Reception for Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a reception in honor of 3 of Indiana's Congressional candidates. Joe Donnelly who is challenging for the 2nd District seat, Brad Ellsworth who is challenging for the 8th District seat and Baron Hill who is trying to take back his 9th District seat. All three are hotly contested races which are getting national attention.

Senator Bayh and his All America PAC served as the host for this evening's event. He thanked everyone for supporting All America PAC which gave him the opportunity to support quality candidates. Supporting All America PAC also gave him to opportunity to travel to such exotic locations such as Iowa... and Iowa... and Iowa. The Senator gave a brief introduction and then introduced each candidate.

The Senator talked about how we needed Joe, Brad and Baron to combat the divisiveness that plagues Congress and Washington as a whole.

First up was Baron Hill. Baron Hill was elected to Congress in Indiana's 9th District in 1998 and served for 3 terms before being ousted in the 2004 Indiana Republican Landslide. The Baron is Back!

Baron talked about how nasty politics can be and how we need to work to rise above that. Baron's a good man and the hatchet job of a campaign that was run against him in '04 is a shame. Baron needs to be vindicated.

Senator Bayh next introduced Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth.

Brad is the current Sheriff of Vanderburgh County in southern Indiana (Indiana's 3rd largest city, Evansville, is in Vanderburgh County) and has been in the Sheriff's Department for 24 years. In 1998 he ran for Sheriff of Vanderburgh County and won in a landslide. 4 years later he ran again unopposed.

Brad talked about how he's proud of the fact that when someone needs his help in Vanderburgh County, they pick up the phone and call for help and as Sheriff he responds. Being a Congressman is no different, people are still looking for help and he wants to be the one to help them.

Finally Senator Bayh spoke about Joe Donnelly, who is running for the 2nd District seat.

Joe is running for the 2nd time for the 2nd District seat. In '04 he competed very well in his first campaign for office, coming up just short in a year that saw Democrats get defeated on all levels in Indiana (Notable exception of course was our own Senator Bayh). This year Joe is back and more determined than ever.

Joe talked about how his opponent has already turned negative running a negative TV commercial in May. Joe noted that this commercial came out just after there was a Republican poll conducted in the area. Is the fact that they've already started to attack him a sign that their poll wasn't to their liking? You be the judge.

Following the remarks by the three candidates there was lots of general schmoozing.

Fmr Indiana Secretary of State Joe Hogsett (We miss you Joe!), Bob McKinney of Bose, McKinney and Evans and Joe Donnelly

Senator Bayh speaks with Brad Ellsworth

Baron Hill and Joe Donnelly talk strategy

Brad and Beth Ellsworth

Senator Bayh

You can view more pictures from the reception on Flickr. A special thanks to Chris for getting me in the door and to Katie from the Donnelly campaign and Abby from the Hill campaign for making me feel welcome there.