Despite our endorsements, GOP will prevail

This week, our IDS editorial board endorsed candidates in many of the most hotly contested Indiana races in the 2010 midterm elections.

I’m not sure if you noticed, but our selection was based purely on the partisan politics of our editorial board members.

Democrats won every IDS endorsement, even in races in which Democrats would be overestimating if they claimed a “snowball’s chance in hell” of winning.

It is my prediction, and the prediction of statewide and national polls during the past 6 months, that nearly all of the editorial board’s major picks will fail when the votes are counted tonight.

In the race for U.S. Senate, Dan Coats, a former United States Senator and U.S. Ambassador to Germany, leads incumbent Democrat Congressman Brad Ellsworth by 19.3 percent, a stunning lead for any political race.

Most will credit this success to the “Republican tidal wave,” but it is clear to most political observers that Ellsworth’s campaign efforts have been pitiful, choosing to demonize Coats’ service instead of announcing new ideas for the issues that matter: job creation, economic growth and national security.

The “Fightin’ 9th” District congressional race, often cited by political pundits as one of the closest in the U.S., will (and should) be won by political newcomer Todd Young.

Despite his opponents’ repeated attempts to sling mud, including Hill’s lies about Young’s plans for entitlement and tax reform (political pundits, as well as FactCheck.org, recognize Hill’s claims are “factless and without evidence”), have not distracted the citizens of the 9th District from the Congressman’s big-government, liberal voting record.  

Most nationwide nonpartisan polls state that Young leads Hill by between 2 and 4 percentage points.

This one will be a squeaker, folks.  

In the statewide races, the campaigns of the Democratic Party’s nominees for Secretary of State and State Treasurer have received such little media attention that hardly anyone knows their names.

The campaigns of Republican candidates Richard Mourdock (for State Treasurer) and Charlie White (for Secretary of State) have chosen to focus upon the issues instead of the brutal attacks perpetuated by the Indiana Democratic Party and its minions.

Republicans will regain control of the Indiana House of Representatives (with, in my estimation, 55 seats) and maintain their 2-to-1 majority in the Indiana Senate today, giving Governor Daniels the friendly legislature he needs to reform education, local government and the Indiana tax code.

Also, these majorities will allow a Republican majority to fairly draw Indiana’s new congressional and state legislative districts to end a decade of outrageous Democrat-formulated gerrymandering.

In addition, while the IDS editorial board (for God knows what reason) opposed “Question 1”, an initiative to constitutionally limit property taxes for all citizens statewide — it will pass overwhelmingly (I’d venture to forecast at least a 57-43 percent passage). After all, how many voters will cast a ballot to allow government to raise taxes at will?

I’m not a political pundit, nor do I claim to be, but I believe that our editorial board’s endorsement clearly showed an utter disconnect with average Hoosier families.

Continually endorsing second-rate candidates just because of their Democratic Party affiliation has undermined this newspaper’s credibility as an objective news source (case in point, the IDS endorsement of Jill Long-Thompson for governor in 2008).

Wednesday morning, when we wake up to a new Republican majority in Congress and the Statehouse, many people, including several of our IDS editorial board members, will ask “Why?” and “How?”  

The answers are “because our Democratic majority in Congress decided to add $4 trillion to the national debt in the last four years” and “because Americans united for limited government and constitutionalism”.

Democrats lost touch with the American people during the past four years.

It is up to Republican majorities not to lose touch during the next two years.

Today’s election results will be truly historic. At press time, polls indicated that Republicans will gain 62 seats in the U.S. House and nearly retake the majority in the U.S Senate, a more drastic swing than the 1994 “Republican Revolution”.

Get out and vote today, and make your mark on history. You will surely regret it if you don’t.

Today’s Republican victory will be a quiet one. One without the parades and riots that many IU students remember followed President Obama’s historic victory in 2008.

However, it could well prove to be one of the most significant victories in our Republic’s history: a victory for liberty, a victory for morality and a victory for the American Dream.


E-mail: jkingsol@indiana.edu