Capitol Watchblog
Capitol Watchblog
jennifer
Oct
31
9:10 AM

Two New Polls

The Indianapolis Star and the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics both released poll numbers today indicating that the Guv’s race is over. The Star has Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson down by 18 points; the Downs Center shows her trailing by 17 points. I still think this one will wind up around 10 percent because of the Obama factor.

Speaking of Obama, the Star poll showed yesterday that he and John McCain are in a dead heat. The Downs Center poll shows the two candidates tied at 47 percent.

The Downs Center also polled the other two statewide races.

In the Attorney General’s race, Republican Greg Zoeller leads Democrat Linda Pence 46 percent to 42 percent. Republican Tony Bennett leads Democrat Richard Wood 45 percent to 41 percent in the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

What does all this mean?

The two down-ballot statewide races are tied to Obama’s turnout and performance; the Guv’s race is the result of a nearly flawless campaign by incumbent Mitch Daniels and a nearly nonexistent campaign by Thompson.

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Written by: jennifer
Filed under: '08 Gov. Race, '08 Presidential Race, '08 Statewide Races with 1 Comment
abdul
Oct
26
8:30 AM

Sunday Morning Posts

With a little more than a week to go before Election Day, here’s what I’m hearing out and about.

John McCan’t 2008

  • More and more Republicans are expressing their frustrations with the John McCain campaign in Indiana.  As one high level official put it, “They are disorganized!”  He also added, “Luckily they are not so disorganized that they will lose Indiana, but you can forget about the nationwide race.”  By the way, Republican Guru Karl Rove has put Indiana in the Blue column for Obama.   Talk about insult to injury.

Poll Dancing

  • A Research 2000 poll is slated to come out this week showing the Governor’s Race only a couple points apart, but it may be the odd man out.  Other internal polls are showing up to a 30-point difference between Mitch Daniels and Jill Long Thompson in some parts of the state.  By the way,  the political class agrees that there are going to be a lot of split ticket voting here in Indiana.  The conventional wisdom however is that Mitch can win with either John McCain or Barack Obama taking Indiana, but JLT only gets over the hump with a huge Obama win.
Bizzarro Politics
  • The world we live in just officially turned upside down.  The left-leaning Gary Post-Tribune has endorsed Mitch Daniels for Governor over JLT.  Also add the Ft. Wayne Gazette (her hometown paper) also endorsed Mitch.  This is not a good sign.
Negative on Going Negative
  • Republican Attorney General candidate Greg Zoeller has said “no” to going negative on Democrat Linda Pence.   The organization which funds Republican AG candidates wanted Zoeller to go negative against Pence, but he refused.  So the group pulled it’s funding for some television attack ads.  Zoeller’s campaign is still going to be on the air, they are just “taking the high road” in the last days of the campaign.

The Ghosts That Haunt Me

  • I’m told some members of the former Peterson administration members may be facing criminal investigation for alleged wrongdoing over at the Indianapolis Bond Bank.  Stay tuned for that one, it could be big.
Shake Em Up
  • There may be some rearranging the offices in the Ballard administration soon, but don’t expect to hear anything until after Election day.
Uncivil War
  • The only thing holding Marion County Democrats together these days is the Barack Obama campaign and their goal to deliver the County big.  But once that is over, there is going to be blood in the streets as civil war gets underway for control of the party.  Watch for the what I will fondly label in the future as “The War of the Wild Irish Roses.”
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Written by: abdul
Filed under: '08 Gov. Race, '08 Presidential Race, '08 Statewide Races, Capitol Watchblog with No Comments
jennifer
Oct
23
4:46 PM

Zoeller Going Off The Air

Great news for Democratic Attorney General candidate Linda Pence: Greg Zoeller is reportedly going off the air next week.

Rumor has it the national Republican AG’s group has pulled its funding for Zoeller after a tiff with the local folks about the direction of the campaign.

Zoeller and Pence have both been running ads a-plenty, but the race has largely been overshadowed by the presidential campaigns. This gives Pence a real opportunity to define herself in the last week, when plenty of independent voters will be making up their minds.

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Written by: jennifer
Filed under: '08 Statewide Races with 2 Comments
jennifer
Oct
23
7:04 AM

Capitol Watch 10/23

Here is this week’s Capitol Watch. Topics: The Obama/McCain dead heat, JLT with one of the worst ads in Indiana politics, and why some township assessors should be thrown in jail. Enjoy, and comment below.


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Written by: jennifer
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jennifer
Oct
6
3:55 PM

Zoeller Responds To New Pence Ad

Two hours after Democratic Attorney General candidate Linda Pence got her new ad up on YouTube, Republican challenger Greg Zoeller posted his first ad:

YouTube Preview Image

From a content standpoint, there’s nothing wrong with it, but Attorney General Steve Carter doesn’t have the most exciting speaking voice. Also, Linda Pence comes across as a complete prosecutorial badass in her spot. Zoeller? Not so much.

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Written by: jennifer
Filed under: '08 Statewide Races with 7 Comments

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