The Megathread for All Things Hoosier!

[Open Source Intelligence]

https://twitter.com/adamwren/status/1795927278444052671

[gerritcole]

Braun 38.9%
Crouch 21.6%
Chambers 17.5%
Doden 12.5%
Reitenour 5.0%
Hill 4.4%

Braun's 38.9% is about 45k votes more than Jennifer McCormick's 100% in the Democratic primary.

Braun with a pretty weak showing but still a large margin of victory. Crouch carried the Evansville area, while Chambers polled about even with Braun in Marion and Hamilton Counties. Hill coming in last is embarrassing for him, he used to be a rising star. All in all millions of dollars spent for nothing all around.

My thoughts last night:

Low interest election leads to low turnout. The Republican Party was massively splintered for Governor, for Congress…and no one was able to give anyone a reason to catch fire and come out and vote. Braun has been running for Governor for a year and a half and has said pretty much nothing. Trump and name ID carried him (nowhere is name ID more clear than Jefferson Shreve winning the 6th when he was gung-ho pro-gun control running for Mayor of Indianapolis 6 months ago, and he won a safe seat Republican primary because of his name and he’s rich. From watching the ads all these candidates run, they were all the same ad: I’m an outsider (Braun, Crouch, Chambers, and Doden saying they were outsiders is laughable bullsh**t), I’ll secure the border (from what, Kentucky?), I’ll fight Xi Jinping and China (you’re running for Governor, not President). There’s an Adam Wren article in Politico today that is spot-on: the issues harped on were just not at all what’s going on in the state. There’s a massive property tax problem and no one touched it with a ten-foot pole.

Curtis Hill’s political career is done. I’m not sure Brad Chambers’ or Eric Doden’s career should’ve ever started. I don’t know where Crouch goes from here other than private realm. The one place she could maybe go is U.S. Senate because I can’t see Todd Young winning an uncontested primary again in 2028, that’s still 4 years.

For the Senate race, Democrats have their first contested statewide primary in 16 years, and the safe establishment pick got killed 62-38. I’m going to dig into that selection. The safe establishment pick was an old white man running against a black woman. With hardly any Democrat voters in the rural counties, I wonder if Democrats are even capable in a contested primary of producing someone for the whole state versus their urban electorates just controlling everything.

If you want any clearer sign that the Republican Party electorate en masse are splintered (there were something like 50 candidates for 7 Republican Congressional seats), don’t know what they want, and can’t make a decision, the 3rd district gave you that. Stutzman is going to win not getting 25% and 5 candidates got 10%. In the Indianapolis-based 7th, in a 4-way primary Jennifer Pace won for the Republicans. What’s special about that is Pace has been dead since March.

I don’t know if people don’t know how to consolidate now without a leader (read: Trump) telling them how to vote or without the local media covering politics. Newspapers are dead now.

This is a massively disappointing election but I don’t think the Republicans or Democrats have any desire to delve into why. You can’t say people didn’t have choices. The choices just collectively gave nothing.

Great post, woul love to read more of your thoughts on Indiana and other states

[Open Source Intelligence]

Donnelly is resigning as Ambassador to the Vatican (can anyone explain why that is its own diplomatic posting instead of a dual role for the Ambassador to Italy? We have a dual Ambassador for New Zealand and Samoa).

His resignation effective July 8th with the State Convention July 12th has sent rumor mill flying he's replacing McCormick or McCray. McCray is running for Senate antagonistic to the party defeating their preferred candidate handily in the primary in spite of raising hardly any money, and McCormick as a former elected Republican has ran into headwinds as far as Democrats supporting her as well. But probably neither are going anywhere.

https://www.fortwaynepolitics.com/p/despite-rumors-democratic-nominees?utm_source=post-banner&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&publication_id=2480609&post_id=145150535&triedRedirect=true

And later on in the article, the latest update on Evan Bayh's son because a guy that is a general in the Heir Force and just graduated from law school is Indiana Democrats' only hope.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Donnelly is resigning as Ambassador to the Vatican (can anyone explain why that is its own diplomatic posting instead of a dual role for the Ambassador to Italy? We have a dual Ambassador for New Zealand and Samoa).

The Vatican City is significantly more important than Samoa. Also, the role is a plum job for Catholic ex-congressmen and political allies.

[Open Source Intelligence]

Donnelly is resigning as Ambassador to the Vatican (can anyone explain why that is its own diplomatic posting instead of a dual role for the Ambassador to Italy? We have a dual Ambassador for New Zealand and Samoa).

The Vatican City is significantly more important than Samoa.

Some people would dispute that. Samoa is important as concerns Pacific naval security and right next to U.S. possession American Samoa (so obviously we don't want them to be friends with China).

What does the Ambassador to the Vatican do all day? What does the office of the Ambassador do all day? There's no visa processing to worry about.

I get it's a plum job and you get to live in Rome, it's questionable whether it should exist as concerns government efficiency.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Donnelly is resigning as Ambassador to the Vatican (can anyone explain why that is its own diplomatic posting instead of a dual role for the Ambassador to Italy? We have a dual Ambassador for New Zealand and Samoa).

The Vatican City is significantly more important than Samoa.

Some people would dispute that. Samoa is important as concerns Pacific naval security and right next to U.S. possession American Samoa (so obviously we don't want them to be friends with China).

What does the Ambassador to the Vatican do all day? What does the office of the Ambassador do all day? There's no visa processing to worry about.

I get it's a plum job and you get to live in Rome, it's questionable whether it should exist as concerns government efficiency.

The cost of paying for one ambassador is a drop in the bucket compared to the benefits of having a direct line and close relations with the Catholic Church. It's co-located on the same site as the Embassy to Italy and presumably shares the same staff. The job of the ambassador is schmoozing with the Holy See to protect America's national interests.
Meanwhile Samoa is entirely irrelevant to naval security as it has no suitable deepwater anchorages for modern warships, not to mention no armed forces and extremely close ties to New Zealand keeping it from flipping to China. There's a reason America holds control of only eastern Samoa - Pago Pago Harbor is one of the largest and deepest natural ports in the world.

[Open Source Intelligence]

Donnelly is resigning as Ambassador to the Vatican (can anyone explain why that is its own diplomatic posting instead of a dual role for the Ambassador to Italy? We have a dual Ambassador for New Zealand and Samoa).

The Vatican City is significantly more important than Samoa.

Some people would dispute that. Samoa is important as concerns Pacific naval security and right next to U.S. possession American Samoa (so obviously we don't want them to be friends with China).

What does the Ambassador to the Vatican do all day? What does the office of the Ambassador do all day? There's no visa processing to worry about.

I get it's a plum job and you get to live in Rome, it's questionable whether it should exist as concerns government efficiency.

The cost of paying for one ambassador is a drop in the bucket compared to the benefits of having a direct line and close relations with the Catholic Church. It's co-located on the same site as the Embassy to Italy and presumably shares the same staff. The job of the ambassador is schmoozing with the Holy See to protect America's national interests.

So have a single U.S. Ambassador to Italy and the Vatican. If his attention is distracted from one any random day have the Charge d'Affaires take care of it. What's wrong with that?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Donnelly is resigning as Ambassador to the Vatican (can anyone explain why that is its own diplomatic posting instead of a dual role for the Ambassador to Italy? We have a dual Ambassador for New Zealand and Samoa).

The Vatican City is significantly more important than Samoa.

Some people would dispute that. Samoa is important as concerns Pacific naval security and right next to U.S. possession American Samoa (so obviously we don't want them to be friends with China).

What does the Ambassador to the Vatican do all day? What does the office of the Ambassador do all day? There's no visa processing to worry about.

I get it's a plum job and you get to live in Rome, it's questionable whether it should exist as concerns government efficiency.

The cost of paying for one ambassador is a drop in the bucket compared to the benefits of having a direct line and close relations with the Catholic Church. It's co-located on the same site as the Embassy to Italy and presumably shares the same staff. The job of the ambassador is schmoozing with the Holy See to protect America's national interests.

So have a single U.S. Ambassador to Italy and the Vatican. If his attention is distracted from one any random day have the Charge d'Affaires take care of it. What's wrong with that?

You save 200k a year, lose a plum job for your political allies and insult the Vatican by seeing them as not important enough enough to warrant their own ambassador.
The Vatican takes a lot of value from their direct ambassadorial lines to foreign leaders, and apparently vets and rejects some candidates for not upholding catholic values.