nation uses a little over 20 million barrels of oil a day. There are 365 days in a year, Joe Donnelly wants to give us one day of relief from high gas prices, that’s not a genuine and meaningful solution, Joe.

(Read more after the leap and watch the “Pelosi Premium” video) (more…)

(No, that’s not meant to be a fat joke.)

The conservative blogosphere is growing by leaps and bounds folks. Part of that growth includes Brian Jessen’s (of Circle City Pundit fame) new blog Indy’s Conservative Hardball. If you’ve ever met the guy, he does remind you of Chris Matthews, except..well..conservative. Plus, it includes commentary on something close to my heart and that’s baseball! Politics and baseball - as American as apple pie.

Also, check out a blog I just stumbled upon (thanks to the Burton Blog) also located, I’m guessing, here in Indy. It’s called “Call Me Ahab” (yeah, that’s where the whale part of the joke comes in) and he appears to have been around a while. He’s also a gun toting, coffee drinking conservative. All caffeine related trigger finger jokes aside (all to be coming from liberals I’m sure), this guy is alright!

I’ve had a number of lengthy email exchanges with blog readers and friends (most of them outside of the state of Indiana) who have expressed curiosity about the imminent Indiana primary and how this, the most Republican of states, will turn when it comes to a Democrat presidential primary. This post is an attempt to synthesize and combine those conversations into a coherent discussion of the Democrat presidential primary.

Warning; monster post follows.

(The monster can be found after the leap) (more…)

It’s just sad it took the death of these two innocent children to potentally bring about legislation which increases the penalties for their murders.

The man who shot a pregnant teller during a bank robbery last week could face as little as two years in prison for killing her unborn twins.

But a penalty stretching several decades to 100 years would apply for the robbery and the attempted murder of the mother — an absurd gap, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. Today, he is expected to announce a proposal that would expand Indiana’s fetal homicide laws to include any unborn child.

The change would remove a condition that the fetus be viable, or have the ability to live outside the mother’s womb.

“I don’t see why we should be talking about viability,” Brizzi said Tuesday. “If somebody takes the life of an unborn child, they should be charged with murder, period.”

(Read more after leap) (more…)

Posted in Ethics, General Assembly, Legislature | 1 Comment » | Read more..

Congressman Burton’s latest ad speaks for itself.

YouTube Direct 

When considering who Hoosier Access* should support and endorse in the 2nd Congressional District, the choice wasn’t hard. Despite the lesser candidates running against him, Luke Puckett has made himself to be the obvious choice through hard work and meeting with the voters, for Republicans in the 2nd CD primary as well as for voters of all types in the November general.

His devotion to his family led him to question whether he should run or not, but with the support of his family and his genuine concern for the people of the 2nd CD led him, in the end to jump into the race against Democrat Joe Donnelly.

Luke’s background as a successful small business owner has given him the ability to truly understand the needs of the people in the 2nd CD as well as give him a better understanding of our complicated tax system and ideas on how to fix it. He supports the Bush Tax Cuts and seeks to make them permanent knowing how they benefit families and businesses of all types and sizes.

His concern for families, especially for those who have a hard time affording health care, has him wanting to work towards lessening the cost while wanting to increase the availability of quality healthcare. Luke also supports a secure border and in Iraq wants to help and support our troops by listening to their commanders on the ground rather than legislating the war from Washington.

In the end, the people of the 2nd Congressional District need someone like Luke Puckett in Washington, who won’t say one thing in the district while doing the opposite in Washington, like so many of our Democrat legislators. They need someone like Luke and this is why Hoosier Access enthusiastically endorses Luke Puckett in his run for Congress. Please check out Luke Puckett’s website here.

*Brian Sikma, who is the Deputy Communications Director for the Puckett campaign, did not participate in our vote on whether or not we should endorse Luke. Nor did Brian nominate him.

Listen to the Hoosier Access Radio interview with Luke Puckett from April 5th, 2008.

 

 Luke Puckett [28:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

I had a chance to attend today’s released press conference for the latest Howey-Gauge poll produced by Gauge Market Research and Brian Howey. The results of the poll were quite interesting considering they looked that Governor’s race (both the primary and general), the Democrat Presidential primary, the 7th CD Democrat primary and the 5th CD Republican primary. In short order, Burton trounces McGoff, Andre Carson trounces Myers (but wouldn’t if someone would go negative on Carson or if Orentlicher and Mays were in the contest), JLT has her way with “Diamond Jim” but the race between Hillary and Barack is too close to call.

5th CD Race: (Trial Heat numbers)

In a Republican Primary for Congress held today, who would you favor between (ROTATE ORDER) Clayton Alfred, Dan Burton, and John McGoff?

Clayton Alfred 1%
Dan Burton 57%
John McGoff 22%
Undecided 20%

That’s a big undecided group, but not enough for McGoff to have a prayer of overtaking Burton.

(See the 7th, the Governor’s race and the presidential race, plus cross tabs below the fold) (more…)

We, the directors of Hoosier Access*, are proud to announce today our endorsement of Rep. Dan Leonard for re-election to the Indiana House of Representatives. Rep. Leonard, (R-Huntington) has represented House District 50 since 2002 and has ably served the people of Huntington and Whitely counties.

Since his election, Rep. Leonard has been a staunch fiscal and social conservative advocating for real and meaningful solutions to the problems that come before the Indiana General Assembly.

During the historic 2008 legislative session that focused a great amount of time on property tax reform, Rep. Leonard stood up for taxpayers by winning passage of the “Little Red Schoolhouse” amendment. This policy proposal was designed to help reduce the high cost of building new school buildings by requiring the Indiana Department of Education to develop a maximum cost per square foot formula for school construction and then maintain a database of approved school construction plans to lower the engineering and architectural costs associated with school construction.

Hoosiers of House District 50 have a legislator that they can be proud of and we encourage voters to cast their ballot for Mr. Leonard in the May 6th primary.

*Jim Banks, Whitely County GOP Chairman and Hoosier Access Director, abstained from this endorsement.

We’ve all heard of the Blue Dog Democrats, they’re the Democratic candidates that ran on relatively conservative platforms in 2006 and unseated Republican members of Congress. In a large part they’re responsible for the current Democratic control of Congress. Although they gave the Democrats the majority, they sure haven’t been very excited about forcing their party to recognize the fact that they come from conservative districts were San Francisco style policy proposals are not welcomed.

With conventional wisdom saying that 2008 would be a year for the Democrats, it was to be expected that if the Blue Dogs did a fairly good job, most of them would win re-election. Fortunately for conservatives, the Blue Dog’s have not done anywhere near a good job holding to their campaign promises. This means that instead of facing a weak Republican opposition, they may have a really tough battle on their hands this fall.

Read more below the fold. (more…)

From the NRA-PVF:

The Second Amendment needs your help - today. The NRA Political Victory Fund has endorsed Congressman Dan Burton in the Republican primary election in the Fifth Congressional District of Indiana. Dan Burton works to protect our gun rights and hunting heritage in Congress, and now he needs your vote!

Dan Burton, a life member of the NRA, has fought for your firearms freedom in Congress for years, and now he needs your help to ensure our Second Amendment rights and hunting heritage are protected. During his tenure in Congress, he has a proven record voting to stop bogus lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers, to prohibit gun confiscation during states of emergency and to repeal the gun ban and restore self-defense rights to residents of the District of Columbia. By contrast his opponent - John McGoff - was a member and involved with the Indiana Partnership to Prevent Firearm Violence, an Indiana anti-gun group, group who joined forces with the Brady Campaign to oppose legislation to stop lawsuits against Indiana gun manufacturers and dealers. The choice is clear! Dan Burton has a perfect pro-gun voting record in Congress. Accordingly, he has earned an “A” rating by the NRA and Dan Burton has earned your vote and support. For more information or to volunteer in the Dan Burton for Congress campaign, visit www.IndianaDan.com.

Vote for Dan Burton for Congress on Tuesday, May 6th, and encourage all of your family, friends, and fellow hunters and shooters to do the same! The future of our Second Amendment rights depends on it!