sorry for the short and rushed diary but this is BREAKING and is actually a very important development.
many Dems were upset on here when we heard Bayh decided to resign just days before the filing deadline.. however there was a method to his madness.
here is why: the republicans have 4 candidates battling it out.. the frontrunners are former senator Coats and former congressman Hostettler who aren't strong candidates... .Coats is old and has been out of the loop for years and Hostettler is a weak candidate who lost re-election to Ellsworth back in 2006. a much stronger candidate would of been Pence who turned it down because he said he had work to do in the house but we all know that is BS and the real reason was he didn't want a tough race vs. Bayh. had Bayh announced his retirement 2 weeks ago then Pence would be in this race. so Bayh's late decision could of saved us from losing this seat for 6 years.
and now that Congressman Ellsworth has decided to run for the senate it appears democrats who get to pick our nominee will choose him so he gets a free ride while the republicans have to duke it out. http://www.courierpress.com/...
just a background.. he is a former sheriff.. won ALL 18 counties in his southwest rural Indiana district in 2008, even though Obama carried 3 of them... in 2006 whipped up on the incumbent Hostettler by 22 points! carrying 14 counties.
a rasmussen poll came out just this morning and said that both Coats and Hostettler would beat Ellsworth http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...
I call bullshit on that poll and it is once again a vehicle by that punk to discourage Ellsworth to run. how could Ellsworth be losing to the guy he clobbered just 3 years ago, who had years of incumbency no less? much less be losing by that huge a margin. IMPOSSIBLE.
i'm sure Kos will do a poll and we will get the truth out of this race. in any event Ellsworth is as strong a candidate we could of asked for and I hope the Bayh bashers of the past few days fess up that there WAS a method to his madness.. its turned out to be brilliant and I bet CQ and all those rags move the race back to tossup