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.

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.

While the Credit Card Reform bill that John McGoff lauded in a press release from earlier today is initially getting good reviews, some people, most notably the Associated Press, are beginning to see the forest for the trees and realizing that this bill really didn’t do enough to help consumers.  And in the long run, this legislation could put them in a more difficult position.

Via MSNBC.com

Still, there are pitfalls to the legislation passed by both houses of Congress and being signed into law by President Obama on Friday, and some are likely to hurt consumers.

“People can start to feel a lot more comfortable about the rules of the game,” said Adam Levin, chairman and founder of Credit.com, a San Francisco-based company that provides education and information about credit products. “But there will be some fallout, and it might be a short-term negative.”

Here is a closer look at some unintended consequences of the new law that are likely to occur:

(Read more after the leap)

Last night, Indy Star Columnist Matt Tully addressed the Hancock  County Young Republicans group.  He received (in my humble opinion) an unfortunate chilly reception, but he did throw out one line I thought was pretty funny.  In a room that included two 5th CD primary challengers in Luke Messer and Brose McVey to incumbent (and regular Tully punching bag) Dan Burton, Tully jokingly asked the group, “Is there anyone here not running for the 5th District?”  He followed up those comments by mentioning that the man who lost to Burton last year, John McGoff, would be formally announcing this morning he was running again.

And so it was…(Via the Indy Star)

Dr. John McGoff, who came close to beating U.S. Rep. Dan Burton in the 2008 primary election, will make a second try at unseating the long-time Republican incumbent.

McGoff, an Indianapolis physician and former Marion County coroner, announced his candidacy this morning. Unlike two years, ago, though, he’s got plenty of competition.

At least two other Republicans also are challenging Burton — Brose McVey of Carmel, who ran against Democrat Julia Carson for Congress in 2002, and Luke Messer of Shelbyville, a former state representative and former executive director of the Indiana Republican Party. In addition, State Rep. Mike Murphy of Indianapolis has said he will enter the race.

That is a pretty deep and well qualified field, but let’s be honest. The more people jump into the race, the better the chances are that Burton wins another term. Especially if the contenders come from the areas where Burton in not exactly well liked.  And right now, that’s where all the contenders are coming from.  That’s not to say this race won’t be interesting.  It will be. It will also be very very brutal.  Make no mistake, the 5th CD race will show just how deep the divide in the party really is as state establishment Republicans take on a Congressman not well like by the State Party.  Think I’m joking, just read Frugal Hoosiers.  The guys at FH and us get along on most issues, but with the 5th CD race, they practically fall over themselves at the prospect of anyone with a pulse running against the Dean of the Indiana Congressional Delegation.  So it should be no surprise they were quick to support John McGoff last year and no doubt will be trumpeting Luke Messer, with his direct ties to the State Party as the former Executive Director, as their candidate of choice should the field narrow.

But for political junkies with little to no ties to the 5th CD race, it will be one heck of a fight.  Let’s just hope there aren’t many political casualties of this congressional war.

So, the RNC is unexpectedly outpacing the DNC in fundraising so far.  Who else is outpacing his opponents?

Via the Indy Star:

Burton, who faced his first serious primary challenger last year, is preparing for another battle by stepping up his fundraising efforts, according to first-quarter campaign finance reports.

Burton took in $100,904, the most he has collected in a similar time period for the past three election cycles.

State Rep. Mike Murphy, Indianapolis, who has not officially announced a challenge to Burton, raised $41,000. Carmel resident Brose McVey, who announced his candidacy last month, raised $21,666.

Marion Country Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who has said he would run only if Burton decides not to, raised $24,698.

John McGoff wasn’t mentioned because the Star is saying he “hasn’t decided” whether he’s running again. This despite what he and a few other McGoff supporters told me and the Lincoln Day dinners he’s showed up to to actually campaign. It also doesn’t mention Luke Messer because he only announced a few weeks ago he was running.

A few things do jump out in those numbers.  First, that’s the best first quarter that the Congressman has had in a long time.  This despite having four other challengers rather than one and more than doubling the amount raised by the next closest challenger.  Second, how surprisingly well State Rep. Mike Murphy did in the first quarter outpacing by almost double the only “official” challenger, Brose McVey, at the time of the reporting.  That said, Murphy has always been known as a good fundraiser.  Third, how well Carl Brizzi did despite declaring he’s not going to challenge Dan Burton.  I’m sure that could be read a number of ways.  But he too outpaced McVey.

Yeah, I know it’s 2009 and nothing should really be going on election wise, but as we’re beginning to see more and more, there is no off season when it comes to elections, especially when the incumbant is Dan Burton.