Archive for the ‘Governor's Race’ Category

A recent survey conducted by Survey USA has Governor Daniels crushing his opponent Jill Long Thompson if the election were held today (or Tuesday, when the poll was released) 52% to 38%. While the same poll gives Indiana to John McCain 50% to 44%. The survey was conducted for WHAS-TV in Louisville and WCPO-TV in Cincinnati and as taken. SurveyUSA interviewed 900 Indiana adults 08/16/08 through 08/18/08. Of them, 779 were registered to vote. Of the registered voters, 645 were determined by SurveyUSA to be likely voters in the 11/04/08 general election.

A few other numbers to look at just before the leap, 23% of Democrats were willing to cross over and vote for Governor Daniels, while 12% of Republicans we’re willing to cross over to vote for JLT. But the startling number to me was that only 4% of voters were undecided. The remaining percentage went to Libertarian/Independent candidates. That basically means that barring a catastrophe, Governor Daniels sails to victory.

What’s interesting about the presidential dynamics of the poll is that it shows that Senator McCain has increased his lead with those who attend church regularly from 16% to 28%, while those who don’t Obama has increased his lead to 23%. They note that this survey overlapped the Civil forum at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. 12% of Republicans cross over to vote for Senator Obama, which is in line with the 12% who were crossing over for JLT and 19% of Democrats cross over to vote for Senator McCain.

More numbers and your discussion in the comment section below the fold. (more…)

Your humble correspondents from Hoosier Access are not able to attends drubbing, I mean, debate between LG Becky Skillman and Dennie Ray II at the State Fair Grounds, but friends of the site, Kurt and Kristen Luidhardt are there and following the action.  Make sure to check out their live blog and twitter feeds.

(why do I get the feeling this debate will resemble the debate bewteen Dick Cheney and John Edwards?)

Debate coverage via Twitter

Debate coverage via live blog

From Gov. Daniels’ campaign twitter feed:

Governor Daniels agrees to 3 debates. 9/16 in Merrillville, 9/23 in Jasper, 10/14 in Bloomington.

I find this rather interesting. He’s agreed to do this in two Democrat strongholds - Places where the Governor isn’t exactly the most loved political figure - Northern Lake County and the People’s Republic of Bloomington. Northern Lake County of course because of Steelworkers support of Jill Long Thompson and their perceived “sale” of the Toll Road to “furriners”. Never mind that King Richard II of Chicago “sold” his Skyway - which connects the Toll Road to the Dan Ryan Expy - to the very same “furriners”. The People’s Republic of Bloomington is upset at the Governor for any reason from the War in Iraq to the Interstate 69 south extension to Evansville (Psst! Gov. O’Bannon plotted that route with the FHWA, not Gov. Daniels. Gov. Daniels is just seeing that construction gets started).

Saturday morning I got the chance to participate in a motorcycle ride with none other than Governor Mitch Daniels. The Governor arrived on his Harley, and when he arrived he took a few minutes to look at the other bikes at the rally point. There was about 20 or so bikes for the first leg of the trip - going from 79th & Fall Creek to Cicero via Lapel. Nice ride on a Saturday morning, through the Indiana country. Ahhhhh….. Just a bunch of guys out for a ride.

[More Below The Fold]

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From the opinion page of Terre Haute’s Tribune-Star comes this delightful letter:

Dem candidate a disappointment

I am disappointed with Jill Long-Thompson’s campaign games. While Indiana’s economic situation is clearly an important political issue, she fails to list her positions on social issues like abortion and gay marriage on her Web site.

Could it be because she wants to avoid advertising that large portions of her campaign funding come from Emily’s List, an organization that supports candidates who favor abortion-friendly policies?

Thompson’s runningmate, Dennie Oxley, has been called pro-life and voted in favor of an amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. He should be ashamed of himself, having compromised his own values to jump onto the ticket of a candidate who refuses to stand against gay marriage and who will be looking for ways to return the monetary favors from Emily’s List in the form of pro-abortion political action.

— Carly Robbins, Terre Haute

It’s an interesting point. Nowhere on Long Thompson’s website does it say a word about her positions on various social or traditional values issues.

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Earlier, I pointed out the differences between the Republican Governors Association giving money to Mitch Daniels (a small proportion of his total campaign war chest), and Jill Long Thompson receiving three quarters of her money from out of state (and from hyper-liberal special interests that are diametrically opposed to the beliefs of most Hoosiers, at that).

If you don’t see the difference between getting one dollar in eighteen of your campaign funding from a big out of state group, compared to three dollars out of every four, then you’ve really been spun.

Moreover, if you don’t understand the difference between the Republican Governors Association (whose only mission is to elect more Republican governors) and far left special interests like the pro-abortion group Emily’s List or the SEIU labor union, then you’ve also really been spun.

The RGA isn’t giving Mitch Daniels money to own him.

Emily’s List and SEIU pretty much now own Jill Long Thompson; they seem to be giving her unlimited money in clear expectation of a return on their investment in the form of the enactment of far left policies if she is actually elected (unlikely as that might seem).

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When Mitch Daniels has raised almost $13 million so far for his reelection, an additional $725,000 from the Republican Governors Association is not a big deal.

It ends up being less than one eighteenth of the total amount that Mitch has raised, not that the Democrat Governors Association has yet made a similar investment in the Long Thompson campaign.

By contrast, some 75% of the total money raised by the Long Thompson campaign has come from far-left special interests from outside of the state of Indiana.

I’ll grant that $725,000 is a lot of money. So is the $1.25 million that came from the pro-abortion group Emily’s List and the labor union SEIU.

The difference is that money from out-of-state groups like Emily’s List represents an overwhelming majority–three dollars in every four–of the money given to the Long Thompson campaign.

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This is a bit more than just finding some loose change under the sofa cushions, no?

INDIANAPOLIS — The state has ended the latest fiscal year with its third consecutive balanced budget.

State officials closed the books on the fiscal year that ended on June 30 with revenues exceeding spending by about $321 million. That was in part due to spending restraints ordered by Gov. Mitch Daniels that included some agencies not filling vacant positions and delaying some capital projects.

The state ended the year with nearly $600 million in its main checking account. That combined with savings accounts left the state with a budget surplus of about $1.4 billion.

State Auditor Tim Berry said Thursday that Indiana is on firm financial ground, while 29 other states — including the four surrounding Indiana — are facing fiscal woes.

Democrats, interestingly, think that the money should be given back to the people of Indiana.

This is a novel concept for Democrats; I am sure they will shake themselves out of it soon.

Jill Long Thompson should probably be careful what she asks for. Nothing would turn this election into a shattering and party-destroying two-to-one thumping like the Governor deciding to use the budget surplus to help alleviate gas prices by temporarily doing away with the sales tax on gasoline (or calling a brief special session and asking to get that authority, since the AG’s office doesn’t seem to think that he has it already).

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Well look who makes a guest appearance!

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When challengers run against incumbents, one of the things they scrutinize is where they are getting their money. They know that constituents can always get upset if they are accepting foreign (read: out of district or out of state) money.

What tickles me, is that in the case of Jill Long Thompson, she who wishes to actually challenge Governor Daniels in November, the majority of her second quarter numbers, 55.4% of her war chest isn’t coming from Indiana. In fact, it’s coming from Washington, D.C. of all places.  While over 75% of Governor Daniels’ second quarter numbers come from right here in the Hoosier state.  And what of the first quarter?  The State GOP put out this press release:

Unable to attract support from the people she hopes to represent, Democratic candidate for governor Jill Long Thompson is relying almost entirely on out of state special interest groups to fund her campaign. In the first quarter of 2008, more than 75 percent of her funding came from donors outside of Indiana.

With 70 percent coming from Washington D.C., alone, Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark said it is obvious who Jill Long Thompson would represent as governor.

“Jill Long Thompson should change her campaign name from ‘Hoosiers for Jill’ to ‘D.C. Special Interests for Jill,’ because Hoosier’s don’t appear to be supporting her campaign,” Clark said.

So who’s in Jillary’s wallet? Second quarter finance numbers won’t be available until July 15th, “…but according to her supplemental filings, she has received $805,000 from out-of-state sources in the second quarter of 2008. Washington D.C. based groups EMILY’S List and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have contributed $700,000 of that sum.”

So as a voter, you have to ask yourself, if ultra-liberal Washington, D.C. groups are backing JLT, as governor (excuse me, State Fire Baton Twirler), whose values and ideals would she be looking after? According to the numbers, it’s certainly not ours.  So far special interests have the upper hand.

And for good measure.

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Bellwether Research and Consulting, who released the poll that Jim mentions below show Governor Daniels with a commanding lead heading into the upcoming general election, crushing JLT by 14% points. Not only that, but more Hoosiers have confidence in our state economy that the national economy. In somewhat surprising though not startling numbers, JLT only has support from 60% of her party! Numbers like these make you wonder if Jill Long Thompson is the Democrats version of Linley Pearson.

Linley who?

Exactly.