Young gun eyes 9th District seat

Todd Young believes 2010 will be a great year for Republicans when it comes to elections — especially in Indiana’s 9th District.

While the 37-year-old attorney from Bloomington has never sought public office before, Young is confident he can survive the Republican primary and defeat incumbent Democrat Baron Hill to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Young — a military veteran who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., in 1995 — said he’s worried about the direction the country is headed.

“There’s no silver bullet to turn things around,” he said. “But there are some common sense steps we can take.”

Southern Indiana Republicans want a candidate that can energize the party, Young said. He points to his early fundraising success — one of the highest amounts ever for a 9th District House seat challenger at this point in the race — as proof a first time candidate can defeat Hill, who is serving his fifth term after defeating Republican Mike Sodrel in 2008.

Sodrel has not announced that he will run again, but Hill is seeking re-election and has already raised $644,791 according to opensecrets.org, a Web site dedicated to tracking political finances.

Young has raised $215,483 — more than double the amount of Travis Hankins, the only declared competition for Young in the Republican primary.

Still, Young expects his days to be full of campaigning until the May primary.

“I’m confident, but prepared to work very hard to stay out front,” he said.

Young has targeted Clark and Floyd counties as key territory in the sizable 9th District — which is traditionally one of the tightest House races in the country.

He set up an office in Jeffersonville and said he’ll be in the counties at least once a week from now until the election.

“I think it’s going to be a great area for us,” he said.

For the first time, Hill won Clark and Floyd in 2008. Hill won Clark in 2006 and Sodrel captured Floyd. The same was true in 2004 when Sodrel won the 9th District, as he carried Floyd but lost in Clark.

Issues

Jobs, national security and health care are the easy to predict political topics, but Young said addressing country’s debt is one of his top priorities.

He said the approximately $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities as the federal level breaks down to about $500,000 per American family.

“Essentially our standards of living will go down,” Young said. “We have to pay it off or it just gets passed on.”

Continuing to add to the national debt will result in higher taxes which Young is opposed to. Debt is not just a financial dilemma — it’s a moral issue to Young.

“We are better people than to borrow from our kids,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean the issues that have drawn so much attention lately are foreign to Young.

National security is a top concern, though he wants to hear testimony before Congress from military leadership before stating his opinion on what America should do about Afghanistan.

At some point, Young believes definitive action will have to be taken to keep Iran from possessing nuclear weapons, but he said the situation hasn’t escalated to that point yet.

As for health care reform, Young said the legislation passed by the House and being considered by the Senate doesn’t drive the cost of coverage down while preserving the “best health care delivery system in the world”.

Americans should be free to shop for insurance across state lines, all businesses should be treated to the same tax breaks and medical liability reform needs to be pushed, Young said.

A combination of the three would bring more people under the health coverage umbrella, he said. But Young added the working poor could still not afford health coverage even with the plan he suggests, so Americans should accept the government will have to subsidize benefits for some, he said.

“I share the concerns of leaders and Americans on both sides of the aisle about rising health care costs,” Young said.

By voting in favor of health care reform and supporting cap-and-trade, Young accused Hill of losing touch with the people of the 9th District.

Young believes by touting fresh ideas and declaring his candidacy early, he’ll be a formidable opponent for Hill next November.

Schansberg out for now

Libertarian Eric Schansberg made gains in 2008, but the Indiana University Southeast professor hasn’t entered next year’s 9th District race yet.

“I don’t have plans to run at this time, but I cannot fully rule it out,” he stated in an e-mail Thursday.

Schansberg received 9,893 votes in 2006, or about 5 percent of the total. He received 11,994 votes last year.

In addition to Hill, Young and Hankins, Independent Ronnie Kimsey has declared his candidacy for the 9th District seat.

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