The Megathread for All Things Hoosier!

[pabloni21]

do you guys think the gubernatorial contest could be at least mildly competitive?

[pabloni21]

honestly i’m not much of a libertarian party of indiana fan lmao but i do definitely think there’s gonna be some eyes on them. i wonder how Rainwater’s gonna do - god, it’d be hilarious if in Indiana of all states becomes some kind of a sleeper tossup because of the libertarians. 11% is crazy - thoughts on whether they’ll do better or not?

[pabloni21]

well since it appears nobody else is here to speak i guess i still have the floor…

something i’ve noticed when thinking about all the elections i’ve lived through is that… i have never seen a single candidate campaigning where i live. like ever. i’ve met politicians, and paged for my state senator, but on campaign? jack sh**t. where is everyone in this state? this year had my town council elections, and the most i saw from any candidate was one piece of mail in the only contested primary. but, like, even if your seat is uncontested, the least you could do is keep in touch with constituents. show up. maybe i just didn’t walk around enough but i saw nothing in terms of basic retail politics. why does nobody care about even their own elections? it honestly kinda pisses me off.

[pabloni21]

on that note, what would it take for the democrats to start bothering again? has the party just… given up? t’would be a shame for that to be the case, but that’s what it looks like. how would the IN dems get out of this rut?

[pabloni21]

on that note, what would it take for the democrats to start bothering again? has the party just… given up? t’would be a shame for that to be the case, but that’s what it looks like. how would the IN dems get out of this rut?

There are counties Democrats to win statewide absolutely should win and they just don't. Allen (it's ridiculous to me the Democratic County Party in Fort Wayne is a joke with a rotating door of county chairs that usually can't make it 2 years, compared to the Republicans who have had only 2 chairs 1961 onwards), Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh, Clark, Madison, Delaware, Hendricks, Hamilton, maybe Bartholomew, all of the Region, not just Lake County. If they can do that and improve their losing margins in rural counties to be not near as wide, then you can maybe put a plan together.

alright, then, i will!

[pabloni21]

It's over. Rural areas are not voting for Democrats, period. Nobody who's dug this deep into the QAnon Koolaid will vote blue.

for now, perhaps…

but it’s never joever in the long term

[pabloni21]

on that note, what would it take for the democrats to start bothering again? has the party just… given up? t’would be a shame for that to be the case, but that’s what it looks like. how would the IN dems get out of this rut?

No state is forever lost but the fact that the most talented dem pol since bayh, buttigeieg, had to carpetbag to Michigan for a future is a telling sign

Donnelly defeated Richard Mourdock statewide. Buttigieg lost to him statewide by 17 points.

I've never understood what made Pete Buttigieg special compared to say Tom Henry. Comparing mayor to mayor, Henry's accomplishments were arguably better in a city twice South Bend's size that didn't have the advantage of having Notre Dame inside city limits. If Henry ran for President people would've laughed at him.

im active on atlas putting me in the top 0.1% of politically knowledgeable people in the country and i have no clue who tom henry is so that says something

Been Mayor of Fort Wayne for 16 years coinciding with Buttigieg's time as Mayor of South Bend. Is a Democrat. Unlike Buttigieg is straight and older. Fort Wayne is right down the road from South Bend and they're kinda sorta sister cities. Is twice South Bend's size. Has had a renaissance of sorts more impressive than South Bend's physically being in both cities walking around.

buttigieg's accomplushments are irrelevant, he catapulted from being a small time mayor into a cabinet positioin via charisma, being gay, compelling story, etc.

I'm glad we have such high standards for how people in this country how people can become serious candidates for President and be Cabinet secretaries. You can have charisma, be gay, and have a compelling story. That's right up some pro wrestlers' alleyways. More of them should get into politics. They might have no idea how the hell to do the job, but in this era that doesn't matter.

2012 U.S. Senate election in Indiana

Joe Donnelly (Dem) 1,281,181 50.04%
Richard Mourdock (Rep) 1,133,621 44.28%
Andy Horning (Libt) 145,282 5.68%

2010 State Treasurer election in Indiana

Richard Mourdock (Rep) 1,053,527 62.5%
Pete Buttigieg (Dem) 633,243 37.5%

Buttigieg won 4 counties. He did not win his home county of St. Joseph. And at the time of this election the Democratic statewide floor support was 37%, which Buttigieg got. Most talented Democratic politician since Bayh my ass. If he was that talented, he would have not gotten all the blacks (one of the most important constituencies inside the national party due to how reflexively loyalist they are) in South Bend to vilify him and instead found an alternate route to carry out what he wanted to do, which came back to bite him in the ass when he ran for President.

christ did buttigieg even campaign in 2010? granted i was like 4 so i don’t have much in terms of firsthand memories :’p