Republican Carlos May kicked off his campaign in the 7th District today (now represented by Democrat André Carson,) a long shot for any Republican. May has a good chance to be the GOP nominee, however, and he’s taking an interesting approach.
May is a Mexican-American who lists his heritage at the top of his news release. He held his announcement on West Washington street to show off his Hispanic support. Hispanic voters make up a relatively small number of voters in the 7th but many of them are likely to vote Democratic unless they have a good reason to vote for a Republican. He may provide it.
My morning e-mail included an announcement that Republican Marvin Scott will run for the 7th District seat held by André Carson next year. It’s an unusual way to launch a campaign (a missive sent in the middle of the night) but then Scott is becoming known for running unusual campaigns.
His challenge to Sen. Evan Bayh in 2004 is remembered because he raised significant amounts of money from out of state but never got on television on the way to 37% showing on Election day. He got very little support from Indiana Republicans in the meantime.
Scott has run unsuccessfully in he 7th before against both Andy Jacobs and Julia Carson.
Congressman André Carson has responded to the recent letter from Governor Mitch Daniels to the Indiana delegation regarding health care reform pressing the case for comprehensive reform.
Carson takes issue with a number of points made by the governor including a concern about passing the cost of health care reform to the states. Says Rep. Carson, “Pushing unfunded mandates onto states was a bad habit of the previous presidential administration, and I do not want to see a repeat of that with health reform.” Carson says he spoke out against an amendment that would require states to pick up 10% of the cost of new Medicaid enrollees.
Carson also says the effect on the Healthy Indiana Plan is difficult to determine.
The website maintained by Gerry Mann, the guy who got in André Carson’s face following the Rotary Club meeting Tuesday, is blank today. Yesterday we pointed out how Mann used the site to encourage dissent. A call to Mann has not been returned.
A caller to a radio town hall on health care worked in a political question to Congressman André Carson this afternoon, asking if he plans to run for re-election.
Carson did hedge. “Absolutely I will be running for re-election!” he said.
Here is a portion of the exchange between Rep. André Carson (d-7th District) and local businessman Gerry Mann at the conclusion of the Downtown Rotary Club meeting today:
Congressman André Carson (D-7th) may not hold a town hall meeting on health care reform (his press secretary indicated last week that it’s not a workable option from his point of view) but he is soliciting viewpoints.
Tomorrow Carson will speak to the Downtown Rotary Club and health care reform is the announced topic. Thursday he will be on Afternoons with Amos on WTLC for what Amos Brown calls a radio town hall.
Rep. André Carson has filed legislation to have a new Veterans Administration Hospital named after former Governor Otis Bowen.
Its a nice touch by a Democrat seeking to honor a deserving Republican. Bowen, a medical doctor, was also Health and Human Services Secretary under Ronald Reagan and a veteran.
Barack Obama will be back in Indianapolis next month.
There is word that the President will attend a fundraiser for four Democratic members of Congress from Indiana, Brad Ellsworth, Baron Hill, Joe Donnelly, and Andre Carson on May 17th. It’s a coup for Baron Hill who extended the invitation.
Carson appeared with Obama last year and in 2006 the then-Illinois Senator campaigned here for the other three.
October 19th, 2009 at 4:22 pm by Jim Shella under Jim Shella's Political Blog