Hill and Sodrel debate

In what may be one of the closest House races in the nation, Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel faced off with Libertarian Eric Schansberg.

9th District candidates face off - Indianapolis Star
9th District debate focuses on war in Iraq, energy - Louisville Courier-Journal

This is the third time that Hill and Sodrel have faced each other in the IN-9 race. In 2002, Hill defeated Sodrel. In 2004, Sodrel beat Hill by less than 1,500 votes.

Sodrel continued to be out of touch with Indiana voters as he firmly stated that there was no real crisis with regard to the US energy policy stating that the 1973 Oil Embargo was much worse. I guess he should talk to 100+ DaimlerChrysler workers in Kokomo who were just laid off because of high fuel prices.

When Sodrel couldn't attack Hill, he took to attacking Nancy Pelosi. He said that the Republican Speaker of the House is from Illinois, "the Heartland". If Democrats retake the House, Pelosi would likely be Speaker, "from San Francisco, California." Ooooo... nothing like trying to scare voters with the thought that someone from EEEEEK San Francisco would be Speaker. Hill thoughtfully countered by saying that voters should look at individual candidates and who would represent them the best. "This is not about the political parties," he said. "It's all about you {the voters}."

Neither candidate said we should pull out of Iraq, but while Sodrel wanted to blindly continue on a road that is leading Iraq into civil war, Hill said that they can't continue to "stay the course" and remain in Iraq indefinately. Hill, who voted for the authorization of force bill in 2002, said that he was lied to by the Bush Administation about the need to go to war.

Finally Baron Hill continued to challenge Sodrel to future one-topic debates. Sodrel said that he wouldn't debate on a single subject, that the voters wouldn't get to hear all of the candidate's views. So unless they can come up with something this may be the first and last debate for the two.

Donnelly getting noticed

As we've been saying for months, Joe Donnelly is doing great and he's finally getting noticed in the national press.

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has vaulted Joe Donnelly and the IN-2 from not being ranked all the way up to 6th in his latest Friday Line. Here's what he had to say:

No race has collapsed quicker for Republicans than this one, where Rep. Chris Chocola (R) finds himself in very serious trouble against 2004 Democratic nominee Joe Donnelly. The root of the incumbent's problems appears to be the unpopularity of the president and governor, but Chocola seems to have also taken his re-election for granted -- a cardinal sin for a Republican in this type of environment. Can Chocola come back? Republican strategists are very skeptical.

That's a bigger jump than any other race in his rankings with the exception of the crazy TX-22, Tom DeLay's old seat.

The IN-8 and IN-9 races were also featured in Chillizza's rankings. The IN-9 race dropped from 6th to 12th as Sodrel preps his dirty attacks that knocked out Baron Hill 2 years ago. In the IN-8 race, Chillizza raised the ranking from 10th to 5th citing Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth nice ideological fit and Hostetler's poor campaigning skills.