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(10/15/01 4:23am)
After work, Mary Ann Winkle drives to her Tweety Bird-lined home, slaps together a ham sandwich and drives back to campus to turn in a paper and spar in a class debate. She loves her classmates, who describe her as "your typical good student in class." \nWinkle is 61. \n"She acts like she's 20," Michael Hunsaker, a senior, said. Hunsaker works with Winkle and had a geography class with her. "She takes too many notes, in my opinion, but that's good in the long run."\nWinkle reads a lot, too. She is taking six credits this semester to go along with her job at Franklin Hall where she works 40 hours a week with the work study programs and payroll. She has seven books for her history class about American Indians and is currently reading, "The Last of the Mohicans." \nWinkle said she does not watch very much television, just the news. "I have a lot of energy," she said. "I like to stay busy." \nHer notes and diligence were rewarded last spring when she was named one of 15 Chancellor's Scholars, the only representative from the Continuing Studies Department to be honored. She credits her father for her work effort.\n"My dad was actually the hardest worker I've ever known," she said. "He was also probably the most honest."\nJoseph Silnes built race cars in Norway for the Indianapolis 500. A picture of Norway still hangs over Winkle's head in her home library where she studies. The shelves are lined with the Serenity Prayer, biographies of presidents, Power Puff Girls figurines and the Bible. Other trinkets add character to her favorite spot in the house -- pottery her children painted that she glued back together after it broke, stuffed moose and fish and copies of the martial arts book and video written by her oldest son Jason. \n"I just love to have books around me -- it's such a comfort to me," she said. She volunteered in her children's school library for 12 years. \n"She's been very supportive of my brother and I in everything we've done," her son, Jason, said. During the summer, the family would crowd into their one-bedroom cottage on Lake Lemon and water-ski. \nWhen her children were about 10, Winkle decided to compete in a water-skiing tournament against her friend -- and the IU water-skiing team. She practiced on the water each night until the police ordered her to get off. \nHer friend beat her at the competition, but both ladies finished ahead of the entire IU team. As she walked back, she heard another girl say, "Those two old ladies beat us." \n"I'm not a naturally athletic person, I don't think, but I can ski," Winkle said.\n"I think next to me, that's her next love," husband Bill Winkle said. \nWhen her children got older, she decided to go to college. She had always stressed the importance of education to her children.\n"One day I thought, 'Oh my gosh, they're going to be ahead of me pretty soon.' I just wanted to get that degree," she said.\nWinkle earned her associate degree in General Studies and graduated with her oldest son, Jason, in 1997. She also received an Associate Degree in Accounting at Ivy Tech and worked part-time as an accountant. Her love of learning and reading has kept her taking classes, and she hopes to be a librarian someday.\nAfter her children graduated from Indiana University, she and her husband moved to the cottage where they used to ski during the summer. The couple expanded the house to about five times its original size and the whole family helped build the deck and pour eighty tons of rocks around the boat dock in September. \n"This place is kind of a do it yourself project," Mary Ann said. Her family is used to working together, and Winkle has relied on that support a great deal the past few years. \nJason remembers getting a call from his mother one February morning in 1996. She had breast cancer. It had spread to her lymph nodes and was in stage three of four stages. \n"She told me that she wanted me to know but she didn't want me to worry because she was going to beat it," Jason said. "'I need your love and your support to do it,' she told me. \n"I think I about broke down, but I remember knowing that if anyone could beat it, it would be her."\nWinkle called a friend she knew who taught a class about cancer. Her friend warned her it could scare her to death, but she took it anyway. \nHer exercise and sense of humor did not lag, either. She said her doctor told her husband that "I usually have to tell people to be more active when they're going through chemotherapy, and I have to tell your wife to slow down." She also had a tattoo of Tweety Bird put on her chest after her mastectomy. \nWinkle said her family was key to her survival, also. "We just all started doing more together," she said. "It was like they were all trying to protect me."\nFive years later, the cancer is in complete remission. She finished her prescription of tamoxifin in May and is in a clinical trial for another cancer drug that is being tested for its effectiveness in preventing the recurrence of cancer in post-menopause women. \nShe plans to graduate in August and eventually be a librarian. Her gray hair might reveal her six decades of work and battle with cancer, but splotches of blonde still shine and her roots are still dark. \n"She's young at heart," Bill said. "And she just doesn't want to get old"
(11/10/00 4:24am)
Hoosiers hired and fired more than a dozen public servants Tuesday. While the nation scrutinizes Florida's election results, unsuccessful Indiana candidates rest, make future career plans and watch the presidential battle unfold.\n"I'm trying to find out where I can serve the most people," said Republican Congressman David McIntosh, who lost his election bid to incumbent Democrat Gov. Frank O'Bannon.\nHis wife, Ruthie McIntosh, said she was not disappointed.\n"We're proud, we're not embarrassed," she said. \nThe couple said they plan to take a vacation and spend more time with their daughter, Ellie. After the break, McIntosh said he will decide his next career move. He is considering returning to public service, practicing law, helping make a high-tech company successful in Indiana or working on policy. \n"God has a plan for each of our lives and we have to seek to follow His will for what we should be doing," McIntosh said.\nRepublican Randy May, who lost his re-election bid for county council, said he will return to his construction business. \n"I'll be trying to put food on the table," he said. But he said he plans to stay involved with local politics, and might run again in 2002.\nDemocrat Scott Wells defeated May and avoided a Republican sweep in the city council by about 60 votes. But May said Wells' claim that the vote was a mandate was not accurate, because the vote was close and May received more votes than anyone in the rural precincts.\n"It may be what the city people want, but it's not what the rural people want," May said.\nMay said he will emphasize the rights of rural voters at his last two county council meetings, and attend the meetings next year as well.\n"When I see something going on that affects rural people, I will be there to voice my opinion about it," May said.\nHis wife, Suzanne May, said she admires her husband's passion but is not upset that he lost.\n"I really want the Lord's will in our lives and if it's not the Lord's will, than I don't want it," she said.\nDr. Paul Perry will return to his medical practice in Evansville after a vacation, said Chris Maples, a field director for the Perry campaign. Perry lost his bid for Congress in Indiana's eighth district to Republican incumbent John Hostettler. \nCandidates and their campaign workers are keeping an eye on the presidential election, which Maples said hurt Perry.\n"Gore really hurt us in the district," Maples said. "Bush won Monroe County, and that's something that never should have happened ... I can tell you (Perry's loss) wasn't because of Hostettler's groundwork because it is not what it's cracked up to be."\nRegardless of who is the next president and who won and lost local elections, McIntosh said America's democracy will continue without a hitch.\n"The great thing about America is that, in our democracy, the next day we all pitch in, we all help," McIntosh said.
(11/09/00 4:16am)
Students strolled to class, dreary from watching last night's electoral stalemate between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. Class lessons were chucked for conversations and predictions about who would win the presidential election.\nJunior Anita Trivedi said she monitored the results Tuesday night until 4:30 a.m.\n"At that point, I had to give up because I had a 9 a.m. class," she said. \nTrivedi said she voted for Bush, who CNN declared the winner at about 2:30 a.m. before realizing the returns in Florida were too close to call. Two hours later, the electoral votes from the Sunshine State were back in the undecided category, and the country is still waiting for a winner. Trivedi said she is not worried about the election results, but was disappointed the media misinformed the public.\nSophomore Steve Charles said he went to bed at about 2:30 a.m. thinking Bush had won. When he woke up and checked CNN, he found the results were far from certain. \n"They had been wrong before in Florida earlier in the night, and I thought, I guess they are still wrong," Charles said. "The political analysts can't predict what's happening."\nSenior Jenn Dover stared at the television in the Indiana Memorial Union's Commons Wednesday after Gore spoke. He said it was essential to obey the Constitution and wait for the results of the Electoral College before determining who is president. Gore led the popular vote Wednesday afternoon, with only absentee ballots in Florida to be counted.\n"He has won the popular vote and I just want him to win," Dover said.\nBut despite all the excitement, Trivedi said America's electoral process is managing just fine.\n"It's business as usual," she said. "It's our government ... We're probably one of the few countries in the world where we have a peaceful turnover of power"
(11/06/00 5:57pm)
Rep. David McIntosh (R-2nd) and Gov. Frank O'Bannon, the Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates, continue to focus on education while traveling the state frantically gathering last-minute votes. \nThe candidates say they agree education is necessary to train Hoosiers for jobs that will keep the state's economy growing. Candidates also expect improved education to attract others to work in Indiana without being afraid of sending their children to the state's schools. But they disagree on the status of Indiana's schools and how to improve them.\nThe McIntosh campaign accuses O'Bannon of being unsuccessful in educational reforms. Richard Martin, who does grassroots work for the campaign, highlighted Indiana's low scores on the SAT and advanced placement tests. O'Bannon said Indiana has ranked in the lower one-third in SAT scores.\n"We believe things could be better," Martin said. \nBut O'Bannon said SAT scores provide poor comparisons because less than 10 percent of the students take the test in states that perform best, but 60 percent of students in Indiana take the test. Other studies ranked Indiana in the top 20 in 1996 among states for reading and math, and the state's graduation rate is the highest in its history, O'Bannon said. \nThe O'Bannon campaign highlights two bills to improve standards in Indiana's schools and develop local plans for schools to meet these standards. SEA 235 chartered the Education Roundtable, which calls community leaders, teachers and state representatives to work with the governor to develop standards for education in Indiana. HEA 1750 offers incentives for schools to improve performance. \nThe state's new standards for teachers lead the country, according to the Indiana Professional Standards Board.\nMcIntosh plans to offer tax credits, increase wages and conduct teacher reviews to get better teachers in Indiana's schools. He also plans to increase performance-oriented feedback and to increase order in classrooms by protecting schools from frivolous lawsuits and giving teachers more control over their classrooms. McIntosh supports charter schools and believes the state -- not parents -- should pay for textbooks.\nThe candidates agree education affects jobs and Indiana's economy.\nBoth plan to build technology centers at universities like IU and to start a private sector of high-tech jobs. McIntosh said these jobs will keep graduates in Indiana and make the state's economy competitive with other states.\n"When we build the high-tech industry, our young people can decide, 'I can stay near home, live in Indiana … raise my family and also have a great career,'" McIntosh said.\nHis campaign said O'Bannon's work on education has not prepared students to work in these jobs and drives away other people who are afraid to send their children to Indiana's schools. \n"If we don't improve our education numbers, the employees aren't going to want to come here," Martin said. "With how fast the (national) economy is growing … we could really get left behind if things stay the way they are." \nO'Bannon disagrees with attacks that Indiana's education is failing and costing the state jobs. O'Bannon did support legislation to make $50 million available in the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund for businesses and universities to do research and foster high-wage, high-skill jobs.\nThe candidates have found common ground amid their disagreements on public schools, test scores, training for high-tech jobs and education's effects on Indiana's economy. Both support all-day kindergarten.
(11/02/00 4:44am)
Gov. Frank O'Bannon and Rep. David McIntosh, the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor, have sparred for months about plans to cut property taxes after property values are reassessed next year.\nMcIntosh vows to cut property taxes 25 percent from what they are now, before reassessment.\nO'Bannon argues the cut is impossible without chopping necessary government programs and says he will keep property taxes about where they are now, with the average homeowner paying $1,100.\nMike McNeily, a junior, said his landlord already told him the rental rate for his apartment would rise with higher property taxes, but McNeily said he doesn\'t expect the landowner to reduce his rate if either candidate cuts property taxes.\n"I bet you they'd still screw me," McNeily said.\nAssociate economics professor Jean Rotella said students have more power than they think over who actually pays taxes. Landowners will try to pass on higher taxes to students who rent apartments and keep tax cuts for themselves, he said. But the increase in Bloomington apartments in the past few years and Willkie's new suites and apartments give renters choices and makes landowners have to compete for their business, Rotella said. \n"Competition constrains everybody," Rotella said. "Certainly (students) are going to get some of the benefits."\nBut the candidates have to get their property tax plans implemented first.\nTwo years ago, the courts ordered the state to provide a manual by December to reassess property values in Indiana. This is the first time in about a decade that reassessments will occur.\nProperty owners and government officials expect reassessment to fix unequal values on properties that have been used to figure taxes. The new values will also include inflation. The result will be higher property values, which means higher taxes.\nBoth camps estimate reassessment will raise property taxes about 33 percent, with homeowners bearing the brunt of the raise. Property taxes provide the majority of local governments' funds.\nCandidates have two options to lower taxes once reassessment is done and property values increase. They can lower the tax rate on property, which would decrease the money local governments get, or they can increase the state property tax replacement, which is the portion of the tax the state pays in place of the property owner.\nMcIntosh plans to use the second option. The reassessed land will raise the property taxes paid in 2003. McIntosh wants to protect homeowners that year with a homestead credit, which would pay about 10 percent of the bill. Once he sees how much property taxes increase, McIntosh will raise the homestead credit to cut property taxes by an average of 25 percent from what homeowners pay now.\nMcIntosh said the tax cuts give homeowners more freedom to spend their money how they want to.\n"I believe in freedom a great deal," he said. \nO'Bannon said the state government cannot afford to subsidize local property taxes that much without sacrificing state programs.\nLeah Dietrick, a spokeswoman for the McIntosh campaign, said the state government would pay for the homestead credit by reducing the growth in state spending from 8 to 9 percent each year to 1 percent above the rate of inflation, which is 3.5 percent. She said the state did that in the 1970s and 1980s. She said the McIntosh administration would also manage the budget better than O'Bannon has and would cut $70 million out of the government's overhead costs.\nO'Bannon said the cut would chop state funds for environmental programs, in-home health care and other services.\n"(McIntosh) either has to raise (state) taxes or … remove basic services for the people of the state of Indiana," O'Bannon said.\nO'Bannon said he will provide a shelter allowance, which will reduce the assessed value and taxes people pay on property they live in. He also will cut the portion of the property tax that goes to welfare and pay for it with state funds instead. The third part of his plan will change the depreciation rate of personal property, which will reduce the taxes homeowners pay. O'Bannon expects his plan to keep property taxes about the same as before reassessment.\nThe property tax debate and pending apartment rates still do not affect some IU students' vote.\n"I've already decided who I'm voting for for governor," said Andrew Bowers, an IU alumnus who rents a house on First Street with three IU students. "Property taxes do not affect who I'll vote for"
(10/30/00 6:23am)
The team filed out of the statehouse parking lot and loaded a charter bus Friday afternoon as managers checked the drink cooler and got ready to call roll. Gov. Frank O'Bannon -- here, Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan -- here, the Johnson team -- here … \nThe Democratic candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent and senator made the first three of 30 stops on the O'Bannon Victory Express leading up to Nov. 7.\nThe team included two Harvard graduates, an alumnus of IU's law school and others who never took the LSAT. But they had a common goal of getting their party elected.\n"We need a Democratic sweep from the White House to the courthouse in Brownstown," said Gerald McCullum, the Democratic nominee for state superintendent of public instruction.\nWireless phones pressed to passengers' ears, and red, white and blue signs taped to bus windows made the trip a cross between a corporate flight and a high school road game.\nThe candidates sat with their staffs and families. Karen Freeman-Wilson put her arm around her 6-year-old daughter, Jordan, on the way to Seymour. Other candidates re-thought their remarks, talked about the Democratic tilt of Southern Indiana's towns and reviewed the routine of introductions with campaign managers. \nAbout 150 people greeted them in Seymour to cheer on O'Bannon and the Democratic Party. Seymour resident John Martindale said he planned to vote for O'Bannon because "he's just one of those good ole' boys."\nThe candidates were out of Seymour in 20 minutes and headed to Columbus with a gift basket from Seymour Democrats. \nBack on the bus, McCullum and his wife talked about how sad it was that one of their old friends in Seymour had to have his legs amputated. Communications director Doug Davidoff told O'Bannon about all of the media who would want to talk with him in Columbus. \nWhen they arrived in Columbus, David Johnson, the Democratic nominee for senator, looked at the crowd and said it was different than in 1988, when Gov. Evan Bayh became the first Democratic governor in Indiana in more than 25 years.\nAlong with about 150 Columbus residents, former Senator Birch Bayh met the Democratic candidates and gave them his support. \n"In one day, Dave Johnson did more for farmers than Dick Lugar has in 24 years," he said.\nKernan gave the crowd a "McUpdate," referring to Congressman David McIntosh, O'Bannon's main competition for governor. Kernan attacked McIntosh's missed votes and negative comments in his campaign for governor. \nAt 6:30 p.m., the team filed back on the bus and headed for Bloomington.\nThe bus stopped at the Barnes and Nobles bookstore on Third Street to pick up Dr. Paul Perry, who is running for congressman in the 8th District against Republican incumbent John Hostettler.\nHe told about 200 students, professors, union workers and other Bloomington residents outside the Plumbers and Steam Fitters Union Hall, 1650 W. Bloomfield Rd., that he would work for a patients' bill of rights and cheaper prescription drugs as part of his healthcare plan.\n"Let's put a doctor in the house!" Perry said.\nIndiana first lady Judy O'Bannon reminded the audience that no one had voted yet and warned them not to be apathetic.\n"All of you are the ones who are really, from now on, going to determine the outcome of this election," she said. \nGov. O'Bannon closed out the night. He told those in attendance he enjoyed the last four years and wanted another four to work on issues like education. On the way home, he talked about the improvement Indiana has seen over the past five years and keeping high standards.\n"I end up being a cheerleader for the state," he said. "But it's about honest facts and figures."\nLater, he went around to others on the bus who were talking casually about the campaign and the positive changes they thought should be made for healthcare and education.\n"As you can tell, this is the fun part of campaigning because we've got a family with us," O'Bannon said.\nThe team returned to the statehouse at 9:30 p.m. The candidates told each other they enjoyed the trip and then headed to their homes and hotels to get ready to go again at 8:30 a.m.\n"When you travel around the state, you better like the people on the bus," said Robin Winston, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party.
(10/24/00 7:47am)
Everything in his life pointed to politics -- conservative politics -- but David McIntosh never planned to be a politician. \nNow, Congressman McIntosh, R-2nd, 41, is Indiana's Republican nominee for governor.\nMcIntosh moved with his mother, two sisters and brother from California to Kendallville, Ind., when he was 5. His father, Norman, had died of stomach cancer and his mother, Jean, wanted to be closer to her two brothers.\nIn Kendallville, he and his siblings rode bikes around the neighborhood. He recalls that they prided themselves on knowing every street, and the neighbors looked out for each other. McIntosh didn't play many sports, but he did enjoy riding his bike, studying American history and being on the debate team, he said.\n"As I look back, many of the things I took for granted then really shaped the way I am today," McIntosh said.\nHis mother was the city judge, and he followed her when she went campaigning. McIntosh didn't plan to follow her political footsteps, but he said he enjoyed the trips they made.\nHis mother's lessons laid the framework for his conservative views.\n"She always encouraged me to be looking out for my younger brother and sisters," McIntosh said. "What I realized then was those ties in the family are critical.… That bond of love is something that is unique and needs to be fostered." \nEven though McIntosh developed his conservative, pro-family philosophy long before replacing his backpack with a briefcase. His mother, the city judge, raised him as a Democrat, and even though he did not plan to enter politics, he thought he would always pull the lever on the left, until he got to college.\nMcIntosh graduated among the top of his class at East Noble High School and went to Yale. He said he realized that his pro-family, Christian perspective was too conservative to fit in with Democrats. \n"I thought I was a Democrat and liberal, and then I went to college and realized my views were conservative," he said. "I had a strong faith and belief in freedom and free markets."\nIn 1980, he voted for Ronald Reagan. He still didn't plan to enter politics, but in a few years he would be working for Reagan.\nAfter graduating from law school at the University of Chicago, one of McIntosh's friends told him about a job opening in the U.S. Attorney General's office. McIntosh hadtrained under Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and he was interested in constitutional law. He ended up in the Justice Department and worked on domestic policy in Reagan's White House. Later, he worked with Vice President Dan Quayle. \nWhen the Democrats won the White House in 1992, McIntosh went to work with Quayle at a conservative think tank in Indianapolis, and he married Ruthie McManus in 1993. \n "He sat next to my mother at an Episcopal church in Virginia," she said. "She talked his ear off and dragged him across the courtyard to introduce us."\n His humility also drew Ruthie's attention to her future husband. When she asked where he went to college, he told her it was a school in Connecticut. Later, she found out it was Yale. \n "He was the master of understatement," she said. "So many people had bragged who had no right to brag, and he had bragging rights and he didn't use them."\n The couple settled in Muncie. The next year, McIntosh -- with the full support of his wife -- won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. \n "Every wife has a different role," she said. "I try to just be in the audience when he's talking and give him a great, huge smile ... I have no agenda other than loving him."\nMcIntosh said his first priority is his family.\n"I realized probably after the first couple years of marriage that if it meant giving up a career in politics for my wife and my family then I would do that," McIntosh said.\nApplying his family focus to policy, he wants to abolish the marriage tax. \n"Financial pressures are one of the big reasons families break up, and the government doesn't need to be one of those pressures," he said. "I don't want to create a situation where if you get a divorce you get a tax break."\nAnd the marriage tax is not the only tax he wants to cut. McIntosh is avid about cutting property taxes. \nThe best governments allow people to be free, McIntosh said. The government should protect the economy and provide a safety net where necessary.\n"If I were on welfare I would not want a handout," he said, "but I would want somebody to be there when I'm completely penniless."\nFaith-based groups and other organizations usually fill that role better, though, McIntosh said.\nWhen he was 25, McIntosh volunteered to work with teenagers in a church youth group. He said he saw both the painful effects bad families can have on children and the powerful effects churches and families can have.\n"Part of government and politics is taking some of those values and experiences and finding out how to use them to help people," he said.\nPeople who help him campaign see how much he believes in the policies. \n"I think he's a very solid man with strong convictions, a strong moral basis," junior Anne Scuffham, who works for the McIntosh campaign as the youth coordinator for IU.
(10/11/00 5:38am)
Indiana has not contributed a single electoral college vote to the Democratic Party since 1964. For the last 36 years, Republicans have been able to claim victory in the state before the first voter closed the curtain and pulled the lever. \nBut the days of a Republican monopoly in Indiana might be numbered.\n"Republicans have won very few major party elections in the past 12 years," said Doug Davidoff, the communications director for the Indiana Democratic Party.\nIndiana's governor, one senator and the mayor of four of the state\'s five largest cities are now Democrats.\nIndiana has been an indicator state for years. If the Republican presidential nominee doesn't beat his opponent by double digits in Indiana, he will lose the national election. At least it's been that way since 1964. This trend could mean trouble for Republican nominee George W. Bush, since his lead in the state has dropped from 20 percent four months ago to less than 10 percent, according to a September poll conducted by Research 2000 and published in the Indianapolis Star.\nThat margin makes some Hoosiers question if Republicans still have the state secured for one of the tightest presidential elections this century.\nIndiana is still a conservative state filled with "conservative, cautious" people, said Brian Howey, a columnist whose report is published in 25 papers. The Democratic Party has been more successful recently because of the more conservative image that former governor Evan Bayh ushered in.\nBayh was one of the most conservative governors Indiana has had, and he created a new hybrid of Democrat who is fiscally conservative and less liberal on social issues, Howey said. The Democratic speaker of the state's House of Representative is pro-life, and Bayh supported the ban on partial birth abortions. Both are considered to be conservative stances.\n"(Bayh) created a party that mirrors his image," Howey said. "(The Democrats have) talked about issues that really matter, whereas the Republicans seem to be a broken record on tax cuts."\nDavidoff said Hoosiers identify with Democrats like Bayh and that the party is making headway in Indiana. He agreed Hoosiers are conservative, but he said the party\'s success indicates it has become more conservative, too. The party is well-organized throughout Indiana, and if it keeps nominating more conservative candidates then a Democrat will win Indiana in one of the next few elections, he said.\nRepublicans don't think political lines in the state have changed much because of the conservative Democrats.\n"I think it's still firmly Republican," said Lora Williams, executive director for the Indiana Republican state committee. Democrats have won local elections because of personal relationships, not party affiliation, she said.\n"You're more likely to know the mayor or know someone who is related to the mayor or who has baby-sat for the mayor," Williams said.\nIn state and national elections, candidates' personalities, not their ideologies, have attracted voters to Democrats for the past decade, Williams said. \nHoosiers' conservative, traditional lifestyle will deter them from voting for a Democratic president in the future, Williams said.\n"We haven't since 1964, so I doubt if we will any time soon," she said.\nNeither party admits any change in campaign plans this year. Devona Dollioli, deputy national spokesperson for the Gore-Lieberman campaign, made no indication that Indiana is a battleground state or that an upset is possible this year.\n"Indiana is certainly one state that we are hoping to win," she said. "Of course, we're campaigning hard in every state."\nRepublicans do not feel a sense of urgency for heavy campaigning in Indiana either, said Bob Hopkins, the regional spokesperson for the Bush-Cheney campaign. Indiana has voted Republican the last eight presidential elections and is enjoying a comfortable lead this year, Hopkins said. But he did note that Democrats have recently enjoyed success around the state.\n"We're certainly not taking anything for granted in Indiana," he said.\nWhile there has been a more moderate trend in recent voting, IU College Republicans president Anne Scuffham said Republicans are secure that the scales won't tip too far to the left. \n"You're not going to see a liberal Ted Kennedy elected from Indiana," Scuffham said." I would be shocked if Indiana helped to elect Gore ... I've been pretty much all over the state during this election season, and I haven't seen that support at all."\nIU College Democrats are hopeful about the upcoming presidential election, but they worry that Gore's views might not be exactly on the mark when it comes to Indiana voters, said Cassidy Cloyd, president of the College Democrats. \nThe presidential election is more secure for Republicans than local elections are, Cassidy said, but if a Democrat as conservative as some Hoosier politicians does run for president, the Republican winning streak in Indiana could be in danger.\n"I think Al Gore is a moderate Democrat, but maybe not moderate enough"