Reply #16: State is a little more complex than that [View All]

[salin]

says this native hoosier.

The first congressional rep to publically speak out against the Vietnam war? From Indiana - and continued to be elected for about thirty more years.

For awhile - another democrat served in the senate with Bayh (Vance Hartke).

The state has grown more conservative - but wild eyed conservatives rarely win state-wide races - and infact the GOP tries to kill their chances in the primaries (and the GOP powerbrokers defect to dems WHEN rightwingers sneak through to statewide races. Mitch wasn't perceived to be farrightwing and his first act - to impose a tax on those earning more than 100,000 a yr would suggest that he played winger for bush - but isn't a core winger ideologue.)

It is true that Indiana is more regularly red than most of its neighbors (though for the past decade Ohio has been making progress towards matching Indiana)... but it isn't as solidly red as many other states. Sixteen years of Dems as governor; Dems held the state house of reps for a number of year; and in the last elections prior to the presidential elections... many long-time republican communities suddenly switched to democratic majorities in city and county governments.

Generalizatons don't always fit this state.

Now at the presidential level - you are correct. Reliably red, we are.