Only Trump Could Win The Indiana Senate Race For Reactionary Blue Dog Baron Hill

Another garbage candidate Chuck Schumer likes

The DSCC is hoping against hope to slip another truly horrible right-wing Democrat into the Senate from Indiana this year. It was an unexpected miracle when reactionary Blue Dog, Joe Donnelly, knowing he had zero chance of being reelected to his House seat, threw a Hail Mary pass and ran for Richard Lugar's Senate seat. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory, right? But then something incredible happened. A deranged teabagger, Richard Mourdock defeated the popular Lugar in the GOP primary and immediately made it clear during a debate that he would be a fierce warrior in the Republican War Against Women, providing the Democrats with all the campaign fodder they'd need by declaring that pregnancy from rape is "something that God intended." There was a lot of ticket-splitting in Indiana in November. Romney beat Obama 1,412,620 (54%) to 1,140,425 (44%) while Donnelly beat Mourdock 1,268,407 (50%) to 1,126,832 (44%). In other words, almost 286,000 Romney voters decided they just could not vote for Mourdock. No one expected it, but the DSCC was jumping for joy.

What could go wrong for the Republicans this year? Yes, Trump. After a bruising primary against teabagger Marlin Stutzman, the Wall Street/Chamber of Commerce conservative, Todd Young, won the primary. And in November, in a replay of 2010 when Young defeated then incumbent congressman Hill, the two will face off again. Without Trump in the race, it wouldn't even be worth mentioning. But... Baron Hill's congressional record is about as far to the right as someone's can be without officially joining the GOP. I remember in 2009, for example, when Hill, then chairman of the Blue Dogs, was one of only 3 far right Democrats to work with the Republicans to sabotage health insurance for needy children. Blue America ran 40,000 robo-calls on Hill's vote and the ad up top as a full page in the Bloomington Herald Times, causing Hill to immediately switch positions and vote for the final version of the bill, avoiding a full page we had already scheduled in the Sunday paper. He lost his reelection bid to Young anyway.

Hill first ran for the Senate-- to fill the 2 years left on Dan Quayle's term when he was elected Vice President in 1990-- and lost to Dan Coats, whose retirement this year has left the seat open. He then served 5 non-consecutive terms in Congress, winning and losing regularly. He supported much of Bush's unpopular agenda, including No Child Left Behind and for the Iraq War and worked hard to sabotage efforts to deal with the early stages of Global Warming and climate change. Since his 2010 defeat he's been working as a slimy lobbyist.

As of the April 13 FEC reporting deadline, Hill had raised $978,761 compared to Young's $3,716,924. Even though Young spent over $3,000,000 in the primary-- boosting his statewide name recognition gigantically-- he still has over a million dollars on hand to Hill's $387,419. A poll by WTHR-13 a couple of weeks, before Young won his primary, ago showed Young leading Hill 48-30%. The DSCC website has nothing to say about Hill, other than a 2-sentence description: "A devoted public servant and a proud Hoosier, Baron Hill is a committed fighter for Indiana’s middle class families. We are proud to endorse him in Indiana’s Senate race." The DSCC doesn't expect to spend any money in the race unless it looks like Trump really can tank the whole GOP. The fake DSCC/DCCC front group, End Citizens United, did give Hill $9,500 though and his old pal John Mellancamp, who comes from the same small town he comes from, Seymour, maxed out to him. His old Blue Dog pal Kirsten Gillibrand gave him $5,000 through her shady Empire PAC and multimillionaire, right-wing Democrat Mark Warner-- on a mission to cut Social Security and recognizing anally when he sees one-- had his Forward Together PAC give Hill $5,000 too. Heidi Heitkamp, another very far right Democrat gave him $10,000 through her Dakota Prairie PAC as did the ModSquad, a lobbyist-funded operation that supports Senate candidates running as Democrats but expected to vote with Republicans. (They are, for example, also funding anti-working family conservatives Patrick Murphy of Florida and Eldridge Conner of Arkansas this cycle.)

Probably not Indiana, but how many Senate seats will Trump cost the Republicans?