Party machines rest on Sept. 11

INDIANAPOLIS -- The state's Democratic and Republican parties and some Indiana congressional candidates plan to suspend campaign commercials or other partisan activities on Sept. 11.\n"We will not have any press releases or anything like that," state Democratic Chairman Peter Manous said. "It's only appropriate that the nation be united as one on such a special day as that, so it would be pretty inappropriate that anything political be going on."\nLuke Messer, executive director of the Indiana Republican Party, said his party is planning to do the same.\n"Obviously Sept. 11 is a sacred day and the Republican Party will not be doing any press releases or campaign commercials," he said.\nNationally, the Republican and Democratic campaign committees overseeing contests for the U.S. Senate and House have pledged to "go dark" on Sept. 11, the date of the terrorist attacks last year. Many candidates across the country have followed suit.\nBoth major party candidates vying for the open House seat in Indiana's hotly contested, northern 2nd District -- Republican Chris Chocola and Democrat Jill Long Thompson -- will suspend radio and television commercials.\nChocola will be off the air from noon Sept. 10 to noon Sept. 12. The camp did not advertise the decision, campaign spokeswoman Laura Zuckerman said.\n"This is just an internal decision that the campaign made not to play politics with Sept. 11," she said. "Buys go week to week, and we didn't make any buys for those days."\nLong Thompson said she would suspend all campaign activities on Sept. 11.\n"It is a day for Hoosiers to join together and pray for the victims' families and for our nation," Long Thompson said in a news release.\nMike Sodrel, a Republican challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Baron Hill in the state's southern 9th District, says he will not broadcast commercials from Sept. 9 through Sept. 13.\nJay Rigdon, a Democrat running against Republican Rep. Mark Souder in the 3rd District in northeast Indiana, plans no ads Sept. 11.\nEd Feigenbaum, publisher of the weekly newsletter Indiana Legislative Insight, said candidates who air television or radio commercials or make other partisan pitches on Sept. 11 risk public backlash.\n"People will be wondering, 'Why are they running that ad or doing this or that when we're in a period of national mourning or remembrance?"' he said.\nMany Indiana Democrats were embarrassed last year when state party officials, on the two days following the Tuesday terrorist attacks, put out newsletters blaming Republicans for Indiana's budget crisis and "playing politics" with the state's financial woes.\nThe press office of Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon called the state party that Thursday and "asked" that further issues of the newsletter be postponed for a while. Party officials obliged.