IU student adviser to challenge Hill for 9th District

IU graduate student adviser Gretchen Clearwater will challenge incumbent Democrat Baron Hill for Indiana’s 9th District congressional seat, she announced Thursday.\n“I’m primarily running to end the war in Iraq,” Clearwater said in an interview. “It’s an immoral war, and it’s also impacting the 9th District.”\nClearwater, who ran against Hill for the congressional nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, said she filed her candidacy to run in September. She will have to defeat Hill in the May 6, 2008, Democratic primary to win the party’s nomination. \nEnding the war in Iraq, she said, is one of the biggest issues of her campaign. According to an issue statement released by Clearwater, she believes Congress needs to send a clear message to President Bush that the American people should decide whether or not the United States should go to war.\nKatie Moreau, a campaign spokeswoman for Hill, said Hill signed a bill Wednesday night, House Resolution 456, which provides funding mostly for withdrawing troops from Iraq. \n“(Hill) is sending a pretty loud and clear message that the direction (of the war) needs to change and our troops need to come home,” Moreau said. \nClearwater said protecting civil liberties and civil rights and ensuring affordable and quality education are also on her campaign to-do list.\nShe said she plans on taking what she learned from her last campaign and using it to get ahead.\n“It takes a lot to run a grassroots campaign,” she said. “We’re going to get more people then we did last time. We’re going to knock on twice as many doors.”\nClearwater, an IU alumna and current adviser for grad students in the IU Department of Biology, said she’s been in politics nearly all of her life. After working with the Communication Workers of America, she co-founded the Indiana Delegation to Israel and Palestine, a fact-finding mission to meet with leaders dedicated to the cause of peace.\nClearwater was alarmed by the 2000 election, she said, so afterwards she decided to co-found the Bloomington chapter of Common Bonds, an organization dedicated to the promotion of democracy through voter registration. She also co-founded the Committee for Preservation of Democracy, an organization that promoted voting rights and election reform. \n“I’ve learned a great deal since the last time I ran,” she said. “Many residents represent the same views as me, and the 9th District is a district worth representing.”\n-City & State editor Kasey Hawrysz contributed to this report.