It had promised to be a slow news day when it came to congressional campaigns. Congress has been almost completely shut down for a week on account of snow, and today is President’s Day, so Congress is closed down today as well. In fact, the House won’t come back into session until this Friday, and the Senate won’t start working again until next Monday afternoon.
However, Evan Bayh decided to make an announcement today that creates a tremendous congressional drama. He declared that he will not run for re-election to the U.S. Senate this year.
The deadline for filing petitions to be on the ballot for a Democratic primary for Bayh’s seat in the Senate is this Friday, with petitions needing to be certified noon tomorrow. If no Democratic candidate is able to get that 4,500 valid signatures, 500 from each of 9 congressional districts, together in that time, then the Indiana Democratic Party’s executive committee will be able to merely appoint the Democratic nominee.
It seems that Senator Bayh arranged matters so that the Democratic voters of Indiana would be deprived of the democratic right to choose their own nominee for Senate – and who would the appointed of the state Democratic Party nominee be? Current U.S. Representative Brad Ellsworth has mentioned that he’s interested in the job. It just so happens that Bayh and Ellsworth have been campaigning together. It looks as if there may be a party insider fix to get Ellsworth the Democratic nomination.
Congressman Ellsworth is much like Evan Bayh. Evan Bayh has the most right wing voting record of any Democrat in the U.S. Senate. Ellsworth is a member of the right wing Blue Dog Democrats, and has worked to cripple a great deal progressive legislation.
There is another possibility for Indiana’s Senate race, however. Some weeks ago, a genuine progressive Democrat, Tamyra D’Ippolito, launched a primary political campaign to challenge Evan Bayh. She may be within reach of gaining the necessary signatures. If she can get her petitions filled in time, D’Ippolito could be the only Democrat to run in the party’s Senate primary, and the Indiana Democratic Party insiders couldn’t do a thing to prevent her from being the nominee.
D’Ippolito would be a very different kind of Democratic Senator than Evan Bayh. She marched against the invasion of Iraq back in 2002, and was back out on the streets, marching for peace again just yesterday, before the news of Bayh’s withdrawal broke.
D’Ippolito’s campaign looks as if it doesn’t have a great deal of money, so it’s by no means certain that she’ll get the signatures she needs – about 1,000 still required. If you’re a progressive Democratic in Indiana who would like to help keep a U.S. Senate seat out of the hands of right wing politicians, give the D’Ippolito campaign a call at 812.323.9005 or 812-650-2072 (or stop in at campaign HQ at 1108 S. Madison St. in Bloomington) and see what you can do to help. See more about the petitioning effort at Hoosier Access.
There’s also a fundraising site for D’Ippolito at Act Blue, and you can follow the progress of the petitioning drive at D’Ippolito’s Twitter account. In a time when progressive activists seem to have been generally cut out of the political debate, this is an opportunity to make a genuine difference.
