Vop and the Populi
Although Indiana Democrats this past weekend formally nominated their candidates for statewide office under a theme of “A Generation of New Leadership” the new guys are facing the same problems as the previous guys, actually it looks like they have a bigger river in which to swim upstream against stronger currents.
Vop Osili, Pete Buttigieg and Sam Locke all easily won their party’s nomination. Osili with 78% of the delegate vote against Tom McKenna, and Buttigieg and Locke were unopposed. All three stressed familiar Democratic themes of accountability and the need to hold Governor Daniels accountable and they promised more openness and transparency in government.
The problem the Democratic statewides have is they are going to have to make up in energy, enthusiasm and organization for what they will be lacking in resources. Party leaders acknowledge Mitch Daniels is a “fundraising machine” while at the same time limited resources will have to spent on Brad Ellsworth trying to hold on to the Senate being vacated by Evan Bayh (who by the way only got one mention at to my count) and trying to keep control of the Indiana House of Representatives.
Osili and the Democrats touted the “50-state strategy”; the plan Howard Dean used in 2008 where Democrats ran candidates everywhere as a blueprint for their strategy, however Indiana Republicans are doing the virtually the same thing by running 41 candidates against Democrats in House seats. Also complicating matters is that as much as the party faithful may despise the Governor, he is extremely popular in this state with approval ratings in the high 60s and low 70s in some places.
Throw in the fact that the party out in power tends to lose seats in mid-term elections, when Democrats had a banner year nationally in 2006, they lost all three statewide races and word is their own internal polls show the Secretary of State’s race at 65-35 generic Republican, they’ve got a long road to hoe. And it also doesn’t help there is no single party leader.
Now as always, this doesn’t mean Democrats can’t buck the national trend and history. In fact after watching Brad Ellsworth and Joe Donnelly, I think those two may have the best fighting chance to win. And having an African-American on the statewide ticket doesn’t hurt either. However it won’t be easy and both time and political tides are working against them. The Democrats are kicking off a two-day, statewide unity tour Monday in Indianapolis. Might I suggest heading out this afternoon, because they definitely have their work cut out for them.
