Another day, another congressional district, another poll, another huge advantage for one candidate in a crowded field.  This time it’s the 9th congressional district and the advantage goes to Mike Sodrel.

According to a poll conducted by Wilson Research Strategies:

Mike Sodrel leads his primary GOP opponents by a wide margin. On a ballot test among 300 likely Republican primary voters in the Ninth District, Sodrel is ahead with 46% compared to Travis Hankins’ 19% and Todd Young’s 13%. Twenty-two percent of voters are still undecided. Among those 46% of voters for Sodrel, 52% identified themselves as “very conservative” voters.

Much like in the 5th congressional district poll, even if one of the challengers picked up the entire undecided percentages the incumbent (or in this case the former incumbent) still comes out on top.

Granted there are till 7+ weeks to go and ground can be gained or lost on all sides.  That said, it looks like the 9th is preparing for Rocky 5.

Voters were polled from February 28-March 3, 2010.

I’ve made no secret of my frustration with the big-government policies of the Republican Party under George W. Bush. Congressional candidate Todd Young has taken to pointing out this irresponsibility, telling the Herald-Times that the “Republican Congress was the most fiscally irresponsible Congress in American history – until this present Congress.” While it’s good to see a Republican not be shackled by partisanship and willing to criticize his own party for bad policy, it is important to add the perspective that was missing in Young’s remarks about the Republican Congress.

(Read more after the leap)

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.

A message in the email bag from the Sodrel campaign:

A message from our good friend Mike Pence

I am pleased and honored to be in the Ninth Congressional District this Saturday with my good friend Mike Sodrel. I would be honored if you join us for a very important announcement at 10:45am at the Clark County GOP Headquarters in Jeffersonville (2946 E. 10th Street B5 behind the Jeffersonville License Branch).

Please also join us at 12:00pm noon afterward at The Grand in New Albany (138 East Market Street) for a luncheon. Please see the link below to RSVP or you may call the Sodrel office to RSVP for the luncheon event, the office number is 812-282-2002.

We are at a crucial time in our nation’s history. We need strong conservative leaders in Washington, D.C. House Republicans are fighting hard to keep our liberty intact and we need Mike Sodrel’s help.

Mike shares our conservative values and understands that we are engaged in the biggest fight for freedom and liberty that our country has seen in a long time. We need someone who can hit the ground running in the battle to preserve our Constitutional rights and conservative principles. Mike Sodrel has proven his ability to win the 9th District Congressional seat.

This year when Republicans will do well nationally, Sodrel will win again!

I need your help to stop the Obama-Pelosi-Reid one-party rule of our federal government. I need your help to elect Mike Sodrel back to Congress. Will you please join us on Saturday so I can talk to you about electing my good friend and patriot, Mike Sodrel?

The future of our country is at stake in this election.

Sincerely,
Congressman Mike Pence

Brought to you by Mike Sodrel. He is referring to Baron Hill’s sudden concern over the federal budget deficit even after voting for budget busting programs like ARRA and health care “reform”.

“If the economy is “stimulated” by another $150 billion in spending, and taxes are increased by $150 billion under PAYGO, how will that help the economy? If you write a check for $150, and put $150 in the bank to cover the check, have you “stimulated” your finances?”

BINGO!

You read that right. It’s not a typo.

In a new poll by SurveyUSA (which has polled the district before) has Mike Sodrel leading Baron Hill, 49% to 41%. That’s well outside the margin of error, and probably the first time that a Republican has ever led outside of the margin of error in a poll in the 9th Congressional District in perhaps half a century (assuming they even polled back when Republican Earl Wilson was winning the seat).

Sauce for the goose? The poll was commissioned by lefty blog Firedoglake.

read more

Throughout the tour, Mike Sodrel met with friends, volunteers and concerned citizens around the district; all were excited at the entrance of a proven candidate for the 2010 election. The enthusiasm was evident by rallies and events in all twenty counties in the 9th District, where voters voiced their concerns about the economy, jobs and the growing size of the U.S. government.

Residents in the 9th District are rejuvenated with Sodrel’s common sense approach, and reiterated the importance of shared views on smaller government, open debate, listening to all constituents, and the aggravation with continuing job losses, increasing taxes and government takeover of several sectors of the economy.

(Read More Below The Fold)

After weeks and practically months of speculation, Mike Sodrel finally makes his candidacy in the 9th District official in a press release just sent out.

Mike Sodrel announced today that he will seek the Republican nomination for Indiana’s 9th Congressional District.

“The Obama administration and Pelosi’s Congress are doing all the wrong things. They have spent the last year on health care legislation. We need to get the economy back on track. We need to create real jobs, not another huge government bureaucracy. And you don’t pull a country out of an economic slump by hurting the people who do the hiring. Additional taxes, government takeovers and programs like ‘cap and trade’ would do just that.”

“I’ve been in business for years and we’ve faced hard times before. The way out of those hard times never came from higher taxes or more regulations or a government takeover.”

“We cannot keep spending money in hopes of spending our way out of debt. We are writing checks that our grandchildren are going to have to pay. We are printing money and eroding the value of the savings of hardworking Americans. The debt we are creating with short-term spending today will be a long-term burden for generations yet unborn. For their future and for the future of our county, this cannot continue.”

“For many years,” Sodrel said, “I’ve worked hard to make my business a success; the same principle countless other small businessmen and women across America follow. These are the same principles that are needed now, more than ever, to return prosperity to America. This country needs less government, not more. It needs more liberty, not less. It needs less debt and lower taxes. It needs to return to the founding principles that made our country a great nation, and that will preserve that greatness for our children and our grandchildren. That’s why I am running for Congress.”

….

The Clark County Republican Party is hosting kickoff event for the Sodrel campaign at their headquarters, located at 2946 E 10th St, Unit 5 in Jeffersonville (behind the BMV License Branch). You are invited to come over and meet Mike Sodrel from 5pm to 7pm.

Sodrel, who will be making this his fifth run against Baron Hill, will be facing off against Todd Young and Travis Hankins in the primary.

From a reader comes this blurb from the Howey Report, concerning Saturday’s 9th District GOP Christmas Party:

HOSTETTLER, SODREL ATTEND 9TH CD RECEPTION: Former U.S. Reps. Mike Sodrel and John Hostettler attended the 9th CD Christmas party Saturday night in Scottsburg (Howey Politics Indiana). Hosettler announced last Thursday he would challenge U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh. Ninth CD sources continue to tell HPI that Sodrel is preparing to enter the Republican race. As one informed and reliable source told HPI, “Mike isn’t going to the Christmas party for the eggnog. It was obvious that he is running.”

In the past couple of days, I’ve started to hear a new rumor among the Indy insiders and among a few in the 9th District.

The rumor goes like this: Mike Sodrel isn’t going to run for Congress. People wanting him to run for Congress just got him to do an event at someone’s house before he spoke at a Tea Party in Corydon. Since no announcement happened at either event, he’s obviously not running.

Let’s consider those things for a moment.

First of all, the organizers of the Corydon Tea Party made clear when they invited Mike Sodrel (and everyone else) that there would be no campaign speeches (and certainly no campaign announcements) at the Tea Party. They also strongly indicated (both to me and to Congressman Sodrel) that they did not want a partisan event and they preferred that the event itself not get overshadowed by any sort of campaign announcement that day.

Mike Sodrel honored their request. In fact, at the end of the Tea Party, the organizer allowed candidates for elected office to come up in front of the crowd (but not speak). A lot of people pushed Mike to go up and join them. I was standing nearby, and Sodrel told them, “No, I promised them that I wouldn’t do anything like that today.” He didn’t say, “I’m not running.”

He said that he wasn’t going to announce that day, probably out of respect to the Tea Party organizers and to honor of the promise he made to them. It would have been very easy for Mike Sodrel to have walked up and joined the candidates at that moment. Certainly, many in the crowd (by their earlier reaction to his speech there) would have cheered him doing so.

But Mike Sodrel also would have gone back on his word to those that organized the event, and his sudden announcement would have potentially overshadowed the event itself. The stories would have been “Sodrel announces Congressional campaign at Tea Party” not “500+ gather at Tea Party to protest Obama agenda.”

Read more after the leap.

I blogged late last week about an email that was sent out by Dee Dee Benkie, Indiana’s national committeewoman on the Republican National Committee, and Larry Shickles, the former 9th District chairman, for a lunch for Congressman Mike Sodrel.

First of all, to put an end to the many inquiring emails I have received since I made that post, Mike Sodrel made no announcements this weekend at any of the three events he attended.

And, yes, Sodrel attended three events this weekend. At least, he attended three events where I personally saw him. He may have been at others, too. He attended a social event on Friday put on by the Floyd County GOP. He attended the aforementioned lunch on Saturday in Harrison County. And he attended, and spoke, at the Tea Party in Corydon later Saturday afternoon.

Read all about those events after the leap.