Loading ...
By DAVE KITCHELL
LOGANSPORT - There’s only so much attention span to go around for Indiana voters and with all the emphasis on the presidential race this year, some candidates are bound to be under the radar on Election Day.
Among those races are those for the Indiana General Assembly, where Democrats hold a narrow majority in the House and Republicans have what is perceived to be a comfortable if not impenetrable majority in the Senate.
Two races of interest could tell us much about the mood of voters in 2008. The first is House District 15 where incumbent State Rep. Don Lehe, a White County Republican, won by less than two dozen votes two years ago. That race came on the heels of a controversial vote to support Daylight Saving Time. A rematch with Democrat Myron Sutton could give Democrats a much-needed seat if the one being held by Dennie Oxley, the candidate for lieutenant governor, is lost. This district is not the Republican stronghold some people might think. Former State Rep.Claire Leuck, a Fowler Democrat, held it when it was the old 25th District. She represented the area for more than a decade.
But the race that may tell us the most about voter mood is the open race for the Indiana Senate District 18 seat. State Sen. Tom Weatherwax, a Logansport Republican, has held it for 20 years. He has been a solid candidate, and has not had a primary challenge since he first ran for the Indiana House in 1984.
Republicans have hitched their bandwagon to newcomer Randy Head, a deputy prosecutor from Cass County who brings experience as a county chairman. Head won a relatively quiet primary battle in a district that swirls in portions of Pulaski and Wabash counties around a hub of Cass, Fulton and Miami counties.
Head’s opponent is Linda Klinck, Logansport’s deputy mayor, who is a former city councilwoman and Indiana Main Street Program official with what was formerly known as the Indiana Department of Commerce.
This, too, is a district most observers would probably proclaim to be Republican. The danger for Republicans is confusing the popularity of Weatherwax, a former Indiana Chamber of Commerce Legislator of the Year and national Republican Legislator of the Year, with party resilience in a geographic area. Granted, the 18th is primarily a rural district with Republican mayors in Rochester and Peru and county governments that are largely Republican Party gatherings. But this also is an area former Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Bob Peterson carried repeatedly. Voters are known for splitting their tickets. Counties such as Pulaski, the fourth smallest in the state, can go either way when ballots are filled and open seats are up for grabs. Wabash County on the other hand leans so Republican it supported David McIntosh in 2000 after the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon completed the Hoosier Heartland highway through Wabash County, where the momentum for the highway connecting Fort Wayne and Lafayette started.
Voters don’t know much about either candidate, though Head has aggressively mobilized a yard sign army. Klinck’s supporters have written letters to newspapers in the district and her yard signs are popping up in various areas of the district.
Klinck has some advantages in certain areas. Family ties in rural Fulton County could help her in what have traditionally been Republican areas. Her experience in county government also should help her in Cass County, which she may have to win to carry the district. Carrying Miami County appears unlikely, but damage for her could be mitigated with a strong turnout in the growing Grissom Air Reserve Base area which has become a bedroom community for Kokomo and Peru.
The wild card in this election is the number of new registered voters and the number of registered Democrats who are often in the sidelines in elections but may be energized by the thought of a possible Barack Obama victory in Indiana. Klinck’s cause could be aided in part by the name of incumbent Rep. Joe Donnelly on the ballot in Cass, Pulaski and Fulton counties. Donnelly has been on the ballot three times in the past six years in those counties and his status as an incumbent in this race could help some Democrats below him on the ballot.
If Klinck does win, Democrats could pick up a rare Senate seat. As we’ve seen so many incumbent state senators bowing out in recent years, it is theoretically possible that the Democrats could claim the Indiana Senate this year. That could set up an interesting scenario if Gov. Mitch Daniels wins a second term but has no Republican majority in either house of the Indiana General Assembly.
On the other hand, Head could roll in District 18 if the Weatherwax tide turns out for his anointed successor. If that doesn’t happen, heads could roll in other places in the Republican Party.
In either case, as District 18 goes in the Indiana Senate, so too will go the mood of Indiana voters in 2008.
Dave Kitchell is a veteran Indiana columnist and a Ball State University journalism instructor.
Related posts
This entry was written by and posted on September 25, 2008 at 11:41 am and filed under David Kitchell Column. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.