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VAN BOKKELEN TO HEAR EARLY VOTE SITE CASE: Republicans and Democrats in Lake County are taking their battle over early voting satellite sites to court (Associated Press).
Democrats want to set up satellite voting centers in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago so that voters can go there to cast ballots before the election, but Republicans oppose the idea. U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen scheduled a hearing Thursday on a Republican request for a temporary restraining order to stop the satellite offices from opening. If the judge does not grant the restraining order, Democrats plan to open the voting sites Friday. The Democratic-controlled Lake County Election Board voted 3-2 on Sept. 23 to allow early voting at the Clerk’s Offices. Both Republicans voted against the move, and the party says such a motion would have required an unanimous vote. Republican attorney David Brooks of Indianapolis said it would be unfair to allow the county to open satellite offices. “The implication here is that citizens in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago - heavily Democratic areas - have some right citizens in Hamilton County, for instance - a heavily Republican area - do not,” Brooks said.
McCAIN CAMPAIGN CALLS OBAMA FRIEND OF TERRORIST: Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said…Before the bailout crisis, aides said, McCain was succeeding in focusing attention on Obama’s record and character. Now, they say, he must return to those subjects. “We are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days,” said Greg Strimple, one of McCain’s top advisers. “We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis…” Obama responded, “On a day after we learned that America lost three-quarters of a million jobs this year and a week after our financial system teetered on the brink of collapse, John McCain and his campaign have announced that they want to ‘turn the page’ on the economic crisis facing working families and spend the last month of this election launching dishonest, dishonorable character attacks against Barack Obama. We understand that it’s not easy for John McCain to defend the worst economic record of our lifetime, but he will have to explain to the people struggling to pay their bills and stay in their homes why he would rather spend his time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy,” said Obama-Biden Spokesman Bill Burton. (Howey Politics Indiana)
SELZER POLL HAD McCAIN LEADING LAKE COUNTY: In July, Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama made a surprising move by announcing he would open more than 30 campaign offices in historically Red State Indiana (Grimm, Post-Tribune). Three months later, Republican Sen. John McCain made an even more shocking move, announcing he, too, would open offices across the state. His Lake and Porter county offices opened Saturday, in Portage and Valparaiso. Both moves are largely unprecedented, as Republicans and Democrats alike typically ignore Indiana — a state that had gone to the Republican candidate in every presidential race since 1964. Most national polls show Obama in a near deadlock with McCain statewide, and a handful show him leading. And if Obama is the first Democrat to win Indiana in 44 years, Northwest Indiana — specifically Lake County — would help whisk him to victory. “No Democrat has ever won a statewide office in Indiana without winning Lake County with large pluralities,” said Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, who, in his role as county Democratic Party chairman, drew criticism for delays in tallying votes in the June primary between Obama and Hillary Clinton. “I’m glad it’s a battleground state, because we here in Indiana are not battle-fatigued,” Clay said. “We are going to work very hard to get people to the polls.” Lake County has been a reliable source of votes for statewide Democratic candidates, with a 50,000-vote plurality considered the range needed for a Democrat to overcome losses elsewhere in the state. John Kerry won Lake County by just under 40,000 votes in 2004. In 2000, Al Gore pulled 43,000 more votes than Bush. Neither won the state. Curiously, an Indianapolis Star/WTHR poll conducted in late September showed Obama beating McCain 47 percent to 43 in Indiana — with Northwest Indiana voters favoring McCain. Pollster Ann Selzer was one of a few to accurately pick the winners of the Iowa Caucuses this year and predict a loss for seemingly popular Indianapolis mayor Bart Peterson. Her methodology factors more heavily the voting proclivities of minority and young voters, who she feels will be out in force in this election and who tend to be undercounted by more traditional polling. “This is not an election where I think you can easily look to the past and say, ‘This is what we think is the future,’ ” Selzer said. “When the presidential baton is passed to Lake County, I do believe we will be behind,” Clay said. “But if we do our job like we’re supposed to, I believe we’ll be able to pile on enough votes to win the race.”
DOMINGUEZ SAYS IT WON’T BE CLOSE: Selzer stood by her numbers for Northwest Indiana, where the Star/WTHR poll had likely voters favoring McCain 45.6 percent to Obama’s 41.4 (Post-Tribune). Sheriff Roy Dominguez, an Obama supporter, said the counties to the east would have to produce a sizeable vote for McCain to overcome the Democratic turnout in Lake County. “No one I talk to in the county is talking about it even being close,” Dominguez said. “What we’re wondering is if there could be a 70,000- to 90,000-vote plurality for Obama.”
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