EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE REPUBLICAN NAZI LOSES HIS PRIMARY-- THE INDIANA CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARIES

A couple weeks ago we were all aghast watching Tony Zirkle, an Indiana Republican candidate for Congress celebrating Hitler's birthday at a Nazi Party meeting. He lost his primary today, coming in third-- but still earning 3,566 Republican votes in the second CD. The 3 Republicans together wound up with less than 20,000 votes and Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly, who had no challenger, had almost 85,000 votes.



In the third CD Republican rubber stamp incumbent Mark Souder garnered 26,689, winning his primary, while the Democrat challenging him, Mike Montagano, who was unopposed, had 57,489 votes. It was a similar story in the 4th CD, where GOP incumbent Steve Buyer won his primary-- all 3 Republicans getting around 43,000 votes while Nels Ackerson, the Democratic challenger (unopposed) got over 55,000.

Republican loon Dan Burton had a tough primary but he beat his opponent 25,678  to 18,730. Mary Etta Ruley, the winning Democrat in the district, did better than either of them with 26,662 votes. In the 5th CD there were around 44,000 Republican voters and 46,000 Democratic voters.

The big shocker though was in the 6th District where Blue America-endorsed progressive Barry Welsh took 82,179  votes, as opposed to rubber stamp extremist Mike Pence who only had 38,031 votes.

In the 7th CD Andre Carson, with 7 Democratic primary challengers, won convincingly. He will face Jon Elrod (who had 17,000 votes compared to Carson's 58,000). In the 8th CD reactionary Democrat Brad Ellsworth had no primary. And in the 9th another reactionary Dem, Baron Hill, fended off his primary challengers, including Blue America-endorsed Gretchen Clearwater.

Right now 95% of the votes are counted in Indiana. Clinton has 606,497 votes (50.7%) and Obama has 589,888 votes (49.3%). Gary, Indiana hasn't reported most of its votes and that is Obama territory. They are still counting absentee ballots.

GRETCHEN CLEARWATER TAKES ON REACTIONARY BUSH DOG BARON HILL IN INDIANA

Three days ago Gretchen Clearwater announced that she is running for Congress in Indiana's 9th CD for a seat currently held by Bush Dog Dem Baron Hill. Readers of this blog are aware of Hill's steadfast support for the Bush-Cheney agenda-- in Iraq and here at home. He was the first of the reactionary Dems to fold after being targeted by Blue America with robo-calls and the threat of a newspaper ad regarding his support for Bush's S-CHIP veto. But Gretchen is hardly new to this. She ran against Hill, a Rahm Emanuel fave, in 2006 as well. In 2006 I looked at both candidates and Gretchen was clearly the more suitable. But with huge Insider support, Hill won-- handily-- and Gretchen went back to work at the University of Indiana and, of course, at grassroots activism in the 9th CD. Hill, on the other hand, promptly joined the Blue Dog coalition and has been voting against progressive values and principles ever since. If Gretchen replaces him, that isn't a caucus she would consider joining. "I hope to work with people like John Conyers, Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee. The Progressive Caucus needs some more people on their side."

Grtechen Clearwater is the Blue America candidate today and she'll be answering questions over at FDL starting at 2pm (EST). The differences between Gretchen and Hill are crystal clear-- far more now than they were last year-- when Democrats couldn't see beyond just getting read of right wing fanatic Mike Sodrel. "Times have changed," Gretchen told me on the phone a few days ago. People who didn't support her last year have been urging her to take Hill on again.

People are frustrated with Congress and Baron Hill has voted the wrong way on a number of occasions. SCHIP is one example but labor folks are pretty angry about his votes on 'free' trade and see those votes as a threat to their jobs. And when you're talking about people losing their jobs, you're talking about people losing their homes. Indiana has one of the highest rates of home foreclosures. And Baron voted for the bankruptcy bill that has exacerbated the problem... Last time all the districts Democratic chairs unanimously-- except for Monroe County, where I'm from-- endorsed Baron Hill during the primary. Now the chairman from Monroe County is lobbying the rest of the county chairs to not endorse during the primary.

I think I have more courage than Baron Hill. I'm willing to look at a bill and vote against it if I think it's going to be bad for this district or for the country. And he tends to not lead; when you elect someone to Congress they ought to be leaders. He follows and does what people tell him to do. Someone in the Indiana legislature told me recently that they see me as a dangerous candidate because I'm not going to vote down-the-line the way a Rahm Emanuel might tell me to vote.

Rarely do Democratic candidates feel comfortable talking about the dark force behind the DCCC. I asked her how she felt about Emanuel's dire warnings to Democratic candidates to "move right" on immigration. "I think that's a crazy idea," she said. The issue is far too complicated for someone to be able to say 'move right' or 'move left' on it. There are several issues that need to be looked at and given serious consideration from labor laws to 'free' trade agreements. We're dealing with human beings. Here in the 9th district of Indiana many people have lost jobs because of industry moving to Mexico or China and they don't blame Mexican immigrants for this. The fault lies with industry moving out. They know who to blame. The immigration issue is a hyped up issue. Most Americans are decent people who can look at all sides of that issue. The xenophobia from the loud minority is something that scares me."

Thursday night Gretchen was at a fundraising dinner for Jill Long Thompson, a progressive
Democrat who is running for against extremist incumbent Mitch Daniels, a former Bush Regime operative. Gretchen got a very encouraging reception.

"At the fund raiser many people approached me indicating that they would be backing me this time. They gave me their names and volunteered to help with my campaign. I spoke to Indiana Progressives chair Eldon Robison at length. He talked about the outrageous capitulations that Hill has made in Congress and he indicated that I was the better candidate hands down and that he would be in touch with me often throughout the campaign. Last time they were reluctant to do so.  They barely spoke to me and in fact wound up supporting Hill."

Emanuel, of course, is still there for Hill, and if things get hairy I'm sure Hoyer and Pelosi will be shuttling down to IN-09 for fundraisers, just like they did for Al Wynn, but across the district Democrats are waking up and realizing Baron Hill isn't  one of them. And those who haven't woken up yet... well Gretchen has some plans for a grassroots campaign that will help to wake them too. Here are a few paragraphs from her announcement speech this week that address the nay-sayers who think its impossible to defeat an incumbent:

To those who say I am not viable, I believe my views are more in the mainstream of the Democratic Party than those of my opponent. Unlike my opponent, I would have voted for S-CHIP every time. I would have supported higher fuel efficiency standards for cars. I would not have given financial institutions any help in bankruptcy proceedings when those same institutions continue to gouge us with their outrageous fees and interest rates. I would not have voted to authorize the war in Iraq and you can count on me to oppose a war with Iran. I would not have voted to give the executive branch more power to violate your rights through warrant-less wire-tapping. Who is more viable?

To those who say I am inexperienced, I believe I have already shown far greater wisdom and more common sense than the experienced politicians, who foolishly trusted and continue to trust President Bush.

To those who fear that I will hurt the Democratic Party’s chances of winning in the November general election, I say-- the failure of the Democratic leadership in Congress to confront President Bush has done far more damage to the party’s reputation and chances of winning than anything my presence on the ballot could ever do.

And if that doesn't sound convincing to you, ask Gretchen how she feels about impeachment. She brought it up to me and then said Bush and Cheney both belong behind bars. Gretchen will be the last Blue America candidate added to our list until 2008. More than most candidates she needs some grassroots support and I won't be asking you to dig deep for a couple months, so... Blue America is open and I'm hoping you'll join me in giving Gretchen Clearwater a hand.

ALL CONGRESSIONAL INDIANA PRIMARY RESULTS-- PROGRESSIVE HERO IN THE MAKING: BARRY WELSH, THE VALUES CANDIDATE

There were no real surprises in the Indiana congressional primary races, but I thought I'd give an update to the pre-primary story from April 6th. My biggest disappointment, of course-- though not exactly unexpected-- is that instead of a clear choice between a proud progressive (Gretchen Clearwater) and an unabashed neo-fascist, 9th CD incumbent Mike Sodrel will have to face ex-Congressman Baron Hill, a moderate former congressman. Hill isn't my kind of Democrat but he'd definitely be a HUGE improvement over Sodrel. Interestingly, Hill seems to have drawn significantly more voters than Sodrel today, something that bodes well for November. Similarly in the 8th CD, Democrat Brad Ellsworth is drawing a similarly lopsided turnout compared to hysterical right-wing maniac John Hostettler.

Best news of the night is that progressive pastor Barry Welsh is winning his primary contest handily and will face corrupt rubber-stamp Republican Mike Pence in the 6th CD come November. Other Democratic primary winners include Katherine Carr in the 5th, Dave Sanders in the 4th, Thomas Hayhurst in the 3rd and Joe Donnelly in the 2nd. (Donnelly is also getting significantly more votes than his Republican November opponent, rightist clown Chris Chocola.)

There were no interesting primaries on the right-wing side.


MORNING AFTER UPDATE: 3 INDIANA DISTRICTS LOOK READY TO MOVE OUT OF DARKNESS

In the three Indiana congressional districts most likely to switch from red to blue in November, Democratic primary winners drew much greater numbers of voters than Republican winners. In the southern part of the state (IN-09) moderate former Congressman Baron Hill won his DCCC-backed primary against progressive grassroots Dem Gretchen Clearwater with 20,390. The far right rubber-stamp incumbent, Mike Sodrel drew less than 17,000 votes in his primary battle against Sam Schultz.

Meanwhile in the western part of Indiana (IN-08), neither Democrat nor Republican had a primary challenger and Sherrif Brad Ellsworth, the popular and admired Democrat, swamped hysterical rightist lunatic John Hostettler 43,213 vs 27,366 in what many see as just a taste of what's in store for the pathetically rubber-stamping, somewhat whacky Hostettler in November. And in the north central portion of the state that goes from South Bend down to Kokomo (IN-02), the DCCC-backed Joe Donnelly outpolled progressive Steve Francis with 29,541 votes while Tom DeLay-clone Chris Chocola barely managed to gather 22,000 votes against a Republican challenger.

Primary victor and progressive hero Barry Welsh faces a much tougher challenge against entrenched and extremist Bush-ally Mike Pence in IN-06, the east-central part of the state (around Muncie and Richmond).

CAN INDIANA HELP TURN CONGRESS BLUE? INDIANA???

The next primaries coming up that have caught my attention are on May 2nd in Indiana. Indiana has 9 congressional districts and 7 of them are held my right-wing extremist Republicans. The easiest race is in the 8th CD, western Indiana, where heroic and much admired Evansville Sheriff Brad Ellsworth is challenging the delusional lunatic who represents the district now, John Hostettler. Like all 7 Indiana Republicans, Hostettler is pure rubber-stamp. Brad has no primary challenger and Democrats, independents and even moderate Republicans are uniting behind him. Hostettler squeaked by with 53% of the vote in 2004. Brad, basically a conservative Democrat by national standards, seems to have a great chance to take the seat.

The most interesting race is for the seat currently held by freshman Republican Michael Sodrel. Sodrel is so far right that he's considered one of the looniest whackos on Capitol Hill. He gets a perfect zero on almost every important issue that came up in Congress since he was elected. Every single time it came up he supported corporate welfare against the interests of workers and consumers; he voted wrong on every single piece of tax legislation; wrong on issues involving health care, family planning, housing, justice, government checks on corporate power, labor rights, human rights, civil justice, and, of course, on all issues of war and peace. Sodrel has a perfect zero on all those categories of issues. He goes beyond rubber-stamp into the very definition of partisan hack and extremist fruitcake. His watertight connections to convicted Republican bribe-taker Randy "Duke" Cunningham as well as to GOP crime syndicate leaders like Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt and John Boehner make his ethics look very shady (although he hasn't been indicted for any crimes). Now what makes this race so interesting is that he is the only congressman who won with less than half the votes. A third party candidate threw him the election over the Democratic incumbent Baron Hill. And this year Hill is back in southern Indiana's 9th CD as a challenger.

But there's a twist. Hill is a MAJOR priority for the Inside-the-Beltway power establishment and for Rahm Emanuel's anti-grassroots DCCC. And Hill is pretty... moderate. His record on some of the key issues that separate the two parties is spotty. His campaign website, like most good little DCCC shills' websites, avoids discussing issues. Making this race really interesting is that Hill and the DCCC are fighting an intrepid grassroots idealist, a 100% progressive activist named Gretchen Clearwater. For people who complain that politicians from the two D.C. parties are too similar and just sort of morph into each other in too many ways, Gretchen is as good as it gets. If Hill's website avoids controversy entirely, Gretchen grabs it by the horns and wrestles it to the ground. She's ready to join Russ Feingold in censuring (or John Conyers in impeaching!) Most DCCC hacks don't even mention Iraq or if they do, they almost never take a stand that is different from what a Republican would say. If every Democrat took the kind of stand Gretchen takes on her website, the Democrats would sweep Congress:

I am committed to bringing about a resolution in Iraq and to bringing our soldiers home. Questioning this war is the responsible thing to do. It is the only way the war will end. My conscience will not let me stand idly by as thousands of people are wounded and killed.
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This administration has circumvented the Geneva Convention by redefining torture and evading responsibility for countless abuses. This is not the way to spread democracy. Our soldiers are sent to battle without the weapons and armor needed to protect them on the front lines. When they come home they are denied their hard-earned medical benefits.
Our National Guardsmen should be home for emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina. Their services are being misused. Our troops are fighting for an unknown time and for unknown goals. I will support legislation such as HR 55, the Homeward Bound bill - which sets a time line for return and mechanisms that would help fund Iraq's recovery.

And on issue after issue, that's what you get. If she wins the primary, next November IN-09 voters will have a clear choice between a right-wing rubber-stamp Republican and a proud progressive true blue Democrat. You want to get involved? It's not too late. Go here to volunteer for Gretchen's campaign.

The 6th CD in east-central Indiana (around Muncie and Richmond) is currently held by Mike Pence someone so extreme and so right-wing that he almost makes Tom DeLay look like a moderate! The only time Pence is not a rubber-stamp is on the rare occasion that the GOP position isn't whacko enough! As horrible as Pence is-- and, frankly, it just doesn't get any worse-- that's how good his Democratic opponent, Barry Welsh, is. Like Gretchen, he faces all the toughest issues head on-- and comes up on the correct side each time. Listen to what he has to say about a woman's right to choice and about same-sex marriage:

I am the pastor of a church, and when someone comes to me with an unwanted pregnancy situation, I do not council for abortion under any circumstances, and I do not judge people that make that choice.
Sometimes pregnancies are terminated due to medical necessity, sometimes pregnancies are terminated due to rape or incest or both, and sometimes pregnancies are terminated by choice. No matter the reason, I know that there are psychological implications when this choice is made, and I do not believe in compounding that mental burden with social torment.
Congressman Pence and I both agree that abortion is not the personal choice of either of us, we disagree on making criminals of those that are faced with this difficult decision. Until an individual is faced with that choice, it is easy to say what one would do, so I choose not to judge. Marriage is a sacrament of our faith and is Biblically between a man and a woman. But I also understand that just because I do not believe in same sex marriage, does not mean that people should be denied civil rights.

Like Gretchen, he's amazing on all the issues, from "We support our troops by bringing them home as quickly as possible" to "Congress had no trouble voting for their own cost of living wage, but then forget about those that are struggling just to survive. I propose a one-dollar increase in the minimum wage in the first year, and a fifty-cent raise in the second year." This is the kind of guy I want to see in Congress-- not the Rahm Emanuel empty suits who smell like Republicans but an honest to goodness commonsense progressive!

The other district that looks like fertile ground for a Democrat is the 2nd CD in north-central Indiana from Michigan City, South Bend and Elkhart down to Kokomo. It will probably be a re-match between moderate Democrat Joe Donnelly and ultra right-wing kook Chris Chicola. A lock-step Republican zombie, Chicola couldn't be more of a rubber-stamper if he tried. He's a symbol for everything that is wrong with Republican misgovernment in Washington and maybe that's why MoveOn.org decided to target him-- along with only 3 other equally abysmal Republicans-- with his very own TV spot, which you can watch by clicking here. There is also a progressive Democrat in the primary, Steve Francis, who sounds great on all the issues.

The races in the other districts would need a major Democratic tsunami for any changes from red to blue. CD 3 in the northeast of the state (from Goshen to Fort Wayne) is represented by Mark Souder, another entrenched rubber-stamper (though not as far off the cliff of insanity as Sodrel or Pence-- but almost). There appear to be 4 Democrats vying for the opportunity to challenge him: Kevin Boyd, a progressive pastor who looks GREAT on the issues, Tom Hayhurst, whose slick website smells DCCC all the way (no positions on issues), and 2 guys with no websites Thomas Schrader and Edward Smith.

The 4th CD is just west of Indianapolis and includes Lafayette, Greenwood and Bedford. Stephen Buyer-- another garden variety far right maniac and rubber-stamp corporate asskisser-- is the incumbent. The 3 Democrats fighting it out in the primary are Rick Cornstuble, a retired school teacher and a moderate, Dave Sanders, a biodefense researcher and national security policy expert, also a moderate, and Darin Kinser, who has no website.

The 5th CD is the home of one of the worst jackasses in Congress, Republican loon and wild extremist Dan Burton. This certifiably-insane person goes beyond rubber-stamp. If we are ever to see a real fascist/KKK take-over of this country this is one of the nuts to watch. The Democrats who want to take him on are Katherine Carr, a middle class retiree with a solid analysis of what Bush and the rubber-stamp Congress have done to screw things up in our country, Mike Clements, a handsome young fella with no issues on his DCCC-smelling website, and a couple of guys with no websites, Tom Williams and Mike Brown.

I asked the Art Deptartment to do a picture with Gretchen and Barry because they both seem so awesome but Sophie and Sadie go to sleep around 7 and Adam passed out drunk and only stuck Gretchen into the art. Anyone who's keeping score-- we like Barry Welsh too.