‘Crats
It’s been a busy week for Indiana Democrats. They held their state convention on Saturday and earlier in the week Democratic candidate Melina Kennedy held a news conference calling for a restructuring of the prosecutor’s office to better deal with the city’s rising crime problem. I’ll focus on the convention today and revisit the prosecutor’s race later in the week as I have some interesting observations as of late.
First the convention, since I was celebrating a birthday weekend, I will freely admit to being a little “under the weather” while attending their convention, but since I have a rule that says the job comes first, I pulled myself out of bed and did my duty. I have to say, I was impressed, to some degree by the ‘Crats. They were energized and threw quite a bit of zingers at their Republican counterparts. Their strategy is a simple one, make the 2006 election about Governor Mitch Daniels.
The current polls don’t look good for Mitch right now, according to SurveyUSA, the Governor is sitting on a 38 percent approval rating. Democrats hope to capitalize on this. During a news conference where the Democrats unveiled their candidate for Secretary of State, Treasurer and Auditor the perpetual theme was one of “we’ll send people into office that will listen to the average Hoosier.” A not so subtle stab at the Governor. Democratic House Leader Pat Bauer also took some shots at Mitch, saying the election will be about time, tolls and privatization. He also made a reference about Mitch’s height, which I thought was a little uncalled for seeing what is known to be on the Leader’s head.
Despite that, Democrats do have a decent shot and reclaiming a lot of loss ground. If the national trends continue, the President remains unpopular, gas prices stay high, Iraq continues to be viewed as a stalemate at best and mix in all that Hoosiers in Northern and Southern Indiana (where the Governor’s polling is the worst) the ‘Crats could get the House back. On the flip side, the Governor is working to bring jobs to Indiana so expect them to roll out progress report after report this summer.
The ‘Crats have already adopted the campaign theme provided by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, “Had Enough.” That theme, coupled with serious alternatives to the Republican agenda might be enough for the ‘Crats to make some inroads into GOP territory. Next time, the race for County Prosecutor.
