Campo’s Chances Against Julia’s Seed?
Gabrielle Campo announced at City Market this morning that she will be officially pursuing a bid for the 7th CD seat held by Andre Carson. Granted this is a long shot bid, considering the political climate and the truncated cycle in which she has to run (yeah, I know she has to get through a caucus first, but I hear she has an excellent chance), but Campo’s performance, as well as that of her volunteers, at the January slating convention for the Special Election left more than me impressed apparently.
But let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Does she have a chance against “Julia’s seed”? It’s going to be to easy for pundits to automatically dismiss her, but if the 2004 and 2006 Republican candidacies of Andy Horning and Eric Dickerson showed us anything, is that there is a significant portion of the 7th that is tired of being represented by a Carson. And not just Republicans, but plenty of Democrats too.
Campo has a few things in her favor. She’s young, she’s energetic, and as she proved at the convention, she has a good volunteer base. And as Mike noted earlier, she’s already moving beyond the Republican label. The flip side to that coin is that Andre has all of that and he’s never been a Republican.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I’m impressed with Campo. She has the ability to bring a fresh face and a fresh attitude to Marion County politics. But this race has burned out so many rising stars in the Marion County party, let’s hope that she’s not one of them.
Listen to her speech from the January Special Election Slating Convention
July 15th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Unfortunately, The Almighty Himself couldn’t beat Rep. Juggernaut this fall. The GOP had it’s chance in March and royally blew it. That was a once-every-20 years chance, and likely won’t ever happen again.
So considering all that, no reason not to let Gabrielle be the sacrificial lamb. She was extremely impressive that evening, and certainly did well turning out the volunteers. I had the chance to spend a few minutes chatting with her and was impressed with her maturity and poise.
But does it really matter? The same gerrymandering that gives Cadillac Dan a seat for life also assures the same thing for The Juggernaut.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Though, if she is serious she might want to think about fixing her website.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
No joke on the website!
I’m hopeful for re-districting in ‘12. Just hopeful.