Fightin’ words in the Fightin’ 9th

The race to represent Indiana’s 9th Congressional District, which includes Bloomington, parts of Columbus and much of the southeastern part of the state, has taken a turn in recent weeks.

Todd Young, a Marine veteran and former adjunct professor in School of Public and Environmental Affairs, recently took a narrow lead in polling over incumbent Democratic Rep. Baron Hill, who has held the seat for five of the last six congressional terms. 

As of Sept. 15, the polling service Election Projection had Young with a 1.4 percentage point lead over Hill, which, while narrow, is Young’s first lead of the general election season.

At the same time that it has become a statistical dead heat, the contest has also taken a rhetorical turn toward the vitriolic.

Both of the major party candidates have recently released commercials that slam each other with nary a trace of mercy.

A new Young ad features clips of Hill in a 2009 town hall meeting at which he told the audience, “This is my town hall meeting,” and said, “You’re not going to tell me how to run my congressional office.”

The intent of the ad is to paint Hill as an elitist who is out of touch with the voters of the 9th District, something Young is also trying to do by highlighting Hill’s votes for the carbon dioxide cap-and-trade bill and the health care reform package, neither of which are popular with a majority of 9th District voters.

Not to be outdone, Hill has put out an ad showing a clip in which Young calls Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” that is juxtaposed with testimonials from senior citizens who clearly find Young’s characterization of the program abominable.

This ad furthers Hill’s apparent goal of characterizing Young as indifferent to the plight of groups such as retirees, the uninsured and lower and middle class
families.

FiveThirtyEight.com, a polling aggregation website affiliated with the New York Times with a remarkable record of accurately forecasting election outcomes, expects Republicans to take back control of the House of Representatives and gain a narrow 11-seat majority, so races such as the one in the 9th District carry national importance.

The contest is so important to the outcome of the midterm elections, in fact, that it was featured in a recent article in The Economist.

When a congressional race in rural Indiana makes headlines in a major global publication, you know it’s big. Stay tuned to the 9th District contest — it only promises to get more interesting.