The election is 54 days away , and the clock is ticking. Since Evan Bayh entered the race for U.S. Senate against Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., 62 days ago, Bayh’s lead has decreased by 17 points.
There is a reason that such as massive lead has shrunk in such a short time. Hoosiers across the state are figuring out that Evan Bayh is a sham.
First, there has been great controversy surrounding Bayh’s residency in Indiana.
After Bayh’s last term in the Senate, which ended in early 2011, he moved to Washington D.C. permanently, listing his two multi-million-dollar homes there as his primary residence. Bayh’s monthly electric bills have averaged less than $20 per month at his Indiana condo since 2012, suggesting little, if any, use.
One “neighbor” that’s lived by Bayh’s condo in Indianapolis for three years had no idea he even lived there.
To add to Bayh’s conundrum, his Indiana voting status is “inactive.”
This is similar to the residence controversy that led former Republican Senator Richard Lugar’s primary defeat to Richard Mourdock in 2012. If Richard Lugar, a beloved six-term senator, isn’t safe from a residency scandal, neither is Evan Bayh.
Hoosiers aren’t wrong to expect that their elected officials actually live in their state. If you are representing us, you should be one of us. Evan Bayh can’t even remember his Indianapolis address. Meanwhile, he continues to claim that he never left.
To add to these problems, Bayh’s voting record in the Senate is dubious at best.
In 12 years in the Senate, Bayh passed a measly two bills. Bayh also cast the deciding vote in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, or Obamacare. Two years on from his decisive vote, he publically admitted that the Medical Device tax, a major part of Obamacare, kills American jobs — including thousands in Indiana — and global competitiveness.
When their times in the U.S. Senate overlapped, Bayh voted with former senator and current president Barack Obama 96 percent of the time and with Hillary Clinton 85 percent of the time.
Bayh left the Senate in early January 2011. Less than a month later, he took lobbying positions with major D.C. firm McGuireWoods LLP, where he lobbied against Obamacare, and private equity firm Apollo Global Management on Wall Street. Evan Bayh is bought by special interests.
It’s this lack of integrity and accountability that makes Bayh such a dangerous figure for Hoosiers.
These votes undoubtedly hurt Hoosier families. How can Evan Bayh be trusted to represent Hoosiers?
To put it plainly, he can’t. Evan Bayh has demonstrated great arrogance by thinking he can come back to Indiana and reclaim what he believes is rightfully his.
Bayh’s long track record of hurting Hoosiers will speak for itself this November. If I were Evan Bayh, I would be very worried about this race. If he thinks he can fool Hoosiers, he can’t.
Evan Bayh has never lost an election, but this will be his first defeat of his career.
