I know it has been a few weeks since I had a Candidate Monday post, but with a busy schedule on my end and the candidates end we do miss each other. So from here on out, we will try to have two candidates a week posted, Candidate Monday and Candidate Friday, that way I can get all of these properly covered before the primary.

This week we are focusing on Cheryl Musgrave (R) who is running in Indiana State House District 77 down in the Evansville, Indiana area against Democrat Gail Riecken. You can see the full map of the district here.

Read more after the leap

The Indianapolis Star’s Matt Tully titled his Sunday column “Making Sense of Political News Commentary.” In his column, he asks several questions.

Two of them are particularly interesting.

Q: Will Burton survive his primary challenges?

A: The crowded field no doubt helps him. And his once-energized opponents have been quiet of late, with the exception of state Rep. Mike Murphy, a one-man public relations machine. But Burton’s fear of debating his opponents makes clear he sees a serious threat ahead.

Nobody at the Indianapolis Star ever misses a chance to dump on Dan Burton, even at the expense of basic common sense.

A crowded field helps Burton, it’s true.

And the field is so crowded that he doesn’t need to bother to debate any of them.

Dan Burton isn’t avoiding debates with his opponents because he’s afraid of them. He’s avoiding debating them because the challenge to him is so fractured and divided that it can hardly be taken seriously and he doesn’t need to worry about debating them.

When you’re behind, as Burton’s opponents are, you want to debate. When you’re ahead, you don’t need to.

That’s just the way it is. It’s Basic Politics 101. Maybe Matt Tully could see that if he wasn’t trying to spin every mention of Burton to as bad an angle for Burton as possible.

Read more

Don Bates, Jr. has completed his signature drive and plans to file soon. Rumor has it the Marlin Stutzman and John Hostettler campaigns aren’t far behind. And the bad blood between, mostly, Stutzman supporters and those collecting signatures for former Senator Dan Coats continues to burn white hot.

In the 4th CD the list of Republicans interested in replacing Steve Buyer continues to grow. According to Indiana Legislative Insight some of those names include:

• Former Purdue president Martin Jischke
• Rep. Tim Brown of Crawfordsville
• Hendricks County Commissioner Eric Wathen
• (As Abdul noted) Sen. Mike Young of Indianapolis, who also sought the seat, though unsuccessfully, in the post-redistricting primary in 2002
• Sen. Ron Alting of Lafayette
• Dave Heath the former Lafayette mayor

Currently, Secretary of State Todd Rokita and State Senator Brandt Hershman are the leading contenders, though Rokita, as of this writing, is the only one of the two who has filed.

In the 5th CD, backroom deals have been attempted to “thin the field”. According to Howey:

“Dr. John McGoff told HPI on Friday (Feb. 5th) that he had been offered an Indianapolis City-County Council seat to get out of the race. McGoff said he is committed to staying in the 5th CD race.”

This was done after fellow 5th CD challenger Luke Messer was quoted as saying “”The other guys have to look in the mirror and reach their own decisions. But we have to reach out. There’s no backroom way to get this done.” (emphasis mine)

In the 9th CD, Congressman Mike Pence will be endorsing Mike Sodrel this coming Saturday morning at the Clark County GOP headquarters. This comes after fellow 9th CD challenger Todd Young has racked up plenty of endorsements of his own from most of the statewide elected officials. Travis Hankins is also still making a run of it in the 9th.

Contentious primaries, all! And apparently, there could be more news today! So feel free to discuss your particular race of choice. Just keep things civil.

McNamara files with state to make candidacy for State Representative

Educator Wendy McNamara made her candidacy for State Representative in District 76 official today when she filed paperwork with the Indiana Secretary of State’s office to place her name on the May primary ballot.

“I’m excited to move forward with this process and to continue listening to the voters in District 76,” said McNamara. “Everywhere I go I hear the same thing. People here are ready for new leadership who will focus on brightening the economic future of Southwest Indiana by working to attract new businesses, building new infrastructure and improving our educational system. By working with the residents of this district, I believe I can be that leader.”

McNamara, 40, lives in Mount Vernon with her husband, Marc.

District 76 contains all of Posey County and parts of Vanderburgh and Gibson Counties.

You can learn more about Wendy here, here and here.

This e-mail came to us this morning….

“Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita discussed and prayed with his wife Kathy at home over the weekend about how best to serve going forward.

“He is grateful for the strong encouragement from Hoosiers throughout the 4^th CD, and has decided to campaign for the opportunity to serve in Congress on their behalf.

“Todd will post a statement today to his Facebook page.  He wants to work at the federal level on the economic and security issues that directly affect the workers, families and small businesses of the 4^th District.”

We will update as news comes to us…

*UPDATE*

Here is Todd’s announcement from via his facebook page:

“Last week I said what most Hoosiers already know– that we need real leadership in Washington D.C.

“Every year as Secretary of State, and for two years before, I traveled to every one of Indiana’s 92 counties. It’s in the small towns and far reaches of our great state where I have learned how to best serve Hoosiers and where I get my marching orders. Because of this, I am deeply familiar with the people and issues of the beautiful counties that make up Indiana’s fourth congressional district. Even more, Kathy and I made the 4th District our home five years ago and are raising our growing family here.

“I continue to enjoy the challenge of helping to lead Indiana’s successful 21st Century comeback. Any objective observer would conclude that we have done a lot in and with the Office of Secretary of State, including reducing its size and cost while improving service to Hoosiers. But, as my time as your Secretary of State begins to wind down, Kathy and I have thought and prayed about how we can best serve others either in or out of elected office. Then, last week we had the opportunity and were asked to consider running for either the U.S. House or Senate, all within a day or so.

“For us, it became clear that the best way we can work on reducing the national debt and generating good jobs, strengthening our national and homeland security, and nurturing an environment based on conservative family values – is to ask the people of the 4th Congressional District for the opportunity to serve them in Congress. Over the next several months, my team and I will work morning, noon, and evening crisscrossing the district and detailing our plans and ideas.

“We are looking forward to continuing to help Indiana’s Comeback and I thank our many supporters for their encouragement and offers of assistance.”

Press Release

Feb. 1, 2010

Jim Banks Signs Taxpayer Protection Pledge

Columbia City – Candidate for State Senate District 17 Jim Banks signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge today to never support tax increases if he is elected to the Indiana General Assembly.  The Taxpayer Protection Pledge is sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform and can be found at www.ATR.org.

The pledge states “I, Jim Banks, pledge to the taxpayers of the 17^th District of the State of Indiana that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.” Banks joins seven current Indiana State Senators and over 1100 legislators nationally who have signed the taxpayer pledge.

“When I ran for Whitley County Council I committed to the voters I would work against raising taxes and would strive to cut spending,” said Banks, who currently serves as a Whitley County Councilman At-Large.  “I kept my word and am signing this pledge today to make the same commitment to fiscal responsibility if I am fortunate enough to serve my district in the Indiana State Senate.”

(Click Read More)

House Republicans have touted some impressive recruitment efforts of late, and the efforts of Senate Republicans have gotten a bit less attention (not least because there are a lot fewer Democrats in the Senate and a lot more Republicans, relatively speaking, and the majority in that chamber is not at stake in 2010).

But that’s not to say that there hasn’t been activity. At last Friday’s Floyd County GOP event, I was reminded by several people (not least the hard campaigning of the candidates and their supporters) that there is a spirited Republican primary underway in Senate District 46.

That seat is currently held by Connie Sipes, but it won’t be held by her after next November.

She’s retiring:

INDIANAPOLIS – State Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany, will not seek re-election next year, ending a 12-year tenure at the Statehouse that included a climb into the chamber’s Democratic leadership.

Sipes was to make the announcement Thursday night at a Democratic dinner in New Albany. Floyd County Commissioner Charles “Chuck” Freiberger was expected to use the event to say he was running for the District 46 seat.

Read more after the leap.

This past week 5^th Congressional District hopeful Luke Messer held a press conference with only (16) sixteen people and two children present and announced he had hundreds and hundreds of supporters. Now I looked down the list and it is full of insiders, former State Party employees, former Mitch for Governor Campaign staffers, a few state legislators and a number of others.

Let’s take a look at Luke Messer, he was once the Executive Director of the State of Indiana Republican Party, a former Legislator turned lobbyist and a former partner at the law firm Ice Miller. Most of his supporters are people who used to work for him and with him at Ice Miller and the Indiana State Republican Party. This is full of insiders and most of them don’t even live in the 5^th Congressional District and want a voice in this race?

After Luke’s press release this past week Brose McVey went on the attack for this “insider” and buddy buddy system” and he asked the voters if they have “Had enough”? He states this from his recent press release:

“Now, I don’t have any trouble on the personal level with these guys or their backers.  I know them, like them, respect their service. But, if you are like me, you’ve had enough of the insider baseball, the money politics and the buddy-buddy system!

I have to agree with him on this, I’m not saying that Luke Messer is a bad person, I believe in his family values and his willingness to serve his country, but when you leave office to become a lobbyist at a huge Indianapolis Law firm and want to come back into office and have your buddies back you….that concerns voters and I personally think they are tired of it.

(Read more after the leap)

Most of the action in terms of the 2010 Congressional elections in Indiana is happening in the safest seat of all, the hyper-Republican 5th District. Up in the 5th, Republicans have already raised almost half a million dollars to fight over whether Dan Burton will keep his Congressional seat (and, if he doesn’t, who will get it).

The initial reporting on the district has focused on Luke Messer’s haul of around two hundred thousand dollars. I would say that the bigger story is not how much money Messer raised, but how much money the other candidates raised. Namely, enough to keep themselves in the race. Virtually all of the candidates raised enough money to ensure that they will remain around; the field will not be narrowing any time soon.

In the sense that a divided field will never knock-off the incumbent (which is such conventional wisdom that Messer’s allies have been trying to devise a scheme to pick a lone challenger), this is good news for Dan Burton.

“Winners” are in italics, after the leap.

Recorded the night of May 6th from Congressman Dan Burton’s victory party. First Congressman Burton addresses the crowd then sits down with Josh and Adam for a short interview.

The remaining segments of Hoosier Access Radio, including the infamous Weird Pro Blogger Hour episodes are going onto iTunes. We apologize in advance for some of the audio quality – we thought we found a perfect place that was quieter for recording. That turned out not to be the case. On top of that we found cellular laptop cards don’t work there. “Internet – Lost!” to paraphrase an at&t wireless commercial.

UPDATE: A couple segments of the recent Saturday podcast recorded at the Ft. Harrison VFW are now posted to iTunes.

Podcast: Play in new window

It seems that Diamond Jim Schellinger doesn’t like Jill Long Thompson pointing out that he made his fortune on the backs of Indiana property tax payers.

So his company is threatening to sue her.

Why?

Because her campaign dared to use photos of buildings that he and his firm designed.

Photos.

As if you could be sued by dozens of architects for merely taking pictures of the skyline of New York City; don’t tell the folks that made the intro for Law & Order.

(Read more after the leap)

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.