Anyone who makes Election day predictions has a responsibility to own up to them.  Here’s how I did:

CORRECT PICKS:

Barack Obama wins Indiana

Mitch Daniels wins governor (also correct about a double digit margin)

Greg  Zoeller wins Attorney General

Tony Bennett wins Superintendent of Public Instruction

Democrats maintain control of the Indiana House of Representatives

Voters do away with township assessors (in most cases)

INCORRECT PICK:

Mark Souder loses bid for re-election to Congress

That makes my record 6 right, 1 wrong.

Here are my predictions (first presented on Indiana Week in Review but with further explanation here) for the 2008 Election in Indiana:

President: Leans Obama. This is still a Republican state and John McCain’s last minute visit may still make a difference but I think the Obama organization carries the day.

Governor: Mitch Daniels, hands down, double digits. Tune in to WISH-TV on Election night for details on the mistakes Jill Long Thompson made pursuing a Republican governor who should have been vulnerable in a Democratic year. (He hasn’t even been forced to run a negative ad!)

Attorney General: Greg Zoeller. Did I say it’s still a Republican state? Steve Carter helps Zoeller, so does Mitch Daniels and, while Linda Pence is a good candidate, she did too little TV to pull this off.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Bennett. Republican.

Congress: Rep. Mark Souder is the most the vulnerable and sounds like a loser in TV interviews so let’s call him one. All of the other 8 incumbents hold on.

Indiana House of Representatives: Democrats hold control. Brian Bosma and the Republicans tried to sneak up on some old-timers including Bill Cochran, Bob Bishoff, and Dennis Avery. That tells me they need gains in places that aren’t readily apparent. Remember, though, if Daniels wins the Republicans need just 50 to win the Speaker’s chair. Democrats need 51.

Bonus Prediction: The referendum to do away with township assessors passes.

Years ago (22 to be exact) Evan Bayh got elected Indiana Secretary of State by running on issues (like education) that had nothing to do with the duties of the office.

Now, Democrat Linda Pence hopes the same approach will get her elected Attorney General.  Pence has a new negative ad complete with a clouded, black and white shot of Republican opponent Greg Zoeller.   In it, she tries to convince voters that the Attorney General is a prosecutor, when in fact the job description calls mostly for handling appeals.

In the ad, Pence quotes Zoeller saying, “I’m not proposing to be a prosecutor.”  Pence, meantime, promises to be a “tough prosecutor.” 

Zoeller plans a news conference tomorrow to explain his side of things, but, if he remembers Evan Bayh’s success, he might want to get a response ad up, too.

Its a day for parades and that means a day for politicians to ride in parades but that’s not the only activity for some of them.

-Greg Zoeller, the Republican for Attorney General launched a new website today.

-Mike Sodrel, the Republican running for Congress in the 9th District, issued a news release in which he managed to quote Janis Joplin singing “Freedom’s just another word for nothing’s left to lose.”  If I could explain the context, I would (and I read it twice.) 

-John McCain took the day off (no one questions his patriotism) and Barack Obama campaigned in Montana (his patriotism gets questioned all the time.)

-Governor Mitch Daniels remains on vacation.

Jon Costas felt no slight from the Greg Zoeller error Monday (see below.) 

He sent out an e-mail to supporters pledging to campaign for Zoeller and the rest of the GOP ticket.

On Monday I reported that the Republican nominee for Attorney General, Greg Zoeller, failed to mention his opponent, Jon Costas, in his acceptance speech at the state GOP Convention (you might say he pulled a Schellinger.)

Zoeller sent an e-mail to say that it was the result of a mistake in a hand written speech concocted in the 10 minutes before it was delivered and no indication of hard feelings.  He says, however, that I was right to point it out. 

Zoeller thanked Costas in person before the speech and plans to meet with him again in person to apologize for the public error. 

Says Zoeller, “Jon did a fine job and I didn’t mean to slight him.”

I talked with one GOP convention delegate today who claims to be “98-percent supportive” of Governor Mitch Daniels.

The remaining 2-percent, however, prevented a vote for Jon Costas for Attorney General.  This delegate says the governor never made a convincing case for Costas, while Greg Zoeller is someone with deep ties to the party organization and significant experience.

Democrats I encounter, meantime, want to make the case that delegates opposed to local government consolidation sought to send the governor a message by voting against his candidate. 

Delegates to the state Republican Convention have plenty to talk about while figuring out how Jon Costas lost the nomination for Attorney General to Greg Zoeller (do you think it was the Fuzzy Zoeller video endorsement?)

Here is a sample: 

-GOP State Senator John Waterman watched from the fringes today as he continued to threaten an independent run for governor.  His wife was a delegate.

-Former State Chairman Rex Early sold more than a hundred copies of his book outside the convention hall.  I couldn’t help giving him a bad time about some misspelled names in the book.  Said Early, “If I was to do it over, I’d spell your name wrong!”

-The media didn’t get the usual over-sized, pink credentials given out at Republican conventions.  Instead, this year’s credential were lavender.

-Carl Brizzi made a name for himself, essentially criticizing the governor’s endorsement of Jon Costas in a nominating speech for Zoeller and then complaining that he wasn’t allowed to speak from the podium at the 7th District Caucus.

7th District Chairman John Hammond says he did Brizzi a favor by letting him speak at all.  Because he’s not a delegate, says Hammond, Brizzi had no right to be there.

There seems to be little confidence on either side in the fight for the GOP nomination for Attorney General.

Both Jon Costas and Greg Zoeller say they will win if delegates do what they say they will, but, they both admit, that’s hard to predict.

Costas keeps selling his vote getting ability, though I wonder how you can compare a Valparaiso election with a statewide election.  Supporters talk about what a good candidate he’s become in a short amount of time.

Zoeller wins support from people who remember him as a staffer for Dan Quayle.  He also hopes to win support from delegates who back Ron Paul. 

That causes problems for his primary sponsor, Steve Carter, who is the Indiana point man for John McCain.

Greg Zoeller thinks his experience trumps the Mitch Daniels endorsement of Jon Costas in the GOP convention race for Attorney General.  

While Daniels cited geography in his selection of Costas, Zoeller thinks delegates will view qualifications as a higher priority.

Not only is he staying in the race, he already posted the filing fee.