Why does Sen. BAYH do so well in a SOLID RED STATE?

[nickshepDEM]

*D* Bayh 1,495,808 - 62%
(Incumbent)

*R*Scott 904,432 - 37%

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/IN/S/01/index.html

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Bush 1,477,807 - 60%
(Incumbent)

Kerry 967,346 - 39%

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/IN/P/00/index.html

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It seems like the odds are stacked very much against him in Indiana. Yet, he dominates the elections. Check out both links and watch the state turn from SOLID RED into SOLID BLUE. Is he that conservative? IS he a closet Zell Miller type? Or just a "good 'ol fashion democrat?"



Bio:
U.S. Senator Evan Bayh is dedicated to bringing common sense Hoosier Values to our nation's capital. Elected to his first term in November, 1998, Senator Bayh brought with him a remarkable record of sound fiscal management and economic growth from his two-terms as governor of Indiana (1989-1997). He has established himself as a leading mainstream voice in the Senate by working to put aside partisan differences and make real progress on a wide range of issues of importance to Americans.

http://bayh.senate.gov/about.html

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. Uhhh, because....

....he's a fucking Republican, maybe?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Name identification...Birch Bayh..his daddy

[Ken Burch]

15. And shame and embarassment on the part of Indiana voters

for having been stupid enough to vote in DAN F*&@ING QUAYLE instead of reelecting Birch Bayh.

(at least I hope some shame and embarassment exists about that in Indiana...)

[xxqqqzme]

3. DLC DINO

He is also a HUGE PPI supporter.

[Melodybe]

5. Cause he is a total sell out

[nickshepDEM]

6. Youll have to forgive me....

DINO?

PPI?

[rkc3]

9. Democrat In Name Only - you got me on PPI though.

[AntiCoup2K4]

11. PPI is the grossly misnamed "Progressive Policy Institute"

In reality it's the DLC's branch office of PNAC, led by the treasonous Will Marshall.

[JohnLocke]

70. Oh, bullshit.

www.ppionline.org

[Hippo_Tron]

4. Former governor, father's legacy, big bank account, no challenger

Former governors (especially successful ones) have a tendancy to get elected and re-elected easily to the US Senate. For example, Dems didn't seriously challnge Sen. Voinovich of Ohio even though he was only a one term senator, because he had the popularity of being a two term governor.

Oh yea, he's a DINO on a lot of issues. He's more supportive of the Iraq war than Indiana's REPUBLICAN Senator Dick Lugar, who has been a regular critic of the mismanagement of the war and the incompetence of Rumsfeld.

[nickshepDEM]

7. Anybody from Indiana have anything nice to say about him?

[marieaey]

8. I do!

I support Bayh! I'm not a progressive as many here but I am a moderate Dem. Call me a Dino if you wish. I dn't see how bashing Dems helps the cause.

Bayh I'm on your side!

best wishes marie


PS: Are any of the posters on this thread from Indiana? Just curious.

[wndycty]

10. I could not agree with you more. . .

. . .if we are going to take back the Senate or the House we need to elect Democrats. If a Democrat needs to be center or even a little right of center to win in a red state then we have to accept that. In Chicago Lipinski (3rd District first the father and now the son) is very conservative, but he is a Democrat and we control that seat. If the son were to move to the left and the seat were to go Republican we lose a lot more. I think its time for some of us on the DU to understand the numbers game and that in order to hold on to certain seats some of our elected officials will be right of center.

[greenohio]

13. You all stop making sense. It doesn't belong here.

We need a pure little tent where our leaders agree with us on every issue. Don't you read your blog?

[The Gigmeister]

21. I'm from Indiana...

...And I support Evan Bayh GLADLY!! As I do Tim Roemer, who is getting bashed to DEATH around here.

Sigh...

[thinkingwoman]

23. me too

and me too and me too.

Hoosier born and bred. Dems need to focus on real problems and issues. Bayh isn't one of them. Every senate seat is precious.

[Hippo_Tron]

57. Well I'm a progressive and I'd vote for him if I lived in Indiana...

What many people sometimes forget is that the agenda in the senate is controlled by the committees and particularly the most powerful people on those committees. Right now the senate agenda is controlled by right wing nutcases. If we were to win back the senate, much of it would be controlled by progressive senators, Pat Leahy would be chairman of the judiciary committee for example. I don't like Bayh's stances on a lot of issues but I'd gladly vote for him in the interest of getting the Dems a majority, because that makes a world of difference.

[Voltaire]

60. Indianapolis Here

Not impressed at all with Evan though.

[Contrary1]

22. Yep...

he lives in DC.

[BiggJawn]

77. He votes for the Enviroment...Other than that, he's a DINO.

He was a good Governor for us. and he did some good things in his first term, but he gets a lot of money from PHARMA, and he hangs around with that Joe Lieberman guy too much.

He's a "Hold your nose and fill his circle" vote for sure.

[saltpoint]

12. I really miss Evan's father, Birch.

Birch was too much for a lot of conservative Indianafolk. He scared 'em and they dumped him for Dan Quayle, with a huge push from various fundamentalist Christian organizations who distributed Bayh-is-an-abortionist literature across the state.

It was a dark evening when Quayle defeated Birch Bayh.

Evan has better survival instincts for Indiana, but he's nowhere near the senator his father was.

[GOPBasher]

14. He's pretty conservative, but as good as we can get in Indiana.

I'm happy we have Bayh. He's a centrist, maybe even a bit right of center, but he's as good as we can possibly get in solid red Indiana.

[LostInAnomie]

16. He is as much of a democrat as the majority of Indiana can handle.

He is pro choice, for civil rights, and pro civil unions (as far as I know). He is like most of the country and liberal on social issues. That is about as good as we are going to get from Indiana. If he would run to the left of what he already is he would not have a chance.

I was amazed that the race was actually that close. Scott was an absolute unknown Sociology teacher from Butler University. I don't even think he ran television ads, an least in my part of the state.

[manhattanite]

18. Bayh is a good man. <eom>

[LiberalFighter]

61. If Scott had run tv ads that showed him in person...

he would had lost much worse especially in the south.

[IndianaGreen]

62. A Black Republican, albeit an intellectual one

will not liked by the GOP. That's one of the reasons Scott ran a shoe string campaign, ignored by his own party, as Evan Bayh won with Republican votes.

[lateo]

17. Because 75% of the time...

he votes with the Republicans.

[Freddie Stubbs]

36. Can you back up that statistic?

Or did you just pull it out of somewhere that the sun doesn't shine?

[lateo]

40. There was a thread here about him a long time back.

Someone posted a link to a conservative website that listed Democrats voting records. Lieberman, Bayh and other DLC flunkies got very favorable rating from this group because of their 75%+ voting with the Republicans.

[Freddie Stubbs]

49. So, in other words you can't back it up

I didn't think so.

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CityDem]

19. He is a DINO

He is a clone of Trent Lott.

[stray cat]

25. Bayh versus Trent Lott for president

You really think they're the same?

[nickshepDEM]

20. Could he deliver Indiana in a Presidential election?

On a blog I started going to recently people were saying he could deliver: Indiania, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carloina, New Mexico, Nevada, and a few others. Wonder if he would sacrafice some of the blue states in order to do so?

[CityDem]

26. Sure

And Edwards was going to deliver NC and Bensten was going to deliver Texas.

[thinkingwoman]

27. I don't remember

anyone seriously saying that Edwards would deliver NC. In fact, I remember a lot of people saying just the opposite.

Bayh would deliver Indiana though. He was a great governor.

[The Gigmeister]

30. Bullshit!

Edwards was never going to deliver North Carolina. NO ONE said he would.

[liberalpragmatist]

33. I think Edwards could have delivered NC as the nominee

If Edwards were the Presidential Nominee instead of the running mate I think he could have delivered NC or at least forced Bush to really compete in the state. It would've been close, but I think he could've pulled it out.

[dad]

37. -

There were several threads on DU stating that the D's somehow had a chance in NC with Edwards on the ticket. I am here to say now, as I said then, no only wouldn't Edwards deliver NC, but he would not have won his own Senate seat back had he run. You can forget about Edwards...

[DemDogs]

64. Nonsense

Edwards was within two points of Bush in polls in NC before he dropped out. Probably never could have won with Kerry at the top, but Kerry never tried. And Edwards would have crushed the lightweight Burr.
Edwards will win NC when he is the nominee. Got my fingers crossed for Edwards v. Guiliani. We WIN the South back!

[Hippo_Tron]

81. Hopefully Guiliani won't win his home state...

Dems might have to campaign there but a Repuke winning New York is very unlikely.

[JI7]

24. he can "appear" more Conservative than Lugar , the GOP Senator

the voting record might show Lugar more Conservative but the way Bayh comes across makes him appear even more conservative than Lugar. so Bayh gets the support from conservatives .

[lojasmo]

28. He's a solid red democrat....like Roemer, for instance N/T

[LTRS]

29. Having lived there for 5 yrs I can tell you...

Because he's a DINO. End of story.

[nickshepDEM]

31. Hmmm....

[IndianaGreen]

32. Bayh is not a "Zell Miller type"!

Zell Miller is a traitor and a rightwing lunatic. While I have no great love for Bayh, and actually did not vote for him in November, I have to admit that Bayh is lightyears away from being a Zell Miller type.

[LiberalFighter]

65. I agree that Bayh is nowhere near a Zell Miller

[xkenx]

34. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT

Evan Bayh. If I didn't see a "D" beside his name, I'd think he was an
"R" after the suckup-to-the-Rethugs he did during the campaign. Every time I saw him on a program with an R, I thought I was listening to two Rs. 'Nuff said.

[HeilChimp]

35. agreed, he is a Repug is disguise

Bayh is the face of the DLC sellouts. 'nuff said. We need to run Julie Carson for that seat. Now THERE'S an Indiana DEMOCRAT.

[Georgia_Dem]

38. Yeah, then the seat will be lost in a landslide.

A liberal doesn't have a chance in Hell of winning in Indiana. That's
like Jeb Bush winning a New Jersey Senate seat.

[LiberalFighter]

66. Julia Carson would not win a state-wide seat

She wouldn't have the stamina with her poor health. In fact I don't see Julia in Congress too much longer.

[T Town Jake]

39. My sig line sums up my feelings about the man.

(n/t)

[nickshepDEM]

41. To be honest with ya I agree... Somewhat.

I think our 3 BEST shots at winning '08 are as follows (in no particular order.)

Warner
Clark
Bayh

[greenohio]

42. Are we supposed to go somewhere to see that?

[nickshepDEM]

45. To see what?

[greenohio]

48. Your signature.

[hippiechick]

43. Because Hoosiers LOATHE change.

And because of who his Paw was.

My thoughts on Bayh: REMEMBER DAN QUAYLE ??


:hippie:

[IndianaGreen]

52. Hoosiers don't even like changing to Daylight Savings Time

which is why our clocks don't turn forward in the Spring, or backwards in the Fall (too intellectually challenging for some). Oy!

[American Tragedy]

63. lol, that drives me crazy!

I live in Louisville, and people in the Indiana counties bordering us seem perpetually torn over the time of day, especially the ones who work in Jefferson county but live in Jeffersonville or wherever. I think most of them probably 'unofficially' observe Daylight Savings Time, since we're obstinate as hell about it.

[LiberalFighter]

67. Noooo that isn't it. Farmers think the cows too dumb to figure out DST.

Didn't you know the farmers need to milk the cows at the right time?

[nickshepDEM]

44. He doesnt seem to conservative to me. VOTING RECORD:

I stole this from another thread. Credit to "leyton" he put this together.


"I checked issues2000.org (though that doesn't seem to be near comprehensive) and while he's not ultra-progressive, he seems to have a decent record:

# Voted NO on prioritizing national debt reduction below tax cuts. (Apr 2000)
# Balance debt reduction, tax relief, & policy investment. (Jan 2001)
# Voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
# Rated 91% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
# Firmly opposed to Bush’s voucher proposal.
# Voted YES on targeting 100,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2010.
# Voted YES on removing consideration of drilling ANWR from budget bill.
# Voted NO on drilling ANWR on national security grounds.
# Voted NO on defunding renewable and solar energy.
# Voted NO on cap foreign aid at only $12.7 billion.
# Voted YES on banning campaign donations from unions and corporations.
# Prevent unauthorized firearm use with "smart gun" technology.
# Rated 75% by APHA, indicating a pro-public health record.
# Voted NO on using the Social Security Surplus to fund tax reductions.
# Voted NO on $350 billion in tax breaks over 11 years. (May 2003)
# Voted NO on cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion over 11 years. (May 2001)
# Voted NO on $792B tax cuts.


Statements during 2004 campaign season regarding war in Iraq:
# Iraq-al-Qaida contacts, but no complicity or assistance. (Jul 2004)
# CIA knew State of the Union Iraq-Niger connection was false. (Jul 2004)
# Iraq was not reconstituting its nuclear program. (Jul 2004)
# Iraq was not developing its biological weapons program. (Jul 2004)
# Iraq was not developing its chemical weapons program. (Jul 2004)
# Iraq was developing missiles, but not to reach the US. (Jul 2004)"

-leyton

[Hippo_Tron]

58. Peoples' main problem is that he NEVER criticizes chimp on the war

There are some other things, something about forcing women seeking an abortion to watch a video of an abortion first, while he was governor. Interesting that he has a fairly solid record on voting against tax cuts and for social programs, which is somewhat out of lockstep with the DLC.

[DemDogs]

46. He never mentions he's a Democrat

His ads don't say it. And his Dad was beloved. And he hasn't rocked boats. Voted for Bush's tax cut, and didn't stop there.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

47. Simple. He belongs to the Republican (DLC) wing of the party.

All the Republicans know that he's really a Republican. All the Democrats vote for him because he has a (D) after his name.

[femme.democratique]

51. Because he is not a Dem, he's a Repuke with a D by his name

[wankawanka]

53. You guys are being to harsh and need to be more pragmatic

Some times you have to chose between the lesser of two evils. Like how we fought with Stalin to defeat Hitler. If Bayh were a true liberal/progressive democrat he would not last in Indiana. When it counts he is on our side (ie judicial nominations). In the last few years our country has taken a turn to the right. So we can either run moderates and stay competitive or we can go down guns ablating with a liberal. I for one dont want another radical conservative as president or my senator for that matter so if Bayh is the man to stop that then he is my man.

[Q]

72. But isn't it time to STOP choosing the lesser of two evils?

How about insisting on good government and honest politicians?

Perhaps NOW is the time to stop voting this way?

[wankawanka]

74. i dont think that day has come yet right now we just need to stop the ultr

a conservatives

[newsguyatl]

54. because he's a republican

[Moloch]

55. Because he's a Republican?

[spooky3]

56. at the state level many people vote more "for the person"...

Governors and Congressional reps have much more time to shake hands with and do work (favors) for their constituents. Many people, especially "conservatives", have a disconnect between what they say their values are and those of the candidate. For example, polls show that the Dem positions are favored by the majority of people most of the time. Ask many Hoosiers (and others) Bush's positions on the issues, and they can't tell you--they just "like" him. The local candidate can take advantage of this AND use his/her personal charm to win over people who think they are conservative. Even many who really are more conservative will vote for Democrats if they like the candidate. At the state and lower levels if they've met the candidate and liked him, that drives their vote. I'm sure this is true for some Dems also, though I think it's more true for Rethugs.

See also Dorgan's landslide victory in ND while * took the pres. vote; Mark Warner's popularity in a red-leaning VA. Warner was a tireless campaigner and shook every hand in every rural county of VA that he could reach.

[Hippo_Tron]

59. Dorgan's a bit of a different character becuase he is a liberal

Whereas Warner and Bayh are more moderate.

[spooky3]

71. he may be more liberal but I don't think that changes the basic point

Bayh and especially Warner are more progressive than the stereotype of the typical voter in their respective states.

Dorgan is also far more entrenched, as an incumbent who can succeed himself, which gives him more freedom to be more liberal.

Another factor is that some states (like VA) do not hold gubernatorial elections during Pres. election years. This sometimes helps Dems. who would be adversely affected by straight ticket Rethug. voting.

[Crunchy Frog]

68. Common sense Hoosier Values?

Lord help us! I've lived in Indiana before and have some family connections there and believe me, I want to stay as far away from "common sense Hoosier Values" as is humanly possible.

I would most likely vote third party if he got the presidential nomination. What pleases Indiana voters would almost certainly completely alienate me.

[nickshepDEM]

69. WOULD most OF you VOTE for HIM if HE were to RUN and GET the NOMINATION?

dont ask me why I typed it like that. LOL:shrug:

[nickshepDEM]

73. ????????

[Hippo_Tron]

80. If he were to get the nomination, yes, but certainly not in the primary

Way too conservative for my taste.

[w4rma]

75. He's a good Dem, I think he could do more work in his state for Dems, tho.

He should promote the Democratic Party every chance he gets, so that when he does quit, the Democratic Party will be able to get a Dem into his seat to replace him.

I would like him to be more concerned about the *future* of the Democratic Party.

[IwinULose]

76. Because he is conservative Democrat

One of the few.

[senseandsensibility]

78. okay, I'll say it

if no one else will. He's by far the best looking politician I've ever seen, with the possible exception of John Edwards. He is seriously good looking, and if you don't think that matters in politics, you're drinking too much egg nog. :9 Can somebody post a picture?

[nickshepDEM]

82. Seantor Evan Bayh

[senseandsensibility]

83. Thanks, man!

Not the most flattering picture I've seen of him, but you get the idea....I'm sure he sets some constituents' hearts fluttering anyway.

[The Judged]

79. Because he has a stellar pro-Dominionism rating?