A bit of a surprise, which hopefully doesn’t mean that the man is ill. I’ve certainly heard no rumors of scandal associated with Senator Coats, and you usually hear those things ahead of time; the Senator is in his early seventies, and has been in various federal public offices since the late Eighties, so possibly Dan Coats is simply ready to retire.
The good news about this race is that there’s a good talent pool on the GOP side to replace Dan Coats*: the Democrats have precisely one good candidate (former Senator Evan Bayh), and he’s not all great of one. Here’s a clip of Bayh, back in 2010, calling the then-supermajority Democratic Congress an utter failure at job creation:
The Democratic party has gotten to be rather intolerant of any sort of heresy since then; and that party has gotten into the remarkably useful (to us) habit of breaking their candidates in public. Assuming Bayh runs, within six months he’ll be just another pandering, liberal Democrat in a state that has gotten less friendly to that sort of thing. It should be a hoot to watch.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Because there is no such thing as a meaningless election. They’re all worth pursuing. If only because it keeps the Other Side from getting more candidates with actual political experience.
that’s a bit of a blow considering holding the majority is going to be an uphill battle without having to fight for relatively safe seats that are open, but being a presidential year ought to help, I think, as Indiana learned from its 2008 mistake in 2012, and I don’t think will repeat it in 2016.
and if they do, we have a lot more to worry about than losing a senate seat.
I suspect that holding the majority in the Senate [and the House] is going to depend on two things:
1) If the RNC forces another “moderate” as the presidential candidate who will not fight.
2) How many more times between now and the election that the Senate and the House micturate in the Wheaties of the Conservatives. In fact, there it is highly probably that they will do so enough to lose the majority before the end of this year.
IN Ds are broke, without Bayh they stand slim to no chance of winning. This is a seat that is basically Safe even without a incumbent running.
Guess we’ll see whether the Hoosier-Dems can nationalize the race and vilify the GOP candidate, as they did to Mourdock.
.
Mew
Interesting. I seem to recall Indiana GOP drafting Coats to run in 2010 .. in part because there was a general dislike of Stutzman..
.
I suspect, since Coats retired once already, that he just isn’t that interested in the Senate as a career.
.
Mew
Yup, he doesn’t seem to like the Senate (I know, what’s to like if you’re not into graft)
I don’t think it was a dislike of Stutzman, more of a dislike of fmr. Congressman Johnn Hodstedder (part of the Ronulan faction)
Stutzman was just a State Senator at the time and I don’t think anyone thought he could beat Bayh. He did better in the primary then most expected.
As Stutzman was on track to beat Hodstedder and may have been able to beat Bayh – 2010 was a good year – the Coats recruitment was seen – at the time and by more than one observer – as an early anti-tea-party Establishment play.
.
There are rather interesting parallels between the Coats and Cochran recruitment, so while I understand your statements, I am hesitant to give either or the combination all that much credit.
.
Mew
I wonder how much they’ll work to stop Stutzman in 2016. I don’t think it’d work, but they’ll probably claim he’s the next Mourdock or something.
Coats COS and son of a former Gov, Eric Holcomb is announcing tomorrow he’s running.