By DAVID MANN
Just one day after defeating incumbent Republican Mike Sodrel, Democratic Congressman-elect Baron Hill held a press conference in Jeffersonville.
The topic of the discourse: Moving on from campaigning to governing.
“I look forward to working with both Democrats and Republicans,” Hill told reporters and supporters gathered at Democratic headquarters in Jeffersonville.
The war in Iraq, health care, energy independence and cleaning up the scandal-ridden House of Representatives were going to be among the top priorities, he said. These are the things that the Democrats had campaigned on all season long. Hill said it’s now time to turn toward the business of governing.
The first thing Hill wants the House to accomplish is the re-establishment of pay-go rules — which essentially require congress to pay for expenditures, rather than amass debt. Secondly, he said, he wanted to see the House raise the federal minimum wage.
Locally, the construction of two Ohio River bridges is important in the area’s future development, he said. He told reporters that he looks forward to working with Congressman-elect John Yarmuth. Yarmuth upset incumbent Republican Rep. Anne Northup for Kentucky’s 3rd District congressional seat in Louisville Tuesday.
Tuesday’s general election was the third time Sodrel and Hill ran against each other. Libertarian candidate Eric Schansberg also ran, taking about 5 percent of the vote. Hill held the seat from 1998 till 2004. Sodrel ran against Hill and lost in 2002. He tried again two years later and won in 2004. He wasn’t able to hang on this time and said on election night that he wasn’t sure if he would run again or not.
Both candidates characterized 2006 as the most bitter campaign. Even by the time Hill held his 12 p.m. news conference, Sodrel had still not given Hill the customary “congratulations” phone call. Two years ago when Hill was beaten he called Sodrel and congratulated him on the new job. For whatever reason, Sodrel has chosen not to call and concede, Hill said.
Hill was thankful for the support but also said he wanted to apologize to voters for all the negative campaigning that took place between the two. Next time, he said, he hopes it will be a cleaner race, no matter who’s running against him.
County by county
Regardless of next time, results were still coming in for this election even as late as Wednesday afternoon. And Indiana counties have until Nov. 21 to verify election results.
Unofficial results, made available through the secretary of state’s office, show that Hill carried Clark County by a slim margin. Floyd County, on the other hand, went to Sodrel. Crawford, Jackson, Jefferson, Monroe, Perry, Scott and Switzerland counties supported Hill. While Bartholomew, Brown, Dearborn, Dubois, Ohio, Orange, Ripley and Washington counties went to Sodrel. The state did not yet have data available for Harrison, Jennings and Spencer counties.
All politics are local?
Hill and Sodrel’s campaign was one of the most closely-watched races in the country. Along with Yarmuth, Hill’s was one of several districts nationwide in which the Democrats were hoping to win a seat back in an effort to control the U.S. House. All major media outlets are projecting that they did just that. The Democrats also now control the U.S. Senate. It was confirmed late Wednesday that Democrat James Webb had defeated Republican George Allen in Virginia.
The old adage goes that all politics are local but considering the Democrats’ success nationally, the question becomes: Was this election a referendum on President Bush and the Republican-controlled congress?
Hill said, he doesn’t know. Though he referred to himself as symbolic for change, he said that decision was ultimately up to the voters.
Sodrel was one of the few Republicans to stand by his ties to the President during this campaign season — even hosting the chief at a Clark County rally last month. Sodrel said Tuesday night, that he’s not sure if that helped him or hurt him.
Schansberg likely not a factor
Voters also considered Libertarian Schansberg. Libertarians have long been on the ballot in the district but few have received the media attention — or the votes, for that matter — that Schansberg did.
District wide, he took around 10,000 votes, according to the state’s numbers. And while no one will ever know exactly who those 10,000 or so people were, political experts agree that Libertarian voters often steal votes from the Republicans. Like Republicans, Libertarians are typically politically conservative and favor small government and low taxes.
Prior to the election, there was talk among pundits that Schansberg could spoil Sodrel’s chances of winning.
Though the data is still rough, that didn’t appear to be the case.
Even if every one of Schansberg’s voters were Republican, he did not take enough to be a factor. Though it would have been a far tighter race, adding Sodrel and Schansberg’s preliminary vote counts together still shows Hill as the winner by about 800 votes.
Those numbers are, of course, unofficial until they are verified.
