Republicans to showcase statewide candidates today

INDIANAPOLIS -- More than 2,000 Republican delegates are expected to gather in Indianapolis Thursday to nominate candidates for statewide office and begin gearing up for the fall campaign season.\nParty leaders say enthusiasm is high among delegates to the state convention who see the fall election as a step toward winning back the governor's office in 2004.\n"They're going to come in here hungry," GOP spokesman Larry MacIntyre said. "There's a sense that momentum is going our way."\nThe party's biggest task for its two-day convention will be choosing a candidate for secretary of state on Friday.\nFour Republicans are vying for the nomination in hopes of replacing incumbent Republican Sue Anne Gilroy, who is barred by law from seeking a third term.\nThe candidates are Deputy Secretary of State Todd Rokita; Marion County Coroner John McGoff; former Vanderburgh County Commissioner Richard Mourdock; and Mike Delph, an aide to U.S. Rep. Dan Burton.\nThe winner will face Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez in the November general election. Fernandez, who won a second term as mayor in 1999, is viewed as a rising star in the state Democratic Party.\nThe Republican convention will be the first for state Chairman Jim Kittle Jr., who was elected to lead the party in January.\n"This is kind of a chance to wave the flag, talk about who we are and talk about the vision of 2002 and 2004 and not looking at the past," Kittle said.\nDelegates will also choose a new party logo and nominate candidates for other state offices, but those nominations are mostly a formality since none of the candidates face party opposition.\nIncumbent Republican Auditor Connie Nass, Treasurer Tim Berry and Clerk of the Courts Brian Bishop face no party challengers in their quest for second four-year terms.\nDemocrats held their state convention June 1. They nominated Jon Bond of Patriot for clerk of the courts, Barb Huston of LaPorte for auditor and Day Smith of Columbia City for treasurer.\nThe Republican convention will take place at the Indiana Convention Center, just blocks from the Statehouse, where lawmakers are embroiled in a special legislative session to address the state's financial problems.\nParty leaders are expected to point to the fiscal crisis and the weak economy as evidence of the need for a change in leadership. The state faces a projected $1 billion budget deficit and has lost 100,000 jobs during the past two years.\nDemocratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan are seeking tax increases to ease the budget crunch. Kernan is widely expected to be the Democratic nominee for governor in 2004.\nConvention organizers plan to answer criticism from O'Bannon, who suggested, during his party's convention, that the state's finances would be in even worse shape if Republicans were in charge. "God forbid," O'Bannon said of the prospect.\n"We will give the governor something to think about," MacIntyre said. "That comment did not go by us unnoticed"