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.

-Can Mitch Daniels separate himself from the Bush failures?

-Will Evan Bayh campaign for Jill Long Thompson the way he did for Hillary Clinton?

-Will the Jon Elrod/André Carson fall match compare in any way to the March special election?

-Is Attorney General candidate Jon Costas the heir apparent to the Daniels legacy?

-Has the window closed for Jim Schellinger to give a meaningful endorsement to Jill Long Thompson? 

-Is the window still open for a UAW endorsement?

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.

Kyle Hupfer won’t run for Attorney General in the Republican State Convention.  The state committee just issued a release on his behalf.

It looks like a north versus south battle with Jon Costas, Mayor of Valparaiso, taking on New Albany native Greg Zoeller.  Zoeller made his candidacy official today.