In real life, people under beaucoup stress eat a lot of chocolate and/or ice cream and watch sappy movies by themselves. Hang on. That might just apply to girls.

Regardless, when you’re feeling vulnerable in politics, you invite a few hundred of your closest friends to throw their money into your campaign war chest. Suddenly, you feel a whole lot better — and far less guilty than if you’d downed an entire pint of Phish Food while watching “Good Will Hunting” for the seventh time.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) is stepping up his fundraising efforts in the face of four possible 2010 primary challengers.

Burton’s office told The Hill that the “is serious about meeting this head on” and has “set an ambitious fundraising agenda.” Burton held two fundraisers at the end of last week and raked in approximately $60,000.

The Hill reported in the middle of February that several Indiana Republicans are considering challenging Burton in the 2010 primary. Burton, who is serving his fourteenth term, have never been a favorite of the state party, several GOP insiders in the state contend.

In 2008, Republican John McGoff ran against Burton and surprised many by nearly beating him. Burton won that race 52 percent to 45 percent, leading party insiders to believe that Burton is vulnerable.

Among those considering runs are state Rep. Mike Murphy, former Indiana GOP executive director Luke Messer, Brose McVey, who ran for Congress in Indiana’s 7th District in 2002 and McGoff. Several of these candidates have already filed paperwork to form exploratory committees and some have already put polls into the field, The Hill has learned.
Burton was adamant in a previous interview with The Hill that he plans to seek re-election and his recent fundraising spree underscores that statement. The Republican will ad these recent funds to the $330,000 in his war chest at the end of last year.

The candidate emerging from the Republican primary would be favored in the reliably red district.

The political question that should accompany this story is simple: Who’s going to challenge Jim Brainard in the 2011 Republican primary?

City Council members are outraged over the latest evidence that the mayor withheld the true cost of the Keystone Avenue reconstruction project, even after he was informed it might cost almost $60 million more than he had told the public.

During his 2007 re-election campaign, Mayor Jim Brainard said the project — roundabouts at six intersections — could be covered by the $90 million the state agreed to give the city to take over the road. By summer 2008, City Council members said Brainard told them it could cost $20 million more than that.

But at a Finance Committee meeting Thursday night, an engineering firm hand-picked by the mayor to complete the work disclosed that it had developed a cost estimate months before that, in February 2008. That estimate? $149 million.

“Any idea why this number wasn’t shared with the council?” City Council member Rick Sharp asked the engineers during the meeting. “And point in fact, well into the summer of 2008, in various private meetings, we were told an additional $20 million (over the initial $90 million cost) was needed to construct Keystone.

“If the mayor knew in February of 2008 that the engineering estimate was $149 million, any idea why he told the council he only needed $20 million?”

City Engineer Mike McBride responded: “The direction provided to me and American Structurepoint engineers is that the . . . task asked by the mayor was, ‘Let’s try to find a way to reduce the costs.’ “

The engineers provided one estimate; Brainard offered up a different estimate to Council members and the public.

My assumption is that he figured the economy would still be sailing along, and folks wouldn’t mind him asking for more money after the fact. I’ve said before that I think Brainard is a “think big” kind of leader, but apparently someone forgot to tell him that “thinking big” doesn’t permit you to stop “talking honest.”

I’m taking a day off to actually relax.  In the meanwhile, feel free to use this as an open forum.   Play nice, if you choose to play at all.