The Megathread for All Things Hoosier!

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Woody Myers – 9/6  (20 percent were neutral and 65 percent say they never heard of him)

IN Dems are so screwed.

Story of our lives since 2014.

2010. Bayh's unexpected retirement from the Senate was probably the catalyst for the party falling down a flight of stairs.

Todd Rokita shared something interesting on Facebook that was published in Indiana Legislative Insight. Talked about the race, Harter seems more likely to be selected than Westercamp if Hill falters, but Rokita could be a last-minute entry...or he could wait to run for governor in 2024 against Weinzapfel then.

2010 sucked, but Donnelly did win in 2012.  If Gregg would have put a bit more substance into his campaign besides his whole "I'm a down-home country boy from Southern Indiana!" shtick he probably could have beaten Pence.

Donnelly won in 2012 because the Republicans nominated a dumbsh**t that defeated a very popular Senator.

The whole actions of 2016 can't be discounted either. We entered the year with a 3-way Senate Republican primary leading to maybe a Tea Party Representative going on to November and a Governor Pence that was going to face a tough re-election fight from a Democratic Party eager to face him, to the 3rd place in that Senate primary replacing the resigning Lieutenant Governor, and then himself becoming the nominee for Governor when Pence was selected for the vice-presidential nod. And national events made it a wave year for the state GOP.

Really when was the last good year for Indiana Democrats, 2008? I know Donnelly won in 2012 unexpectedly, but that was before I moved here and Daniels won re-election easily and the state legislature was still Republican.

I think this year could have some silver linings for Indiana Dems if Hale wins, Hill gets nominated and then loses, and the Dems pick up a significant number of state house of representatives seats.  The latter one would be interesting, maybe exposing some of those Marion and Hamilton County districts as dummymanders.

Well I'm not voting for Hill at the Convention for precisely that reason. I haven't decided between Harter and Westercamp yet.

What's the ceiling though on how many State House seats they take, 5? 10? Well congrats, they went from Republican supermajorities to Republican big majorities. If there's going to be a Democrat year it's going to be this one, unfortunately for them our Governor has done a great job, their nominee - a former Health Commissioner in the middle of the largest health crisis in some time - is a complete non-entity, there's no Senate race, and in wide vast sections of the state the Democratic Party might as well be the Libertarians, because they have just as much chance of winning: zero. It's why I'm all gung-ho on a new party being formed to the right of Democrats, left of Republicans that can challenge the Republicans. How many years of failure does a party have to live through before they realize what they stand for is the problem? If they want to be a city and a couple well-to-do suburbs party only, great, they'll never win statewide or gain control of the legislatures ever again.

The left of the party rebuilding it, Courtney Tritch's candidacy and what an abject failure that was when compared to Tommy Schrader 2 years prior - a candidate with no money that was completely disowned by the party after he won the primary - told me they have no clue on what to do.

That's the problem.  Not to mention the Indiana Dems' bench is all but decimated.  The only three candidates that would even have a sliver of a shot- Buttigieg, Donnelly, and Hogsett- aren't running, and for valid and obvious reasons.

The Senate is gone for good, but the Democrats in Indiana could still get the governorship and other statewide offices (though that'll probably become impossible after the next few cycles) and also have IN-05 (and, at a stretch, IN-02) to focus on.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

https://twitter.com/WIBC_EricBerman/status/1281643860708388864

Likely border on safe R or outright safe R? I'm thinking the latter.