New Jersey Governor Chris Christies was in Fishers today campaigning for Congressional candidate Susan Brooks.
The visit came on the same day that campaign finance reports show Brooks and David McIntosh pulling away from a crowded field in the money race.

Christie is a former federal prosecutor and so is Brooks.  It’s the basis of a relationship that prompted this endorsement, and if Susan Brooks is to win election she will have to defeat David McIntosh, a former Congressman turned lobbyist. “You’re not going to change Congress by sending a K Street lobbyist back to Congress,” said Christie in an obvious reference to McIntosh.

McIntosh stands out in a seven candidate primary race because he is the leading fundraiser.  Reports due at midnight Sunday and made public today show McIntosh with over $346,000 dollars in the bank.  Brooks has $328,000 in the bank and that explains why she has her sites set on McIntosh.  “He just happens to be the one that has not lived here,” said Brooks, “and has not been here for a long time and who has been a Washington insider.”

“What I’m saying is that he’s not the best choice in this race,” said Christie.  “And the fact is if you want to change Washington, you don’t send the same people back there who’ve been a part of the problem in Congress all along.”

5th District Republican John McGoff has just $90,000 in the bank and Wayne Seybold $31,000.  The fact that the Christie visit raised a hundred thousand or more for Brooks could help make them underdogs.  Endorsements don’t always help much but Christie is the most popular Republican governor in the country.

But David McIntosh is getting big name help, too.  Actor and former Presidential candidate Fred Thompson will be in Indiana for a McIntosh fundraiser next week.

GOP Senate candidate Dan Coats unveiled another Washington endorsement today with former Senator (and actor) Fred Thompson coming down on his side.  “I know his experience and  leadership are greatly needed in Washington right now,” says Thompson.

Coats boasts a handful of major endorsements but only one of them, Mike Pence, is from Indiana. 

Has anyone heard from Dick Lugar on this one?

Fred Thompson’s departure from the Presidential race means nothing to Indiana voters.  Thompson won’t even be on the ballot for the May Indiana primary.

The Thompson campaign never did what it takes to gain ballot access here.  It didn’t name a state chairman and it made no effort to collect the necessary petition signatures.

Former State GOP Chairmen Mike McDaniel and Rex Early raised $95,000 for the Thompson campaign and volunteered to lead its local effort but McDaniel says a half dozen phone calls went unanswered.  “I was working at it harder than he was,” is McDaniel’s take.

McDaniel says he still thinks Thompson is the best candidate to be President but he’s now looking forward to being an at-large delegate to the national convention.