Archive for the ‘Indiana Primary’ Category

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.

 

 Congressman Dan Burton [15:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.

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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.

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!

From WISH TV, and it includes rough crosstabs:

QUESTION: How would you rate the performance of George W. Bush as President; excellent, good, only fair, or poor?
Excellent 6%
Good 31%
Fair 35%
Poor 25%
Not Sure 3%

That’s actually a good deal higher than I would expect.

QUESTION: If the election for President were held today, who would you vote for if the choice were between Barack Obama, the Democrat, and John McCain, the Republican?
McCain 51%
Obama 43%
Undecided 6%

QUESTION: If the election for President were held today, who would you vote for if the choice were between Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, and John McCain, the Republican?
McCain 52%
Clinton 41%
Undecided 7%

Not a lick of difference in the general between Obama or Clinton when they face off against McCain; ten point leads and being above the magic 50% threshold pretty much dashes lefty hopes of a presidential campaign being able to devote resources to make Indiana into a genuine swing state.

QUESTION: If What is the single most important issue in determining your vote for President? (NOT READ):
Economy/job creation 25%
Lowering Taxes 23%
Troops out of Iraq 12%
War on Terror 11%
Health Care Costs 10%
Immigration Reform 6%
Gas/energy dependence 3%
Moral issues 3%
Social Security 2%
Balancing budget 2%
Global Warming/Environment 2%
Other/Not Sure 1%

Not surprising, but worth comparing to the similar question put to Democrat primary voters below.

QUESTION: If the Democratic Primary for President were held today, which of the following candidates would you vote for? (ROTATED):
Barack Obama: 48%
Hillary Clinton: 47%

This seems to be a shrinkage of the Obamassiah “lead” indicated in some recent polling.

QUESTION: What is the single most important issue in determining your vote for President? (NOT READ):
Economy/job creation: 41%
Troops out of Iraq 24%
Health care costs 21%
Global Warming/Environment 3%
War of Terror: 3%
Social Security: 3%
Immigration Reform: 2%
Balancing Budget: 2%
Other/Not Sure: 1%

Again, scroll up a bit and compare with the priorities of average Hoosiers.

QUESTION: Which candidate do you feel has run the most negative campaign, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?
Clinton 48%
Obama 23%
Both Equal 21%
Not Sure 8%

No surprise here either.

It will be interesting to see the rest of this poll (since they doubtless also polled on the gubernatorial primary and the gubernatorial race at large while polling for the presidential races).
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On Tuesday there were numerous reports of irregularities and odd happenings coming out of Philadelphia, perhaps the toughest political battleground in the state of Pennsylvania. With the Pennsylvania primary giving Hillary Clinton a reason to stay in the race, the eyes of pundits are now turning to Indiana and North Carolina where primaries will be held on May 6th.

Aside from national attention shifting to Indiana, another way to tell that the primary is looming is the start of election shenanigans in Lake County.

Apparently the good folks over in Gary felt that part of their civic duty involved helping some of the city’s high school students vote early by busing them the county seat of Crown Point for a vote-early field trip. Yes, you heard that correctly: a school district in a city where Obama will probably win a landslide victory bused 200 voting age students on 32 miles round trip just so they could vote early.

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*Originally posted late Friday night, but bumped up for our Monday readers - Josh*

Barack Obama has had many fine oratorical moments (not necessarily substantive moments) over the course of the campaign when he’s used the words “Hope” and “Change” to bring crowds to their feet. His wondrous voice has struck a cord with many reporters and members of the press and they in return have magnified him above every other presidential contender.

Apparently one reporter didn’t get the memo that says you should give Barack soft questions and then write a story praising his brilliant answers. That reporter was Mark Mellinger of WANE-TV in Ft. Wayne.

[See the interview and read the rest of the story below the fold] (more…)

It’s a presidential campaign ad and Evan Bayh does most of the talking. Alas, it is not a Bayh! for President ad. The honor of staring in a presidential campaign ad for his very own campaign has been denied him at this time. Nevertheless, doing what he does best-talking-Bayh hit the airwaves today for Hillary Clinton as Indiana’s primary looms closer and closer.

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Lt. Governor Becky Skillman was a special guest on Hoosier Access Radio this past week. I was able to spend some time with the Lt. Governor and we discussed, property taxes, the session that just ended, her trade mission to Mexico, the upcoming election and host of other issues. Many thanks go to Lt. Gov. Skillman’s Chief of Staff Chris Crabtree and Press Secretary Angela Coats for making this happen. Thanks guys!

The interview is also available on iTunes.

 

 Lt. Gov Becky Skillman [29:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On Monday, Chelsea Clinton declared to a South Bend crowd that it was her first time to visit Indiana and she was expecting to fall in love with the state.  After a question at Butler University on Tuesday I’m wondering how much she loves Indiana crowds.

It seems that a large part of Chelsea’s job in the Clinton campaign is to reach out to younger voters and carry her mom’s message to her generation.  This role necessarily involves going to college campuses across the country. 

On Tuesday Chelsea fielded questions from a Butler U. crowd and at the end of the session she got asked a question that she said she had never been asked.  The question was something like “Do you think the Monica Lewinsky scandal hurt your mom’s credibility?”  Chelsea was caught off-guard and she quickly responded that the issue was none of the questioner’s business.

More news and commentary after the leap…

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Today our little ole primary, that’s happening in about six weeks, kept up it’s steam in terms of political relevance when we made the front page of the Washington Post (you’ll have to take my word for it). Of course it was talking about Democrat’s primary, between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton rather than our state’s whole primary. Remember when we foolish thought the Republican primary might last till Indiana after Huckabee took Iowa and McCain took New Hampshire and there was talk of a brokered convention even on Red State? Those were the days.

Anyway, the article can be summed up in one sentence from the entire article:

“The state’s Democrats have reacted to their sudden relevance with enthusiasm.”

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