Democrats hold convention in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS -- Hundreds of Democrats gathered for their state convention Saturday to celebrate their fall ticket with rally cries from their two top generals, Gov. Joe Kernan and U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh.\nThey also planned to formally nominate Lt. Gov. Kathy Davis as Kernan's running mate, state party Chairman Joe Hogsett as their candidate for attorney general, and former Indianapolis City-County Councilwoman Susan Williams as their choice for state school chief.\nWilliams is running for superintendent of public instruction saying that she might resign if elected so the winner of the governor's race -- even if it is Republican Mitch Daniels instead of Kernan -- can appoint someone else if he wants.\nKernan and Williams say the post should be an appointed position so the governor and top school official can work off the same page in directing education policy.\nAs Republicans did earlier this week at their state convention, Democrats avoided having any contested nominations, so Saturday's event was primarily a pep rally heading into the November election.\nAlthough Bayh is a huge favorite to win a second term in the Senate, the governor's race between Kernan and Daniels is already contentious and is expected to end up as the most expensive political race in state history.\nThe previous record was set in 2000, when the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon and Republican David McIntosh combined to spend more than $19 million.\nBayh faces Republican Marvin Scott, a sociology professor at Butler University who has run unsuccessfully for the congressional seat covering most of Indianapolis.\nWhen Bayh ended his second term as governor in early 1997, his public approval rating was 79 percent, and two years later he trounced Republican Paul Helmke to win the U.S. Senate seat once held by his father, Birch Bayh. There has been little to suggest that Bayh's popularity has waned.\nDelegates also were to hear Saturday from Indiana House Speaker Patrick Bauer, who has delivered some of the most fiery speeches in the chamber over the past several years.\nHe was sure to encourage Democrats to get fully behind the party's House candidates, since Democrats have only a 51-49 advantage heading into November. Democrats have controlled the House for all but two years since late 1990.\nBut they lost two seats in 2002, even though they tried to redraw district maps to their advantage. And they kept control only by virtue of a 37-vote victory in a district covering parts of Hamilton and Marion counties.