Hill to make another run for the Hill

Former Rep. Baron Hill is back for another round with Rep. Mike Sodrel. \nHill announced Tuesday his candidacy in what is expected to be a very close congressional race for Indiana's 9th District.\nThe 2006 election will mark the third time Sodrel, a Republican from Jeffersonville, Ind., and Hill, a Democrat from Seymour, Ind., have faced each other in an election for the congressional district. In 2002, Hill beat Sodrel by five percentage points, but in 2004, Sodrel beat Hill by only one-half of a percent.\nThe 2006 election is also expected to be very close, said Michael Ensley, an IU political science professor, but Hill currently has the advantage because the national political scene is turning against Republicans.\nThe race will get a lot of attention from the Democratic Party because it is one of the few races nationwide that is competitive, Ensley said. Indiana's 9th District is part of the Democrats' campaign to take back the House of Representatives, in which Republicans currently hold a 232-203 advantage.\nIt will be very difficult for the Democrats to actually win the House, Ensley said, because only 15 to 30 seats are competitive, and the Democrats would have to win 15 of them to regain control.\nTo ensure his victory, Hill said he will answer the false charges that could be thrown at him, something he did not necessarily focus on during the 2004 campaign.\n"In politics today, the driving force is fear," Hill said. \nTwo weeks before the 2004 election, billboards and television commercials appeared that said "Baron Hill is for flag burning" and "Baron Hill supports removing God from the pledge of allegiance," said Scott Wells, a former Democratic Monroe County councilman.\nInstead of letting these false charges stand, Hill said he will have a lawyer call the television station or advertising agency to get false ads dropped.\n"I will set the record straight this time," Hill said.\nBut Cam Savage, the press secretary for Sodrel, said every advertisement the Sodrel campaign ran was factual, and the information was cited in each advertisement.\n"We stand by every ad we did," Savage said.\nBut Hill doesn't want to concentrate on the past. The future is what is most important, and people are worried that Sodrel and President Bush are moving the country in the wrong direction, he said.\n"Sodrel is a rubber stamp for the status quo," Hill said. "I believe in change."\nHill prides himself on being an independent voice in Washington that has his district's interest in mind and not the special interests like Sodrel, he said. The most important thing for a member of Congress to do is pay attention to his local communities, which, he said, Sodrel does not do.\nBut Savage said Sodrel is a rubber stamp for no one. He votes for what he believes in, which includes a strong national defense, less government regulation and lowering the tax burden, he said.\n"(Sodrel's) views are very much in step with the people of southern Indiana," Savage said.\nIraq, along with education, health care and energy independence, are some of the areas where Hill said the country is moving in the wrong direction.\n"Staying the course is unacceptable, like the president wants to do," Hill said.\nEven though he voted for the resolution to authorize the use of force in Iraq, Hill said he was deceived by the president.\n"If I knew what I knew today, I would not have voted for it," Hill said.\nThe only reason he voted for the resolution was because he was taken to the Pentagon where he was shown a centrifuge and a flying drone that he was told could have dropped chemical or biological weapons on America killing millions, he said.\nOnly after seeing this "hard evidence" could he vote for the resolution, but a few months after the vote he learned that Air Force intelligence had told the president and the Pentagon to not use those items as "hard evidence," he said.\n"I was infuriated," Hill said.\nElliot Magers, an IU student, said Hill will win the election as long as he continues to emphasize his independent voice.\n"It's not about being a Republican or Democrat. It's about representing the district," Magers said.