Costas was “recruited” by people like Bill Osterle, etc just for this purpose.

I don’t think a lot of you out there know Greg Zoeller’s wealth of experience. He has served as Carter’s Chief Deputy for the past 7 years. Prior to that he was President of the World Trade Association in Indiana. Prior to that he served with Dan Quayle when he was Indiana’s Senator and our Nation’s Vice President. Bottom line: Greg Zoeller has been a supporting and active Republican, serving the Citizens of Indiana for over 20 years. It is his turn for the party to show him a bit of loyalty back. This is his job and it is his time.

If my memory serves me there were three or four contenders for Governor that year. This was the final Gubernatorial candidate selected this way. The process was extremely exciting. Every week for about eight weeks there were one or two cocktail parties in our county where a prospective candidate for Governor, Lt. Governor and other state wide offices would appear, schmooze the locals and work for votes. Deals were made prior to the convention by county chairmen and district chairmen, trading delegate votes like baseball cards. I remember the 1972 convention very well. Heck, it was the first time that this poor boy from Kokomo had ever tasted caviar, courtesy of Bob Orr’s hospitality suite.

Our county chairman called a caucus of our delegates and told us that we were going to vote for Judge Sharp for Governor. I stood up and asked why. I was a Bowen man then, now and forever! In front of our delegation our chairman told us that he had promised the Hamilton County chairman four years earlier, when Richard Roudebush retired from Congress, that if Hamilton County would back Bud Hillis from our county, then we would owe them a favor when they called for it. The 1972 convention was payback time. Being 18 and in no mood to be reasonable I declared loudly, “You made the deal, you vote for Sharp! I’m voting for Bowen and you can’t stop me.” Well, the caucus quickly unravelled. Eventually Howard County went for Bowen by a 2:1 margin. It was then that I learned the true power of a county chairman.

Well, our state finally decided that a direct primary would be the best way to select a Governor. However, we couldn’t trust the voters with selecting the balance of the team. After all, you could end up with a Lt. Governor who had polar viewpoints on just about every subject. That’s why all of the other state wide offices remained in the state convention. Governor candidates being as they are and state party’s being as they are, they quickly realized that it was politically sound and cost effective to have most positions wrapped up well before the convention actually started. With the exception of a couple of conventions, notably 1992, there has been little excitement or intrigue. Conventions have sunk to the status of a pep rally. Not exactly the type of rallying cry to get someone to go down to the court house, declare for delegate, pay $80, travel all the way to Indianapolis and miss work for a day. This is why there is a huge number of ballot vacancies and the chairman has regained a huge amount of power through his ability to fill delegate vacancies. Ironic.

Which brings me back to 2008. I believe that a contested race for Attorney General is healthy. It has put meaning back into the convention. It is interesting. It makes us think, organize and work for it. Yes, I have endorsed Jon Costas. He will make a great AG. The Governor nor any of his staff or campaign staff have strong armed or lobbied me. I told both Greg Zoeller and Jon Costas from the beginning that I would remain neutral unless Governor Daniels openly endorsed a candidate. Last week, when Governor Daniels did just that, I enthusiastically endorsed Jon Costas. I did it because Jon Costas will be great AG and the Governor wants him on the ticket for geographical balance. I told Jon Costas that I was sure that I could deliver one vote at least. I trust that the other 33 delegates from Howard County will view his candidacy favorably.

I would humbly suggest that everyone take a deep breath and enjoy this experience of a contested convention. It should be fun and our Party can become stronger because of it.

And how does all of the support for Greg Zoeller coming out of the 3rd District figure into Jon Costas having strong support all across northern Indiana?

The Governor has a lot of problems down this way (his undervote percentage in the recent primary was disturbingly significant), but that’s a discussion for another time (and I’d be glad to discuss it with you elsewhere if you’re genuinely interested).

All this and he hasn’t had to back down a bit on his stance against increasing the unions’ power over their employees. For those of us in NW Indiana, this is good news.

His 1 percent property tax cap was a master stroke of genius and he will gain tons of votes because people believe he cares.

You may know the process better than I, but I have a hard time beleiving that any one man, Tom John in this case, can have enough power to control the destiny of the entire state. Jon Costas has strong support all across Northern and Central Indiana and I guess the naive side of me is kinda confused as to why Southern Indiana would have any problem with him either.

Mr. Zoeller was here in NW Indiana today, no one took negative shots or smears, Jon wouldn’t ever allow it.

And I do very much have a problem with a contested convention being decided because Tom John has decided to rig the process by demanding draconian and absurd loyalty oaths from the delegates that he is appointing. Why should my delegates want to go all the way to Indy to participate in a contested convention if some Indianapolis good old boys are going to try and rig the thing with strong arm tactics and loyalty oaths?

Republican base voters down this way don’t appreciate Indianapolis much, and they won’t take kindly to a candidate that they think was forced upon them by Indianapolis (let alone Mitch Daniels, who has his own very serious base problems down here).

And when I speak of the Governor making “progress” in the aforementioned post, I’m talking about improving his electoral situation, not advancing the state or helping county political organizations.