IN-Sen: Coats retiring

[Senate Minority Leader Lord Voldemort]

Well there goes the RSCC talking point of "muh none of our incumbents are retiring this year muh."

Good for him. I'd want to GTFO too, especially since he served when the Senate did stuff.

[Senate Minority Leader Lord Voldemort]

Holcomb's resume is sufficient for a House seat, but it's difficult for me to see a party-chair/staffer get a non-sacrificial lamb Senate nomination. Stutzman seems likely to run too, but he's very TP and he's got a lot of enemies. There have to be more people coming. There's been some buzz around Todd Young, hasn't there?

I feel like there could be a very large clown-car emerging here on the Republican side

From what I've read, it doesn't sound like Young is very interested.  On a different note, can someone please explain why the Democrats randomly stopped competing for IN-8?

Under the 2012-2020 drawing, it's r+8. Only winnable in a 2006/8 style year, which 2014 was never going to be. Plus, Rep. Buchshon is popular and ran ahead of the PVI in both '12 and '14. Democrats have far better targets for 16, so no sense aiming at the Longshot IN-8.

From what I've heard and read Bucshon's a pretty meh incumbent, hardly a super-entrenched force to be reckoned with.  I also disagree about it being only on the table in a wave.  PVI isn't everything and a strong candidate like Ellsworth or Weinzapfel could certainly put it on the table in even a neutral year, especially with Presidential year turnout.

They don't call it the "Bloody Eighth" for nothing.

[Senate Minority Leader Lord Voldemort]

I'm backing Stutzman. He's been a solid congressman and a solid former state senator. Yes he's TP (so am I). I've spoken with him and we had a good conversation on currency issues. He's also a member of the Liberty Caucus (so is my congressman Rokita) and he'd be in good company in the senate (Rand Paul, Ted Cruz et al)

That's terrifying.

How so

The fact that Ted Cruz is considered "good company" is horrifying. Name literally any other senator and it wouldn't be terrifying.

[Senate Minority Leader Lord Voldemort]

I'm backing Stutzman. He's been a solid congressman and a solid former state senator. Yes he's TP (so am I). I've spoken with him and we had a good conversation on currency issues. He's also a member of the Liberty Caucus (so is my congressman Rokita) and he'd be in good company in the senate (Rand Paul, Ted Cruz et al)

That's terrifying.

How so

The fact that Ted Cruz is considered "good company" is horrifying. Name literally any other senator and it wouldn't be terrifying.

Inhofe? Crapo? Tillis (who never washes his hands)?

Tillis is just a schmuck and Crapo does nothing. But alright, Inhofe's pretty bad.

[Senate Minority Leader Lord Voldemort]

Brooks is out (link coming)

http://paper.li/dsm012/1329336565?edition_id=6b6e3060-e862-11e4-82e4-0cc47a0d164b

 
She's gonna get Tea Partied.

You seem stuck in 2010, talking about how everyone is going to get teabagged. In case you didn't notice, the Tea Party lost every single race in 2014.

*points to Sasse in NE, Brat in VA, Cotton in AR, Ernst in IA, and Lankford in OK.*

Cotton wasn't a tea-party candidate...

Nor was Sasse (guy thought Medicare Part D was a brilliant medical advancement and won praise from Howard Dean), nor was Lankford (there were two Tea Party candidates in that primary and he was not one of them), nor was Ernst (she was the ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATE, the tea party candidate was Sam Clovis).

Wow, Wulfric, unimpressed. Your post gets an F. Please get a clue.

Ernst, Sasse, Lankford, Cotton were notable because they united the establishment and the Tea Party in the general election. I think that's where the perception of them being Tea Partiers comes from.

To be fair, I lump them in a lot of the time with the Tea Party because they vote mostly that way, but they definitely weren't propelled to victory in the same way a lot of the 2010 candidates were.