No Democratic Opposition for Lugar This Year?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

I read in the Indianapolis Star the other day that Democrats are NOT going to run a candidate against Lugar. Now, while I understand the thinking behind this, I have NEVER heard anybody stoop to this level of "defeatism" about a political race. How can we even HOPE to win if we don't run anybody? We may not have a good chance of beating Lugar and winning his Senate seat as long as he keeps running but we have 0% chance of winning (or even scoring some points) if we don't run anybody at all. I admit that I have supported and even voted for Lugar a few times before, I have lost a lot of respect for him over the past few years as he, like so many other Republicans, seems to have started putting loyalty to his party, specifically GWB, over the people of this State. I used to believe that he was more of an "independent," a more conservative one to be sure, but he used to be a lot better than most ideologically driven Republicans. Anybody else upset about this?

[saltpoint]

1. There are pockets of competitive voting in Indiana, but Lugar enjoys

a shoe-in demographic in almost every district.

Indiana voters unseated Birch Bayh in favor of Dan Quayle. They supported Dan Coates over Joe Hogsett.

And this year no Democrat was felt to have a high enough profile to take on "sage" Lugar.

Lugar's always been kind of yucky, I think. Richard Nixon's "favorite mayor."

He looks a little worse for the wear on tv news programs these days. Since his seat is completely safe it seems to me that he could afford to be a lot more independent than he is, and privately even LUGAR must be appalled at Bush's incompetence.

Yet he stays silent. And that's the yuck factor I'm talking about.

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

2. Will a Indiana member of DU please

stand up and run against him, we need someone to be bold and I would seriously help any way I could. I would run but you have to be 28 to run for US Senate so I'm out of the question, if I was only 3 years older. I will run next election if this happens again, but by that time won't luger be in his middle 80's? It's safe to say this is his last term and the seat will be an open fight and the pukes have no one who could over come his shadow. Who would they run Mitch Daniels? :rofl:

[INdemo]

4. Now that you mentioned it..

That is very likely that Mitch could run however I don't expect Mitch to win a second term..This I-69 issue will be pretty hot and heavy by then and there is the majority that think the Toll road issue was very bad for IN and was railroaded through... I expect the Indy mayor to climb the ladder in politics so there are possibilities to fill Lugar's seat but golly thats 6 years away.....
Im excited about the likelyhood of the Democrats picking up congressional seats this yeaar.8th, 9th, 6th districts??? or more

[xthetylerx]

6. Hahaha... "Ditch The B*tch" I love that sig!

[INdemo]

3. This is standard procedure for our State Party organization..

The Democrats are not competing against Republican held state offices either..We have some very capable and qualified candidates challenging the Repub held congressional districts but I will give that credit to the individual candidates themselves. The Democratic state party org. has always conceded the elections even before it began since 1964,so is it any wonder Indiana just keeps on becoming a brighter red.... The hell of it is, the failure to challenge Republicans is pretty much the same in most of the 92 counties..Why? (I said most not all)
I have said for years our Democratic Pary needs to organize from the county level up and we had our chance to be a force several years ago..

[bluemanifesto]

12. Agreed

There is a lack of organization within the Democratic Party in Indiana, but I think there probably is also a lack of confidence. I could safely say that Indiana hasn't been a player in National politics since...well, I don't know. I know the last Democratic President to win Indiana was Lyndon Johnson. Sadly, the reality in Indiana is that the majority of our citizens follow the old saying: "damn your principles, vote your party."

[indypaul]

5. And unfortunately Evan Bayh

might just as well fold up his tent for 2008. Where in the world would he get support
outside the state of Indiana with a state party base that sits idly by and allows a U S
Senate seat go by default. There are ample issues with Senator Lugar that need addressing.
While this nations foreign policy has gone to hell in a hand basket, Lugar, as Chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has chosen the role of the "piano player in a whore-house.
The lack of Congressional oversight of this nations actions toward Iraq and answers to the many
lame excuses and "faulty intelligence" need attention and resolution. Lugar has failed in this
basic duty. Certainly reason enough that he should not only be opposed but replaced.

[xthetylerx]

7. I thought "they couldn't find ANYONE to run against Lugar?!"

[LostInAnomie]

8. I don't think there would be much point.

Lugar is Indiana's Strom Thurmond. We couldn't get him out of there if Reagan's re-animated corpse ran against him.

There is no need to waste the money.

[madhoosier]

9. Vote anomalies in 5th district race.

By having Lugar at the top of the republican ticket unopposed, hopefully a few republicans will see all of the races as shoe-ins and stay home on Election Day. While it’s good that at least three seats now held by republicans seem to be in play I’m disappointed that some of the other candidates can’t get more financial support; in the last election cycle Dan Burton spent more money at one golf course than Katharine Carr raised.

In one of those twists of irony that nobody would believe if you wrote it in a novel, the golf course is named Purgatory.

With the 5th district a four way race in the primary I’d hoped some of the buzz would carry over into the general election, but I do not see any evidence of that happening.

There were some vote anomalies that I could not find any explanation for in the 5th district primary, Mike Brown got the most votes in Shelby county, but he did not even make a campaign stop there and he isn’t aware of any connection to explain the turnout (he’s from North Manchester, a two and a half hour drive from Shelby county.) Anybody from Shelby county with an idea on this?

[IndyOp]

10. Do you have data for the Brown race?

You vote on Microvote 464s there, right?

:kick:

[madhoosier]

11. vote tally in 5th district primary

http://www.in.gov/serv/sos_primary06?page=district&countyID=85&partyID=-1&officeID=5&districtID=5&districtshortviewID=5&candidate=brown.

[IndianaGreen]

13. I am thinking of voting for the Libertarian candidate

The Libertarian Party is nominally opposed to the war in Iraq for their own ideological reasons, and they are on the ballot against Lugar. I don't think that voting for a party not on the ballot is worth the effort. To me, the important thing is to register my opposition to Lugar, who has been nothing more than a rubber stamp for Bush.

Now, who will challenge Bitch Daniels in 2008? I would vote for any Democrat that stands taller than Daniels, which won't be hard since Mitch is only 5'2 with elevated shoes.

[madhoosier]

14. No republican money for Chocola!!

The Republican National Congressional Committee is not going to make a major media buy to support Chocola, they are going to let him self finance his campaign!! The bad news is that the South Bend media is so right wing Chocola won't have to spend much.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/08/house_race_hotl_41.html