This may be one of the nuttiest, most desperate political stunts I’ve ever seen, so I’m just going to throw it out there and let you laugh at it:

Two challengers for an Indiana congressional seat have agreed to be hooked up to lie detectors during a debate, but an official with the incumbent’s party dismisses the idea as “bizarre.”

Ninth District Republican Party Chairman Larry Shickles on Wednesday proposed the political polygraphs for Democratic Rep. Baron Hill, GOP challenger Mike Sodrel and Libertarian candidate Eric Schansberg. The three are scheduled to debate Oct. 21, but an official with a debate co-sponsor said lie detectors won’t be included.

“Our planning committee worked up the format and rules, and we are not inviting negotiations from the candidates,” Alan Johnson, dean of Vincennes University’s Jasper Campus, told The Herald of Jasper.

Shickles, in a letter sent Tuesday to 9th District Democratic Chairman Mike Jones, suggested that the candidates be hooked up to lie detecting machines at the Oct. 21 event or a separate debate.

“While this format may be unusual, I feel strongly that voters need to be able to make a clear decision without all the usual spin,” Shickles wrote.

Sodrel’s campaign said he would agree to the proposal, and Schansberg said he also would agree to wear a lie detector. Hill declined to comment.

Jones said having a lie detector debate “just seems pretty bizarre.”

By the way, this went out on the national wire, so viewers and readers across our great nation now think this is the kind of silliness we embrace in Indiana. Thanks, Shickles. Way to turn a political campaign into a bad rerun of “Law & Order.”

*cue theme song*

The Rothenberg Political Report has moved Ninth District U.S. Rep. Baron Hill into the “Democrat Favored” category in its latest House rankings, which came out this morning.

Second District U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly and Eighth District U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth have long been in the Pretty Much No Way They’re Going To Lose category for months, and there have never been any worries about First District U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky and Seventh District U.S. Rep. André Carson.

With no takeover prospects in their sights, that puts Republicans on defense in the Third and Fourth Districts, where Democrats Michael Montagano and Nels Ackerson are respectively challenging incumbents Mark Souder and Steve Buyer.

Those are heavily Republican districts, but both challengers have raised plenty of cash, and Montagano has been moved onto a watch list by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It’s going to be one of those years, except this time, it won’t be Republicans sweeping to victory.