Tag Archives: bayh

The Roller Coaster Ride of Candidate Filing Comes to a Close

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Even though we have been heavily involved in candidate recruitment this election cycle, the candidate filing period was full of surprises and plenty of candidates wanting to serve Indiana at the Indiana Statehouse and the U.S. Capitol.

Here is the complete list of filings (PDF).

We will write more analysis next week, but here are some early highlights:

  • Eighty-three candidates filed for U.S. Senate or U.S. House of Representatives. Someone pull out the history book and tell me the last time the party holding an open U.S. Senate seat did not have a candidate on the primary ballot.
  • U.S. Senator Bayh, Congressman Steve Buyer and Congressman Brad Ellsworth will not be returning to Washington in their current seat. Ellsworth is vacating his congressional seat for a run at the open U.S. Senate seat.
  • The early scoreboard on the race for control of the Indiana House is 30-11 for the Republicans. There are 30 districts currently held by a Republican without a Democratic challenger and 11 uncontested for the Democrats. Each party has until June 30 to fill a ballot vacancy for the general election.
  • The Senate scoreboard is 23-10 for the Republicans. This includes seats not up until 2012 (Republicans control 18 of those 25 seats).
  • There are eight contested primaries in the Senate. Three are on the Democratic side and five on the Republican side.
  • There are 38 contested primaries in the House. Ten are on the Democratic side and 28 on the Republican side.
  • Sue Errington and John Waterman are the only two incumbent senators with a primary.
  • There are 19 House incumbents with a primary: Charlie Brown, Dan Stevenson, Chet Dobis, Don Lehe, Doug Gutwein, David Wolkins, Shelli VanDenburgh, Tom Dermody, Bill Ruppel, Bill Friend, Jack Lutz, Jacque Clements, Tim Brown, Dan Leonard, Dick Dodge, Tom Knollman, Woody Burton, Phyllis Pond and Mary Ann Sullivan.
  • There were a total of 263 candidates that filed for the Indiana General Assembly.
  • Only 17.1% of the candidates were women.

Look for more analysis over the next several days on candidate filings. Please feel free to add to the conversation and post your comments or questions.

Senate Votes to Open Health Care Debate

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On Saturday, a 60-39 vote opened the debate on the 2,074-page health care bill in the U.S. Senate. The debate on the amending proposal is slated to last for several (if not more) weeks. CNN reports:

"We do not believe completely restructuring one-sixth of our economy is a good idea at any time," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told CNN. "It is a particularly bad idea when we’re looking at double-digit unemployment."

McConnell and other Republicans call for an incremental approach that they say would reduce the costs of health care without creating new bureaucracy and taxes.

"We think we ought to go step-by-step to improve the system," McConnell said. "The American people are not complaining about the quality of health care. They’re complaining about the cost of health care."

Democrats respond that the Republicans are ignoring millions of Americans who can’t get health insurance.

Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Democrat who was a Republican for most of his long career until changing parties this year, told "Fox News Sunday": "The one option which is not present in my judgment is the option of doing nothing."

"We have the opposition refusing to admit that there’s any problem with health care, refusing to admit that there’s any problem with global warming, refusing to take a stand on the economic crisis," Specter complained about his former party.

The 60-39 Senate vote Saturday to open debate revealed the partisan divide on the issue, and the fragility of the Democratic support. Democrats needed their entire caucus, including two independents, to muster the 60 votes required in the 100-member chamber to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Now several conservative and moderate Democrats say they won’t support a final bill that includes a public insurance option. Republicans unanimously oppose the public option, which means it cannot survive in the chamber without unanimous Democratic support.

"I don’t think anybody feels this bill will pass" in its current form, Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut told NBC’s "Meet the Press." Lieberman voted to start debate on the bill, but reiterated Sunday he would join a Republican filibuster if the public option remains in the proposal when it comes time to end the debate.

See the Indiana Chamber’s view below:

Howey: Believe It or Not, Indiana Senate Races Were Once Competitive

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No matter which side of the aisle you’re aligned with, one thing all Hoosiers can agree on is that our U.S. Senate races haven’t exactly been competitive lately. Brian Howey examined the issue in a recent column, noting the Hoosier state’s senatorial seats were once hotly contested. He also posted these past election results to consider:

Modern Indiana U.S. Senate races

1958
Vance Hartke – 56.5 %
Harold Handley – 42.4 %

1962
Birch Bayh – 50.3
Homer Capehart (i) – 49.7

1964
Vance Hartke – 54.7
Russel Bontrager – 45.3

1968
Birch Bayh – 51.7
Bill Ruckleshaus – 48.2

1970
Vance Hartke – 50.1
Richard Roudebush – 49.9

1974
Birch Bayh – 50.7
Dick Lugar – 46.4

1976
Dick Lugar – 58.8
Vance Hartke (i) – 40.5

1980
Dan Quayle – 53.8
Birch Bayh (i) – 46.2

1982
Dick Lugar – 53.8
Floyd Fithian – 45.6

1986
Dan Quayle – 61.1
Jill Long – 38.9

1988
Dick Lugar – 67.7
Jack Wickes – 32.3

1990
Dan Coats – 53.7
Baron Hill – 46.3

1992
Dan Coats – 57.3
Joe Hogsett – 40.7
Steve Dillon – 1.6

1994
Dick Lugar – 67.4
Jim Jontz – 30.5

1998
Evan Bayh – 63.7
Paul Helmke – 34.8
Rebecca Sink-Burris – 1.5

2000
Dick Lugar – 66.5
David Johnson – 31.9
Paul Hager – 1.6

2004
Evan Bayh – 62.0
Marvin Scott – 37.0
Al Barger – 1.0

2006
Dick Lugar – 87.4
Steve Osborn – 12.6

Ledbetter Act a Lead Weight for Businesses

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The Indiana Chamber believes the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (S. 181) will do serious harm to America’s businesses in a time when they need anything but more burdens.

The bill recently passed the U.S. Senate, with Indiana’s Senators splitting their votes (Bayh in favor, Lugar against). Our position is that the bill effectively removes the statute of limitations for the vast majority of discrimination cases and would make it easier to sue employers — even decades after the fact.

This legislation responds to the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, 550 U.S. 618, 127 S. Ct. 2162 (2007). Lilly Ledbetter was a Goodyear employee from 1979 to 1998. Around her retirement, Ledbetter filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging pay discrimination because from time to time over the course of her career she received lower pay increases than male co-workers. The Supreme Court ruled that she was required to bring suit within 180 days of the act of discrimination (each decision by her employer to pay her less) and rejected her argument that each paycheck should restart the clock with respect to filing her discrimination lawsuit involving events that happened many years prior. Now, S. 181 would overturn the Ledbetter decision and specify that the statutes of limitations under four discrimination statutes — protecting classes such as age, disability, race, color, religion, sex and national origin — begin anew each time an individual is compensated (if the compensation was affected), essentially eliminating time limits for many claims.

If enacted, this legislation would virtually eliminate the statute of limitations for pay discrimination claims, increase potential damages for employees, limit employer defenses and expand class-action lawsuits. It would make it very difficult to resolve cases in a timely manner and make it more expensive to hire new workers (due to increased litigation costs).

The U.S. Chamber also opposes the measure. Check out their response here.

UPDATE: It’s official as President Obama signed the Ledbetter Act into law on January 29. If you visit its page on Whitehouse.gov, you can view the full text and let the administration know your opinion about this law.