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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Indiana, Here’s Your Choice

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  May 1st, 2010 at 03:36 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

A Senate Conservatives Fund poll shows 30% of Indiana voters are undecided as of Thursday night. Stutzman has the firmest support, but he and Hostettler are tied at 18% with Coats at 28%. There is still a lot of movement out there and Marlin having such firm support is a huge advantage for him.

It might be time for the Hostettler people to stand with Jim DeMint and rally to Stutzman.

Want to know more about Marlin, what he stands for, and what he’s done? Let Mike Huckabee tell you all about him.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    primary. After our fair-haired conservative, pure, boy savior Rubio pulls a senate vet-like PC-BS statement on AZ admitting its based only on news reports, I better appreciate that Coats id so well for so long…

  • red_baron

    Erick has gone off the deep end of late over certain candidates, with Stutzman being one of them. As if Coats is the Karl Marx incarnate or something. And where did we pull this “fact” from that stutzman has the firmest support? There was a time when links were expected when mentioning polls.

    I don’t have a preferred candidate, because like Erick, i’m not from Indiana, and I don’t like sticking my nose in their primary.

  • jimmyg

    I havent seen the poll that Erick is referring to. The Survey USA poll from earlier this week, is the only one I have seen.

  • Mayhem

    I support most everything that RedState does. And I am glad they have been pushing Stutzman. I have supported him this whole way (and donated to him). However, I had to vote for Hostettler this morning, since he seems like the only candidate with a real shot to stop Coats. My heart was with Marlin, but my head was with Hostettler. I just feel like Marlin is surging too late in the game. If the IN primary were in June, perhaps he’d have a shot.

    Conservatives really shot themselves in the foot here, by running for candidates against Coats. We’ll have to keep

  • perick

    When people use poor logic, my dad calls it stinking thinking … and we have seen a lot of it lately, such as the RNSC endorsing Charlie Crist … what a joke that was. We, the people do not take kindly to organizations dictating who our candidates should be.

    Marlin Stutzman will represent Hoosiers the way they should be represented. He has shown his character through his record in the Indiana legislature. He is one of the best and brightest of the new crop of American conservatives and deserves the opportunity to challenge whooever the Democrats decided to run.

    Every time we select candidates based on their supposed “electability”, we LOSE. Every time we pick candidates from the middle, we LOSE. Just look at the recent election results. Then make your choice for the future senator from the great Hoosier State and vote for Marlin!

  • e_rowe

    A poll commissioned by Demint’s SCF is, for all intents and purposes, the same as an internal poll by the Stutzman campaign. As with all internal polls, the assumption should always be a skew in favor of the candidate commissioning them.

    In this case, the results in comparison to the only other statewide poll taken over the same period suggests that that assumption holds here. Every candidate except Stutzman got worse results in this poll than that other one, which had Coats at 36 and Hostettler at 24. Meanwhile Stutzman, even in his own poll, can’t break 18, which is the highest he has ever polled in the entire campaign. Lastly, whereas the Survey USA poll had only 13% undecided, this one has 30%, which makes for a set of results that is rather convenient (a little too convenient to be believed) for the Stutzman campaign, in that it allows them to make the case that enough of a final push could get them ahead of Coats, and that Hostettler is no more likely to win than Stutzman is, which has been consistently contradicted by every poll not commissioned by the Stutzman campaign/SCF.

  • e_rowe

    America thanks you. You’re a true patriot!

    This is nothing to feel sorry about. Hostettler will be by far the most conservative Republican in the entire Senate (granted, that’s not saying much, but it’s still a great thing).

  • e_rowe

    Hostettler isn’t from the middle. He’s to the right of Stutzman. So it’s all good.

  • earlgrey

    Plus Histetter has already been beaten in earlier races against Ellsworth. I don’t think Hostetter is any more likely to win the primary than Stutzman. Erick was trying to unite the non-Coats supporters to pull off a victory.

  • SteveLA

    We held a primary, and McCain won.

    The reasons behind why no “real conservative” won the primaries are beyond this reply, but basically people weren’t buy what the Huck Hucka and others were selling and Fred for his own reasons and didn’t run very hard.

  • youthgrunt

    who has endorsed Coats.

    http://www.fredthompsonshow.com/blog?action=viewBlog&blogID=-831032581620568466

    I, personally, will be voting for Hostettler. I really wish he had been given a better shake here. But I will be happy to support whichever of the three wins the primary on Tuesday.

  • eburke
  • redtillimdead

    Hostettler voted against the war in Iraq. Something many Democrats even voted for. Stutzman and Coats will be far better than Hostettler. Someone who loses his re-election to the House by nearly 20% is NOT a strong candidate, especially when he is running against the same person who beat him. Hostettler is a joke.

  • mbecker908

    In addition to Steve’s point, the Republican Party has pretty much been the “we’re gonna nominate the next guy in line” party for as long as I can remember.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    well not really a complaint, but a pet peeve.

    Did they really have to dress both sons in matching outfits, with those dorky hats and all. It looks very “stepford” like. Maybe, if they were twins, but I think it looks kind of creepy.

  • earlgrey

    They are pushing a bland guy over a really bright, good looking, driven candidate who has had success in the private sector as an employee and small business owner. That attitude isn’t going to help attract the younger voters.

    If more people from tea parties get involved in the party maybe we can make some changes. I am not sure what else can be done to change it.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    I actually like the old war horses. Give me someone who is battled tested over someone wet behind the ears, at least sometimes.

    I didnt think it was good for POTUS though. There were too many dynamics going on with Obama in 2007, when he was “the one”.

    The irony is that Fred and Dan are kind of the same. Fred, who I know is loved here, was something of a good old boy retread, sorry, its true. It was a terrible dynamic to run against the first serious, cool, hip black POTUS.

    In the Senate, I have fewer problems with the old war horses. I wish Fred ran again. But running for POTUS, the atmosphere in 2008 was toxic for a candidate like Fred.

    But the old war horses got each other’s backs now.

  • pilgrim

    A retread is someone who has a seat in the House or the Senate, leaves for a while, and then runs again for the seat. Fred Thompson never ever did that. I am from Indiana, and they do choose retreads for office. The House seat in the 9th district is occupied right now by a retread, Baron Hill. Mark Sodrel is a retread trying to get the seat back.
    Another thing they have in Indiana is political families. Birch and Evan Bayh, and Julia and Andre Carson are examples of this. I wish it was different how people are elected in Indiana, but it isn’t.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    Just the truth. Sorry it hurts. From politics to Hollywood then back into politics in your seventies… yeah many people would consider that a retread.

    If you find a literal definition of your definition for the phrase, please let me know. I didnt see it in Merriam Webster.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • pilgrim

    your first sentence is not true. Fred Thompson was not in his seventies when he was a candidate for POTUS. He was in his sixties. A political retread is not even possible for the office of US President. You do not hurt me with your untrue talking points. I just thought you were smarter than this.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    to try and hurt you.

    Seriously, are you that immature that you can’t handle dissenting opinions. I wasn’t even talking to you, you jumped in. You sound like your nine.

    You really think I’m trying to hurt you. Get out of your conservative cave. I was never talking to you to begin with, you jumped in on me.

    By the way, do you support Fred’s endorsement or not and why? Lets get to the issue here. Dont hide behind phony senimental arguments. What do you think of Fred’s endoresement of Coats?

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • pilgrim

    I am not surprised by the endorsement. Not only were Fred and Dan senate colleagues in the nineties, but they also both served as shepherds for Pres. Bush’s nominees to the Supreme Court. That work helped rekindle a friendship.
    I wish Indiana would follow Massachusetts example of electing a fresh new face, Marlin, but Dan Coats will be ok with me. After the election no one will be thinking that the Fred Thompson endorsement is the main reason for the result.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    and then politics.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    “You do not hurt me with your untrue talking points”

    Who were you talking too? Who is trying to hurt you? Seriously, what’s you problem? You sound like someone with issues.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.lookoutkokomo.com lookoutkokomo

    In our area here in Howard County Indiana, we’re getting some teaparty types in the mix.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    But we can change that. We did it in Maricopa County Legislative District 17′s leadership elections in Nov., 2008. A couple of the failed Republican candidates for the AZ house and senate seats presented themselves at the meeting right after the 2008 election to run for the LD chairman and other positions. What they didn’t realize that so many new conservatives had come into the PC ranks that they didn’t, and wouldn’t, have the numbers. So we elected some “new guys” to the chairman and a couple of the other officer positions.

    Today in Tempe 11 precinct I conducted a targeted door–to-door campaign to find two conservatives to fill the two empty precinct committeeman slots (only two are allotted for this precinct and only THREE signatures are needed to get on the ballot –THREE!). I targeted houses with at least two Republicans. Hit pay dirt on about the 7th house — a husband and wife who are fed up and want to DO SOMETHING. Used J.D. Hayworth nominating papers as my vetting tool. We filled out their nominating papers together and they’ll show up at the LD 17 meeting on the 11th to turn them in (they need to get at least one more signature each and a few more as a “cushion”) and to listen to J.D. and Dean Martin, candidate for governor.

    I started at 6:08 pm. By 7 pm, I had the two candidates all ready to get fully qualified to become elected PCs.

    We CAN change the Republican Party if enough of us conservatives will just get INTO it.

    For Liberty,
    ColdWarrior, PC (that?s ?precinct committeeman, not ?political child!?)
    Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW!

  • Dr. Botkin

    to get him to support the out of state lobbyist Dan Coates and the semi-secretTennessee Plan for Puerto Rico? http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ShkpO9Rf1bo There really must be something to that line about there being something in the water in D.C. Another betrayal, How sad.

  • Dr. Botkin

    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=zvC2GDu1YdU&feature=player_embedded

  • RedBeard

    Having two small grandsons, I’ve come to understand that the matching costumes are a Mom and Grandma Thing. And it gets coos of “Oh, how cuuuuute!” from other moms, grandmas, and assorted females, wherever they go. The men, on the other hand, quietly go along with the plan, not quite understanding the whole deal.

    It’s like choosing a paint color for the living room; we guys just don’t get it, never will, and shouldn’t try. ;-)

  • earlgrey

    One of those pushing an old republican holder of a lesser office over a young, dynamic candidate with great ideas for decreasing costs of local govt. This good ol boy network is toxic for the health of the party.

    I am still going to get involved in GOTV efforts. My eyes were opened in just one meeting . I am not going away from these efforts and enjoy hearing other stories of success.

  • Mayhem
  • earlgrey

    We need To hear those success stories to keep us motivated. I have family in Howard county.

  • raider

    Pilgrim, just wanted to point out that President George H.W. Bush made what Fred Barnes called “a mistake for the ages” when he nominated David Souter.

    One of the finalists for that position was Edith Jones. She was only 41 years old in 1990. She is now the chief judge of the fifth circuit. She turned 61 years old on April 7th of this year. If George H.W. Bush had picked her, she might have another 20 to 25 years of service to the Court remaining. She has been an outstanding conservative judge.

    I respect your post, but helping to sherperd David Souter through the nomination process is not something I would talk about if I was Dan Coats.

    George H.W. Bush, C. Boyden Gray and John Sununu rejected a wonderful, young convervative for a man, David Souter, who spent his career in the Supreme Court generally siding with the liberal wing of the Court.

  • raider

    Pilgrim, just wanted to point out that President George H.W. Bush made what Fred Barnes called “a mistake for the ages” when he nominated David Souter.

    One of the finalists for that position was Edith Jones. She was only 41 years old in 1990. She is now the chief judge of the fifth circuit. She turned 61 years old on April 7th of this year. If George H.W. Bush had picked her, she might have another 20 to 25 years of service to the Court remaining. She has been an outstanding conservative judge.

    I respect your post, but helping to sherperd David Souter through the nomination process is not something I would talk about if I was Dan Coats.

    George H.W. Bush, C. Boyden Gray and John Sununu rejected a wonderful, young convervative for a man, David Souter, who spent his career in the Supreme Court generally siding with the liberal wing of the Court.

  • pilgrim
  • raider

    Pilgrim, thanks for the clarification.

    Samuel Alito was a wonderful nomination. Unfortunately, Dan Coats also led the effort to achieve confirmation for Harriet Miers. She could very well have been a disaster in the Souter mold. Harriet Miers certainly wasn’t Supreme Court material. Fortunately, her nomination was withdrawn. I realize, of course, that it is only speculation with regard to how she would have voted on the Supreme Court. I simply saw no reason to support her confirmation when there solid conservatives such as Alito and J. Michael Luttig available.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • hoosierstate

    Your comments about the SCF poll intrigued me to the point I needed to reply. As of right now there have only been two official polls released on the IN-Sen primary. (So to use such language as “every poll not commissioned by” is misleading at best. One poll was by Mike Downs Center and one by Senate Conservatives Fund. I’ve spoken with the Stutz team and they were not aware that SCF would be doing a poll so your criticism of it being an internal poll is off base. More importantly, if you research the Mike Downs Center you will find that it is extremely liberal and has been known to use polls to make a point. In fact in the summer of 2008 they had a “poll” that showed Mitch Daniels and Jill Long Thompson tied at 49% for the governor’s race in Indiana. Very few believed it at the time. That fall Daniels beat JLT by 20 points. I’ve made over a hundred phone calls to friends and family around the state and I can tell you that many of my contacts are still undecided. If this poll was designed to be an internal poll as you claim and you think it doesn’t help Marlin why would they release it. Or are you suggesting that SCF did not conduct an accurate, honest poll?

  • ffc99

    Check out the Senate Conservatives Fund website for more information on the poll.

    http://senateconservatives.com/v1/index.php?p=post&id=90

    If you take a look at this link, you’ll notice that it’s a bit of a stretch, to put it mildly (I’d probably characterize it as laughable spin), for the SCF to claim that Stutzman has the “firmest” support in the Indiana race. 59% of Stutzman supporters stated that they “firmly” support him while 56% of Coats supporters stated that they “firmly” support him. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.43 percentage points. I don’t remember much from my college stats/polling class, but I do know that my professor wouldn’t have been terribly impressed if I’d have told her after looking at this data that it proved Stutzman had the “firmest” support in the race.

    My favorite statement in the SCF release is where they say that support for Coats appears “soft” heading into election day. The difference between Stutzman and Coats supporters who describe themselves as firmly supporting their respective candidate is statistically insignificant, yet the SCF has the audacity to state that Coats support is “soft”. By the logic of the SCF, Stutzman’s support is also “soft”… I also like how they call Coats a “well-known moderate”. If Dan Coats is a moderate…well then I’m the Queen of England.

    Anyhow, based on this poll and the other that is out there, I’d probably put my money on Coats winning the primary. However, I’m not from Indiana and don’t much care who wins (well, to be fair I’d actually prefer either Coats or Stutzman). And finally, let’s be honest, in the current political climate as long as the Republican candidate in Indiana isn’t caught in bed with a dead hooker or a live boy, he’s going to win in November (especially if the candidate is Coats or Stutzman).

  • ffc99

    e_rowe is correct in stating that the SCF poll was, for all intents and purposes an “internal” Stutzman poll, regardless of whether or not his campaign knew about it. It was commissioned by the SCF which has endorsed Stutzman. If you read the news release that SCF sent out, you’ll notice that it spins the results in a positive light for Stutzman (I’ve linked to the release earlier in the discussion thread), while taking not so subtle shots at Coats. While I don’t think the poll is terrible helpful to Stutzman , the SCF was clearly hoping that news organization would run with the spin that they put in their news release. I think they had some success in this regard as I believe I saw Fox run a story on their website that largely parroted the language of the SCF release.

  • tamismiller

    Once again I will add a comment stating my belief in Marlin Stutzman as the best candidate for US Senate for Indiana. He has heard Hoosiers’ voices and he will speak for us. Marlin is a proven leader in Indiana and he will represent us well in Washington. Farmers know the meaning and value of hard work and Marlin is a 4th generation family farmer. GO MARLIN!