Coats wins bid in Senate race, Burton survives primary
Former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats won the Republican nomination for his former job against four opponents by winning about 40 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s primary.
State Sen. Marlin Stutzman and former U.S. Rep. John Hostettler were the closest opponents with 29 and 23 percent respectively.
Despite the tea party movement sweeping the nation, voters gave the nomination to Coats, an established Republican, over Richard Behney, who organized such a rally in Indianapolis. Behney won less than 5 percent of the vote.
Activists acknowledged it would be hard now to get excited about candidates who weren’t a perfect fit with their fiscal conservatism. But staying home and not voting also isn’t a good option, they said as many tea party-backed candidates came up short in other states as well..
“You win some and you lose some, and you just can’t walk away if you lose,” said Stutzman, who had support from some tea party voters in his bid that came up short.
The entire field of candidates, which also included businessman Don Bates Jr., came to Franklin last month for a debate in the Branigin Room.
Coats will presumably face current U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth in November’s general election in the bid to replace the retiring Sen. Evan Bayh, who is a Democrat.
“We are going to confront Congressman Ellsworth and his liberal Washington allies because all Hoosiers, and even including those who may have voted for him in the past, deserve, all Hoosiers deserve to have a clear choice in November,” Coats said during his victory speech Tuesday night.
U.S. Rep Dan Burton will be up for re-election for a 16th time thanks to his close victoryagainst a crowded field of Republican challengers in Tuesday’s election.
Former state party chair Luke Messer was the closest of six challengers to Burton’s seat, but conceded victory to the Congressman Tuesday night.
The race was expected to be easily Burton’s due to the number of other candidates to spread the vote out. In the end, it came down to less than 2,500 votes that gave Burton the victory. John McGoff, who challenged Burton two years won 19 percent of the vote while state Rep. Mike Murphy and Brose McVey each received 9 percent.
There was disappointment for the Messer supporters who packed into Bear Chase Country Club near Shelbyville, but also a sense of accomplishment and hope at the closeness of the race. Messer, with his teary-eyed, yet smiling wife Jennifer and three young children by his side, said the important step forward is to make sure Republicans take a collective and positive stand.
“[Voters] want the Republican Party to be a party of reform, the party that goes out there and grabs the shirttail of Washington and shakes that place up and lets the American people know that we’re back in charge,” Messer said.
Burton is expected to easily win re-election when he faces Democrat Tim Crawford, a construction company worker from Noblesville, in November to represent the 5th District, which stretches from suburban Indianapolis north into several rural counties, including Johnson County.
“We were hoping to have a bigger majority, but there is there is a lot of anti-incumbent sentiment, and I’m sure there are some people who don’t like me too much after all the years I’ve been in,” Burton said.
About 17,000 voters showed up to precincts in Johnson County on Tuesday to vote in the primary.
Republican Party country chair Sandi Huddleston said that she was pleased with how the candidates conducted themselves in the primary. Huddleston said typically non-presidential election years don’t yield as many voters as she would like.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said Huddleston. “We saw pretty close to 18,000 that came out and voted.”
The voter rate in the primary was about 22-23 percent of the registered voters in Johnson County. Huddleston said there was very little turn out on the Democrat side because “the Democrat party, historically, not been able to attract candidates for all the county offices.”
“Most of the persons that are reflected in the primary are the candidates that are chosen in the fall,” Huddleston said.
She said that although she would have liked for the turnout to be greater she also noted the “inflated number” of registered voters, which is 80,000, in Johnson County. She said that they have no way of eliminating any registered voters who have moved, while they used to be able to say a voter had moved out of the district.
Elsewhere in the state, Indiana will likely be at the center of the fight for control of
Congress this fall as Republicans believe they have strong shots at three swing districts now held by Democrats.
Two of those Republican candidates, however, must first unite their GOP support after winning bruising primary campaigns.
Bloomington attorney Todd Young narrowly won the Republican primary with 34 percent of the vote against former U.S. Rep. Mike Sodrel and others to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Baron Hill in the 9th District. Hill and Sodrel had faced each other in the last four November elections. Heart surgeon Larry Bucshon barely beat a candidate favored by many tea party groups to face Democratic state Rep. Trent Van Haaften for the 8th District seat now held by Brad Ellsworth.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly faces a challenge from conservative state Rep. Jackie Walorski for his 2nd District seat. Current secretary of state Todd Rokita won 41 percent of the vote in a 13-candidate field for the nomination in the 4th District. He will face Democrat
David Sanders in the fall to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer.
Sanders lost to Buyer in 2006, when he won 37 percent of the vote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
