FIRST REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT CASUALTY OF 2006 - Hostetller GIVES UP (maybe)

Grebrook

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Tue Oct-17-06 03:17 PM
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FIRST REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT CASUALTY OF 2006 - Hostetller GIVES UP (maybe)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/17/94153/882

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Yesterday I wrote that a new poll had Ellsworth over Hostettler by 23 points for Indiana's 8th Congressional District.

It may have been an outlier, but I suggested that it holded some truth, suggesting the writing on the wall.

Indiana political sources seem to agree and now suggest Hostettler has read the latest polls as certain signs of defeat.

Article on flip...

* BWasikIUgrad's diary :: ::
*

The Indiana Howey Political Report (Hoosiers know it) writes that GOP sources say that Hostettler is throwing in the towel:

Informed and reliable Republican sources are telling HPR that U.S. Rep. John Hostettler has essentially given up on his re-election bid. The sources say that Hostettler has informed key Republican allies in Vanderburgh County that he is suspending most of his campaign activities. The sources tell HPR that he came to this conclusion in the last couple weeks. However, he has not been keeping a heavy campaign schedule for much of the fall campaign season. He did not campaign over the tradtional political rollout Labor Day weekend. When the PBS Lehrer Newshour sought out his campaign schedule prior to a mid-September weekend, they were told that Hostettler had no events planned. The sources tell HPR that Hostettler's realization of his bleak re-election prospects prompted him to put more energy into his subcommittee hearings on immigration. Hostettler was also the only Republican Congressional delegation Member to bypass the Indiana GOP's ROMP event at the Columbia Club on Saturday, Oct. 7. The National Republican Campaign Committee has suspended its activites in the 8th CD, after a number of polls showed Democratic Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth with a growing lead. In HPR's 13-year history, we have never witnessed an incumbent congressman throwing in the towel prior to Election Day. Hostettler was first elected in 1994. Watch for further analysis in Tuesday's HPR Daily Wire and the weekly HPR on Thursday. Developing ....

Brad Ellsworth and the IN-8 County Dems have put together a good ground game to win this thing no matter what, and I know they won't buy this for a minute - nor should they (fight to the end!).

But it may be noteworthy that, if true, money will be freed up from IN-08 to dump into IN-09 and/or IN-02 or other races out of state (from the NRCC or RNC).

No more Ho-Jo? Can it be true?

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Indiana is a big "anti-Republican" state this year because of the unpopular Republican governor, which is why the Dems are leading in three house races there as they are in Ohio and perhaps Kentucky as well.

If this is true, this is some of the best news I've seen all year. Why? Two-fold. Hostettler is a Republican who rode into Congress defeating a Democrat in the 1994 Republican Revolution, and a disastrous defeat would signal the complete end of the revolution and the return of a strong Democratic Congress, and secondly because he's the prick who claimed "Democrats demonize Christians" in the House last year.

One asshole down boys, regardless of whether or not he's actually given up, the polls show he hasn't been given a choice by the voters. They've already made theirs.