Former Sen. Coats eyes Bayh's seat

It’s nine months until the General Election in November, but that hasn’t stopped the race for one of Indiana’s Senate seats from heating up.

Democrats have recently attacked candidate and former Republican Sen. Dan Coats for his Washington lobbying history and registration as a voter in Virginia.

Coats retired in 1999 after an 18-year run in Congress. He then worked as a lobbyist with ties to bailout recipients Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, multiple health care firms and foreign governments including Yemen and India.

Coats jumped on the radio waves Wednesday to defend his lobbying work.

Coats told WOWO News Talk Radio in Ft. Wayne that most of his work as a registered lobbyist was merely consultation and strategy. Firms he worked for during
this time registered everyone who might contact lawmakers as a lobbyist, he said.

“Some of the clients mentioned, I didn’t even know they were clients,” Coats told WOWO. “It’s not anywhere near what they’ve said I’ve done.”

Coats said that, to ensure full disclosure, he plans on releasing all lobbying documents he’s involved with.

Coats also went on former Senate colleague Fred Thompson’s radio show Wednesday and said Democratic attacks “sound pretty desperate.”

“Well they’ve rolled it out, and I guess that signals one thing ... we’ve put a real scare into them,” Coats told the former Tennessee Senator. “I think for the first time, maybe ever, Evan Bayh’s going to face a race that is going to put him to the test.”

It wouldn’t take much for Coats to test incumbent Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., more than he’s been in the past.

In 1998 Bayh won an open- seat election by 29 percent of the vote and then again in 2004 as incumbent by 25 percent.

Despite a positive history with the Senate seat, Democrats are still doing their best to frame Coats as a Hoosier outsider.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released an ad using footage of a Sept. 1, 2008, speech in which Coats said he would like to move to his second home in North Carolina “and be a North Carolinian.”

Political science professor Yanna Krupnikov said she’s surprised to see Democrats go negative so early with a successful incumbent like Bayh.

“In my judgment, this is a signal that the Democrats are gearing up for a tough campaign,” she said. “Given the difficulties Obama has had, and the generally mediocre state of the economy, it seems natural that the Democrats may worry about the upcoming election.”

Coats also hasn’t shied away from negativity, saying Bayh did nothing to stop the “liberal agenda” of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

“He talked a good game back home, but when push came to shove he was right there with the liberals, right there with Obama every time,” Coats said.

But if Coats wants any chance of getting on the ballot, he still has to collect 500 petition signatures from each of Indiana’s nine congressional districts before Tuesday’s deadline.

Indiana Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker said Bayh’s camp collected all 4,500 signatures 10 days ago and are filing next week.

Bloomington resident Tamyra d’Ippolito, the only Democratic challenger, said she’s roughly 1,000 signatures short, which could lead to a free pass for Bayh through the May 4 primary.

Despite the addition of a powerhouse name such as Coats to the Republican mix, none of the other five Republican candidates, including former congressman John Hostettler or State Senator Marlin Stutzman, are showing any sign of retreat.

Still, Coats is saying little about Republican challengers and focusing fully on deflecting the current Democratic blitzkrieg.

“Republican voters want to select someone who stands the most reasonable chance of unseating Bayh. If Coats can signal that, it’s important,” Krupnikov said.