Just this morning I sent a couple messages to urge the Senate Conservatives Fund to be active in this race.
First:
Maybe you have information otherwise, but from what I am able to see, it appears that Marlin Stutzman is the viable IN Senate candidate who has gone on record for repeal. See the Club for Growth’s http://www.repealit.org/ candidate listing – Coats and Hostettler are missing.
While I would like to see a full Stutzman endorsement, AT A MINIMUM, any difference in candidate positions on the repeal issue should be noted prominently by the SCF – if for no other reason than to nudge Coats and Hostettler to go on record for repeal.
Please act appropriately on the IN race asap. Thanks!
–
Then I thought about it some more and sent a follow-up:
If Stutzman really is the only viable IN Senate candidate to support repeal (vs Coats and Hostettler), then I think the pledge applies:
“I hereby pledge to support with my time, money and vote only those candidates who vow to repeal President Obama’s health care takeover.”
Please get Coats and Hostettler on the record one way or the other. Then endorse Stutzman if he alone supports repeal. Thanks again for considering.
–
I hope these things start to resonate – and soon!

Conservatives in Indiana are going to have a stellar year. 2008 was an aberration, and you can be sure that Barack Obama will lose the Hoosier State in 2012. People here are absolutely sick of this stuff. Under the leadership of Gov. Daniels, Indiana is the island of sanity in a bleeding Midwest. Because the Dems have screwed up so drastically, the 2010 election will see Republican comebacks all across the state ballot.

The 2010 goals for Indiana Republicans are threefold:

1. Win back Evan Bayh’s Senate seat.

2. Win back the Indiana State House of Representatives.

3. Win back the 3 US House seats lost in 2006.

I have no idea who will win the Republican Senate primary in May, but I can tell you that the winner will most likely be the next Senator from Indiana. So, if you want Marlin Stutzman to be that man, now is the time to donate to him. Brad Ellsworth kissed the Senate seat goodbye with his November and March votes for healthcare. He’ll get a good chunk of Evan Bayh’s campaign money, but it won’t matter. This seat is ready for the taking, and it will be taken.

The Indiana House of Representatives is also ready to flip red. Gov. Daniels got most of his reforms through in 2005 and 2006, when the General Assembly was briefly controlled by Republicans. In 2006, Dems won back the House and they have been thwarting him ever since. The Indiana State House of Representatives is one of the most competitive legislative chambers in the United States. Both parties control it off and on, and rarely ever with more than a 5 or 6 seat majority. It will tip to the GOP in the coming wave this November.

Finally, the three Blue Dogs that were elected in 2006 (Ellsworth, Hill, and Donnelly) all have enormous targets on their backs. They have played the moderate game well, but they all fell in line when Pelosi gave the order. Indiana is always the first state to report on election nights, and in 2006, the loss of 3 competitive districts foreshadowed the rest of the night. 2010, however, will be just the flip. 2010 will be for us what 2006 was for the Dems. These three districts will flip red.

In IN-2, the NRCC has recruited a very strong candidate in State Rep. Jackie Walorski. NRCC has been trying to get her to run for several cycles, and she finally decided now was the time to do it. If you don’t know much about Jackie, check out her webpage (www.standwithjackie.com). Mike Pence just endorsed her this week, and Mitch Daniels and Marlin Stutzman have already done so.

In IN-9, Mike Sodrel is running against Baron Hill for the billionth time (he beat Hill in 2004, and he’ll do it again this year).

IN-8 is known as the “Bloody Eighth” because of its vicious contests. This is Brad Ellsworth’s district, so it will be an open seat race. The Dem and GOP primaries in this district still need to play out, so we’ll have to see how they transpire. State Rep. Trent Van Haaften is the likely Dem nominee.

Hostettler is pretty much in all the same places as Coats and Stutzman. Also, there has been an interesting survey by Rasmussen in this race:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/indiana/election_2010_indiana_senate

The good news for Stutzman is that he leads Ellsworth 41-34 (18 undecided). The bad news is that both Coats and Hostettler fare MUCH better than Stutzman. Coats leads 49-34 (12 undecided); Hostettler leads 50-32 (15 undecided).

I suspect that Stutzman’s problem is that he has almost no name recognition in the state as compared with either Coats and Hostettler.

The other news is that Bayh just gave Ellsworth $1M of his war chest. This just shows that whoever the GOP puts up will still need to be able to raise some money. In reality, Stutzman will need to be able to raise more than his opponents to deal with the name recognition problem.

Somewhere, Dan Quayle just did a spit-take.

I think he meant corrupt.

Dan Coats is conservative enough. Coats is far better than Dick Lugar and we need to win 3 seats backs, especailly the Ellsworth and Hill seats. Coats will beat Ellsworth no doubt about it. I think you can say that with absolute confidence. Marlin is less no known than Ellsworth and the race might be too competitive to knock off Hill and get the Ellsworth seat back. Hostetler is not my favorite choice.Mike Pence would win by 25 points. Stutzman needs big money to beat Coats. Right now I support Coats as the nominee. Ellsworth will have big money thanks to being a tool of Obama and Pelosi. Marlin is an unknown. Pence could have won this without breaking a sweat. Coats wins by double digits. He has won statewide twice and the left fears him.

It’s Hostettler.

As it stands, the two of them are splitting the “anti-establishment” vote.

And that probably means that Coats will win the nomination — unless one of the other two gets out and endorses the other.

Knowing what I know about Hostettler, the chances of him doing that are about zero. Calling him “bull-headed” is to overstate a bull.

is that everyone needs to get behind the winner of the Senate primary. All the candidates are decent and the stakes are too high for disappointed folks to pout, take their toys and go home.