[As I compose this article I also watched Butler just demolish UTEP - Next up: Murray State]

With exception for some occasional mild jabs mainly from State Rep Mike Murphy, the multitude of candidates seeking the 5th CD GOP primary election have directed their combined attacks towards incumbent Congressman Dan Burton. Until now.

Today, former 7th CD candidate Brose McVey sent an email to his supporters bashing an opponent. However Congressman Burton was NOT mentioned. Instead, the email was directed at career lawyer, legislator and lobbyist and favorite son of the Downtown Indianapolis crowd, Luke Messer.

Luke Messer has made fundraising his core mission, priority and area of emphasis…

[M]ore money from big business executives and special interest groups in Indianapolis and use it to purchase television ads and junk mail … If this District was looking for a professional fundraiser, Messer would be our man!

OUCH!!! As the late Billy Mays would say, BUT WAIT!! THERE’S MORE!!

[O]ne of his most recent contributions was from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a special interest [and very Dem - Ed.] labor union, representing local and state government employees.

Interesting. AFSCME is deeply entrenched in the Dem party, along with SEIU. So why would a congressional candidate who claims to be “the conservative candidate” taking money from a Dem labor union?

Of course Brose doesn’t have clean hands in his vendetta against fundraising, as a large amount of the money raised in his 2002 bid to unseat the late Julia Carson came from outside the district and Indiana. Let’s look at Brose McVey’s out of state contributors for this election cycle, shall we?

• HANON, STEPHEN R BRENTWOOD TN 37027 03/31/2009
• ASHFORD, JOHN ALEXANDRIA VA 22314 06/12/2009
• QUAYLE, DAN PARADISE VALLEY AZ 85253 09/17/2009
• FISHER, STEVEN WASHINGTON DC 20015 05/07/2009
• LOUDY, ELIZABETH MS ALEXANDRIA VA 22312 06/30/2009
• SIDMAN, LAWRENCE BETHESDA MD 20817 06/29/2009
• OSBORN, JOHN MR. DARIEN CT 06820 03/14/2009
• KOCH, ROBIN CHICAGO IL 60610 09/29/2009
• VROOM, JAY WASHINGTON DC 20005 09/23/2009
• CARLSON, MARC SAN CLEMENTE CA 92673 12/15/2009
• MCGOVERN, JOSEPH & SUSAN NORTH ARLINGTON NJ 07031 12/07/2009
• SMITH, MARGARET LEXINGTON KY 40508 03/21/2009

These coming weeks will be interesting to watch the challengers start a feeding frenzy against each other.

(…and to those who are curious, Messer’s campaign and his blogger/chauffeur are already on damage control – you can read it at their usual spot)

(Originally written in the community blogs by Porter)

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.

At a recent township GOP meeting, sources report Marion County GOP Chairman Tom John was the guest speaker for the evening giving a report on the “state of the county party”. At a previous township meeting, yours truly asked the Chairman about the status of the County GOP website which was down for a few weeks at the time. Chairman John reported there was a “vendor issue” and the County Central Committee was in the process of moving the county GOP website to the State GOP party web servers, a move to “pool resources”. In other words, host the County site on the State server. Just before the MCRCC website went down, rumors began to circulate among the GOP faithful of financial irregularities within MCRCC. Coincidentally, unrelated to these rumors of financial irregularities, some key staffers of MCRCC left to pursue other interests.

The Democrat blog Indianapolis Times Blog put out a hit piece accusing the MCRCC of financial impropriety. According to my sources, Chairman John finally addressed the rumors of financial irregularities. He explained there were two bank accounts, one for the Greater Indianapolis Republican Finance Committee, or GIRFCO, and another by MCRCC used to pay routine bills, payroll, etc held by the same bank. A routine transfer of funds between GIRFCO and MCRCC was to have taken place, but didn’t due to a banking technical error. As a result, one check drawn on the MCRCC account bounced. The clerk at the bank intended to call the person responsible for the account to let those involved know about the bounced check and the problem with the money transfer. However, instead of contacting Chairman Tom John, or treasurer Lesa Detrick, as per the organization papers on file with said bank, the clerk allegedly contacted former Marion County GOP Chairman and current State Representative and candidate for 5th Congressional District Mike Murphy.

Chairman Tom John, a supporter of former legislator turned lobbyist, lawyer formerly with Ice Miller (coincidentally the same law firm Tom John is currently employed), and current 5th district congressional candidate Luke Messer, publicly claimed Mike Murphy contacted Democrat communications director and Indianapolis Times Blog editor Terry Burns along with political columnist Brian Howey and leaked it to them the MCRCC is broke and bouncing checks. The Chairman then said to the assembled crowd “Go ahead and post this to the blogs”. Tom John has typically not been friendly to blogs, so this statement is interesting and I wondered if something was afoot. When Mike Murphy was asked about his side of the story, he denied receiving any calls from the bank, or tipping off anyone, blogger or otherwise. He stated he received an inquiry from a reporter, but only knew what was being circulated through the rumor mill. Murphy contacted the bank where the MCRCC account is held to find out what was going on after being contacted by the reporter. A bank employee said someone would get back to him, and to date nobody returned that call.

Also, we were informed by reliable sources the Luke Messer campaign set up camp in MCRCC headquarters. So does any of this come as a surprise to anyone? It doesn’t to us.

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.

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.