Southern Indiana lawyer exploring run for 9th District seat

Todd Young, a Southern Indiana lawyer and former policy adviser to Sen. Dick Lugar, filed the necessary papers with the Federal Election Commission last week to create an exploratory campaign committee for the Indiana’s 9th Congressional District.

But that does not mean Young has officially announced his candidacy, said Michael Ensley, a political science professor at IU.

An exploratory campaign allows an individual “to gain name recognition and start fundraising,” Ensley said in an e-mail interview.

Young said he hopes to talk to a lot of Hoosiers to gain support – both moral and financial.

“I will expect to be talking to many Hoosiers who may be interested in supporting a candidate who supports my views and priorities,” Young said in an e-mail interview.
“This will certainly play a major role in my decision.”

Baron Hill was reelected the district’s representative on Nov. 4.

One of Young’s main reasons for running for office in 2010 is in response to President Barack Obama’s new stimulus bill.

Young said he believes the bill is inefficient and will force tax increases on Americans or reduce the buying power of savings and retirement accounts.

Young said he hoped to eliminate the federal deficit without raising taxes.

“The first – and most critical step – is to reduce government spending for ineffective programs that are not needed,” Young said in an e-mail. “The second step is to restore growth in the economy.”

Young said that he believed the reason the federal budget was in a surplus 10 years ago was because Congress protected “the value of the dollar by enforcing strict spending controls on the Administration.”

In the past 45 years, this district has seen one Republican Congressman, Mike Sodrel, who served one term in 2005. Indiana’s 9th District is comprised of 20 counties in the southeastern part of the state, including Monroe County.

“Although this seat has been held by Democrats more often than not in recent decades, there is a good chance that a Republican can win the 9th District,” Ensley said in an e-mail interview. He said that “the district does vote in favor of Republican presidential candidates often.”

Young was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 2000 with the rank of captain. After graduating cum laude from the U.S. Naval Academy, he received his MBA from the University of Chicago.

Young then served under Sen. Lugar as a legislative assistant for energy policy. In 2003, upon returning to Indiana to volunteer for Gov. Mitch Daniels’ campaign, he worked as an adjunct professor of public affairs at IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Currently he is a lawyer with Tucker and Tucker, P.C., a southern Indiana law firm.
Young lives in Bloomington with his wife and two daughters.