My problem with Daylight Saving Time has never been that we’re on it, but that Gov. Mitch Daniels promised us things during his 2004 campaign that never came true.

Chiefly, that our state would be on one time zone, and that time zone would be Central.

Frankly, I’m not all that concerned about the latter part, but it doesn’t seem like our system is any better now than it used to be.

Also, I’m glad he dropped his “DST means economic development” talking points this year. That was a silly argument, and looking at our economy, it just plain isn’t true.

DST is a pain two days a year, and today is one of those two days. I also have a slightly new perspective on it because our little one — 11 months this week — has no idea that the clocks changed, so she just got up when she felt like getting up.

This means a nap for Mommy later today is most certainly in the offing.

But DST as a campaign issue? Two years ago, yes. Two days from this year’s election? Nope.

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of folks out there who are ticked off about it, but in the grand scheme of things — economy, health care, education, our overcomplicated system of local government, energy, ethics, etc. — I’m going to file this in the “wedge issue” category alongside guns, gays and abortion.

Daniels is still shady for the way he thrust it upon us and then punted to the feds, but I can’t say that I’m all that concerned about it now.

I got this tonight from the JLT campaign.  All I can say is thank God this race will be over in 72 hours.

 

Dear Friend,

Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m., Hoosiers across the state will be moving their clocks back one hour, thanks to Mitch Daniels and his one-sided decision making style. His approach to the issue of Daylight Savings Time has left too many Hoosiers in the dark.

As Governor, Jill will work for a statewide referendum on the issue of Daylight Savings Time, so that the voices of all Hoosiers can be heard. She believes that with your input, we can create a policy that better suits the needs of Indiana.

It’s time to change more than our clocks.  It’s time to change our Governor.

Sincerely,

Travis Lowe
Campaign Manager
Hoosiers for Jill

P.S. November 4th is almost here and we need your help getting out the vote.  Can you spare a few hours on or before Election Day? Click here to volunteer: http://www.hoosiersforjill.com/page/s/election.

 

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.

Once the 2008 election is signed, sealed and delivered, there will be days of parsing and dissecting the results, the polls that nailed it and the polls that were way, way off-base.

Along those lines, the JLTeam is out on the streets bragging about a new poll that shows them within a few points of incumbent Mitch Daniels.

This on the same day that SurveyUSA releases data showing Thompson down by, oh, you know, 19 points.

According to other national polls, including Public Policy Polling earlier this week, and internal polls released by the Daniels campaign, Thompson has consistently trailed by double digits, but two media pollsters — Selzer & Co. and Research 2000 — have shown her within the margin of error.

What gives?

Personally, I think it’s a combination of low name ID and some less-than-stellar sampling. This shouldn’t be a baseline race, but it’s turning into one because Thompson has been off the air for so long while Daniels has been bombarding the airwaves. He’s managed to persuade the people in the middle who, if they think about it, probably don’t agree with him, but since they haven’t really been given a viable alternative, they’re not bothering to think about it.

If you believe Thompson, whose campaign is scrambling to find cash for their Week One media buy, she’s in it to win it.

If you believe pretty much everyone else on the planet, the Obama factor is going to make this a closer race than it ordinarily would have been, but it’ll still probably wind up being an 6-10 point advantage for Daniels.

Cue the JLTrolls to starting posting their “Wagner is a bad Democrat” comments.