When I first moved here, we were in Indiana's 7th district, represented by hereditary congressman Andre Carson, and voting against him every two years was a November joy.
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| I'm surprised our Representative isn't Mr. Gerald M. Ander |
We've since been redistricted, barely, into the 5th district, representing the northside 'burbs, with nearly polar opposite politics. Long considered a very safe Republican seat, the primary contest this year mostly consisted of GOP front-runners trying to outdo each other in bragging how much they hated socialism and would help Trump drain swamps. If the Democratic party contestants ran primary ads, I don't recollect seeing them.
What's interesting is that national parties and PACs seem to have decided that the 5th is in play next month. Having gone for Donnelly over Braun by half a point in the 2018 Senate race, someone's apparently thinking that the northern Indy 'burbs might send their first Democrat to the House since Reagan's first term.
Both Christina Hale, the Dem nominee, and GOP primary winner Victoria Spartz are monopolizing as much as half of every commercial break on network TV here, either directly with their own ads or with attack ads bought by outside support PACs. Lotta money getting spent in a race that should have been a slam dunk for the Republicans.
Also interesting is that Spartz's ads in the general are not mentioning Trump by name, unlike her primary advertising blitz. Spartz has the NRA endorsement and seems to avoid SoCon kulturkampf issues, so she shouldn't require a lot of nose-holding for my vote.
Polls are predicting a close race, but the only polls that matter are the ones in November.
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