V15, N39 Thursday, June 24, 2010 Obama political wing works Indiana OFA will try to revive 333,000 first time Hoosier voters By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS - The pre- dictions have been dire for Hoo- !"#$%&#'()$*+!%,*)"-.%+/#"$%[$!+% mid-term election with President Obama in the White House. The President’s approval numbers in Indiana are in the low 40th per- centile. The campaign of Republi- can Senate nominee Dan Coats is baiting U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth to invite the President back to the state. Presidential adviser David Axelrod is the man behind the curtain when it comes to White House The Cook Political Report message and political ops. He is shown here backstage at Concord HS in Elkhart in February noted, “Whether Mr. Ellsworth will 2009. (HPI Photo by Brian A. Howey) ask Mr. Obama to stump for him is a popular topic in Indiana. On his Or as Ellsworth told HPI on Tuesday, “If the Presi- website, the Republican candidate, former Sen. Dan Coats, dent of the United States - Republican or Democrat - wants has repeatedly dared Mr. Ellsworth’s campaign to invite to come to Indiana, I’d welcome him. I’ve not had any dis- the commander in chief, pointing to disapproval numbers cussions with the White House about the President coming among voters in the Hoosier State that are higher than in and campaigning for me. This isn’t about endorsements the national average. The Ellsworth campaign has told local or people coming in for a visit. It’s about two candidates. media outlets the President is welcome at any time.” Continued on page 4 Obama tried to talk Bayh out of retirement By BRIAN A. HOWEY FRANKLIN – Evan Bayh and family spent part of UWe canXt let people like this 1*!+%23.3!+%\(*+"-.%5(6-%+/#%7(1($*5(%8"9#$%5##:%"-%+/#% Grand Canyon pondering his future. scare us. WeXre going to take “No television, no cell phones,” Bayh told me Wednesday afternoon. “It care of business.V was great. Just a time to get away and think about life and the future. This had ! Gs Fsw ws been on my mind for quite awhile. This usw Us s t Rsvw had been on my mind since January - not this January but a year ago January.” Just as President Obama was tak- HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 2 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, June 24, 2010 "-.%+/#%(*+/%(,%(,[)#E%;*F/%6*!%+#11"-.% vince me to seek reelection. I felt like I Majority Leader Harry Reid and Demo- owed it to him to take that seriously.“ cratic Senate Campaign Chairman Bob Even in the midst of the Mendendez that a reelection bid was health reform drama, the White House “not a foregone conclusion.” tried to keep Bayh in the Senate fold. It had been a whirlwind During the blizzard last December that of two years with his own presidential closed down Washington, Bayh met Howey Politics campaign, the abrupt rise of Barack with Emanuel at the White House and Indiana Obama, the entrenched Hillary Clinton Obama popped in to see if he had is a non-partisan newsletter campaign. Bayh dropped out of the changed his mind. presidential race in December 2006, “It was just a hard decision based in Indianapolis and backed Clinton in the pri- published on the campus of maries, and after Obama Franklin College. It was founded secured the nomination, in 1994 in Fort Wayne. the junior Hoosier sena- tor streaked atop the veepstakes lists. When Brian A. Howey, Publisher the nomination went to Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington Joe Biden, Bayh’s chanc- Jack E. Howey, editor es of returning to execu- Beverly K. Phillips, associate tive governance faded. editor When the sena- tor returned to the Grand Brittany Brownrigg, intern Canyon rim, he had decided to end his U.S. Subscriptions Senate career. $350 annually HPI Weekly Upon his return to Washington, Bayh was $550 annually HPI Weekly and scheduled to meet with HPI Daily Wire. President Obama in the !Call 317.627.6746 <9*1%<,[)#%+(%+*1G%*H(3+% +/#%!#-*+($R!%+(:%:$"($"+F%J%5#[)"+%*-5% for me. I love what I’ve done. I love debt reduction. “He had read my piece serving the people of Indiana. I just Contact HPI in the Wall Street Journal and I had concluded that 12 years in Congress Howey Politics Indiana been governor and he wanted to talk was enough,” Bayh said. 6255 N. Evanston Ave. to me about it,” Bayh said. “During He had fashioned the classic Indianapolis, IN 46220 that meeting I asked the President if pros/cons list. But when the President www.howeypolitics.com I could have two more minutes of his is asking for reconsideration, it chang- +"'#A%K/"!%6*!%+/#%[$!+%6##G%"-%L#: - es the dynamic. [email protected] tember and I told him I had decided “I felt that with respect to !Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 that I was not going to run for reelec- the President I should think about it. !Washington: 703.248.0909 tion.” M+%6*!%*%5",[)31+%5#)"!"(-%*-5E%,$*-G1FE% !;3!"-#!!%<,[)#=%>?@ABC@AB@DB Obama was surprised. “He I procrastinated. I would decide by asked me, ‘Are you 100 percent sure?’ Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving came and I said, ‘I’m 98 percent sure.’ And and went. I’ll decide by Christmas 2010, Howey Politics Indiana. that was my mistake. and then Christmas came and went. All rights reserved. Photocopy- “He seized upon that 2 Finally it was the deadline that forced ing, Internet forwarding, fax- percent over the next - oh, however me to make the decision and I did. So ing or reproducing in any form, many months that was until February that’s how it all transpired,” Bayh said. whole or part, is a violation of - I must have talked with him and met “There was no master plan to time with him a number of times. I met my decision in a way that was go- federal law without permission with his Chief of Staff (Rahm Emanuel) ing to prevent a Democratic primary. from the publisher. ! a number of times. They tried to con- There could be nothing further from HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 3 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, June 24, 2010 +/#%+$3+/A%M+%6*!%*%5",[)31+%5#)"!"(-%+(%'*G#%*-5%+/#%,*)+% that on a whole host of things” he was being pressured that the president was trying to change my mind led me to to fall in line. “Things that if I were calling the shots, procrasinate until there was a deadline. After I made my we would not be doing. The caucus system really works 5#)"!"(-%M%6#-+%"-%*-5%+(15%+/#%N$#!"5#-+%[$!+%*-5%+/*+%1#5% against independence. You run the risk of constantly going to more meetings and more procrastination and the deci- your own way.” He said the caucus demands his support !"(-%6*!%[-*11F%H#"-.%'*5#%6"+/%*%5#*51"-#A%K/#F%6#$#%O3!+% “not just 80 percent of the time, but 100 percent of the very hopeful that I would change my mind.” time. That is just a system I found increasingly to be un- Bayh said that it was the assessment of the comfortable.” Obama team that he had the best chance at reelection. And Bayh disputes recent reports that he hand- P9#-%6"+/%+/#%5",[)31+%:(1"+")*1%#-9"$(-'#-+%,*)"-.%&#'( - picked U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth to replace him when the crats, Bayh’s pollster was telling him he had “more than a Indiana Democratic Central Committee chose his replace- 90 percent chance to win reelection.” ment on May 15. “I was scrupulously neutral,” he said. What it really came down to was where his heart He called U.S. Rep. Baron Hill who was in Afghani- was. As a young man who had faced the early death of his stan at the time and also Ellsworth, urging both to consider mother, Marvella, Bayh had been driven to achieve much at a Senate run. a young age. As for his future, Bayh is keeping an “open mind.” Now after two terms as governor, two in the U.S. He resisted the notion that a decision has been made to Senate, Bayh has reached middle age. “I’ll be 55 in De- run for governor in 2012. cember, which I’m still young enough to do other things, “It’s only June,” Bayh said. “Let’s get through the including doing more than one thing,” is how he puts it. “I CQ?Q%#1#)+"(-!%[$!+AP%2!%,($%CQ?CE%/#%!*"5E%OM%6(-R+%G##:% )*-%/*9#%*%!".-"[)*-+%"':*)+E%6/#$#*!%",%M%6*"+#5%3-+"1%M% people waiting,” suggesting he will make any political deci- was 61 or 67, which isn’t that old, but sion before the end of the chances of really being able to fash- year. ion a second career are just not as As for Ellsworth, great. Those were all the things going Bayh was asked if he might through my mind, but even so, it was do what former congress- a very close call. I love public service. man Lee Hamilton did in M%[-5%"+%"-)$#5"H1F%$#6*$5"-.%+(%/#1:% 1998 when he spent the other people.” [-*1%+6(%6##G!%(,%+/#%)*' - There is no doubt that be- paign shoulder to shoulder tween his time as governor and that in with Baron Hill, who pulled the U.S. Senate, it is the former rather out a close victory. than the latter that brings out the bet- “I’ll do whatever ter side in him. they ask me to do,” Bayh “I haven’t thought about this said. “I’ve turned over my in a long time and don’t read into this mailing list to him, my do- but one of the things that’s been on my mind was that I nor list.