Quick QUESTION... How did Birch Bayh lose re-election to Dan Quayle?

[nickshepDEM]

Quick QUESTION... How did Birch Bayh lose re-election to Dan Quayle?

This guy seemed like he was extremley popular in Indiana. He was a US senator from 1963-1981. How did he lose to Quayle? Did a Scandal break? Ran a horrible campaign? To much confidence?

[murielm99]

1. They ran extremely nasty ads against Birch Bayh.

He also lost his wife during this time.

The RW was relentlessly nasty to him. So, what else is new?

[nickshepDEM]

2. Do you have any more details???

Ive been googling for a while and havent found much. Did he get to liberal for Indiana or something?

[murielm99]

3. He was always liberal.

All I can remember is that it was the dawn of the PACS, not affiliated with any party. They smeared him every which way.

If I could remember the name of the PAC back then, it would help your Google search. I keep thinking the Conservative Coalition, but that is not right. Maybe you could post this in the Indiana forum?

Anyway, the guy who started the PAC was a self-hating closeted gay, who died of AIDS back then. Does that help? I can't remember his name, either.

I just remember the nastiness of the ads.

Was it NIC-PAC? That sounds a bit familiar. Got, I am getting old. Why can't I remember?

[cosmicdot]

7. "Bayh too liberal for Indiana"

is this what you specifically are hoping to find in 1980 primary sources??

Bayh served as a Senator starting in 1963 ... it seems odd that, suddenly, in 1980, the people of Indiana think he is 'too liberal'.

Frank Church of 'Idaho', son of a Methodist minister George McGovern of 'South Dakota', Birch Bayh of 'Indiana', etc. These were true leaders, of 'homeland' values; and the people of their states and our country benefitted from their efforts.

maybe once the '** reforms' kick in, we will have some reawakening as to who more closely guards those intersts ~ gotta have hope ~ maybe, then, Bayh wasn't too liberal for Indiana at all ... :hi:


Try googling 1980 campaign issues ... maybe that'll help.

[salin]

12. One of the first times, if I recall correctly, where the abortion

issue was used - graphically - in an election. I believe that part of the very ugly campaign against Bayh was imagery purported to be of an aborted fetus. A very scary harbinger of things to come.

No, he was not seen to have grown "more liberal" or "too liberal" for Indiana - indeed his son was elected a few years later to a state wide election (either attorney general or secretary of state) based almost primarily on his father's name. He parlayed that statewide name recognition to run for Governor in 1988. (Birch was defeated in 1982). Not sure how Evan ran in his first statewide race, but he ran as a fiscal centrist - but stalwart of unions and other democratic standards in his first race for governor. Note that during the early eighties the state tried to bust all the unions. Evan's ascension to governor helped stem that tide/trend - and won him a lot of loyalty among many socially conservative (former repub voting) union members in the state.

oops on edit - it appears my memory is incorrect and that B. Bayh was defeated in 1980, not 1982.

[DrGonzoLives]

14. Evan was Sec. of State, I believe

And, yes, Birch, was never "too liberal" - he was an old-fashioned New Deal populist Democrat. Unfortunately, in the age of Reagan/Bush, that means liberal elitist bastard.

[cosmicdot]

21. "in the age of Reagan/Bush" ... exactly ...

"an old-fashioned New Deal populist Democrat" is a good way to describe Bayh, et al ....... I'm pining for those days again ...

[cosmicdot]

20. that's what I was thinking, too

re abortion

I wasn't confident enough to post it ... I wanted to say that, at that point in time, I don't think the Democrats had gotten a handle on the abortion issue ... how many women held Democratic seats in Congress in those days? it took awhile to get the political talking points established ... it was like that up, at least, through Dukakis ...

[cosmicdot]

4. orchestrated negative ad campaign

imo ... this was one of the key phases of the long-range on-going right-wing conservative fundamentalist takeover of power in our country (stolen elections and fraud in 2000, 2002, 2004 would further the quest) ... aided by Reagan's 'October Surprise' win in 1980 ...

several veteran Democrats were specifically targeted by conservative PACS running negative ad campaigns against them:
George McGovern (SD), Frank Church (ID), Gaylord 'founder of earth day' Nelson (WI), John Culver (IA), Warren Magnuson (WA), John Durkin (NH); and, of course Birch Bayh ... I believe Tom Eagleton (MO) and Gary Hart (CO) survived.


http://www.historywise.com/KoTrain/Courses/RR/RR_Campaigns_and_Elections.htm

found these references:

Schaffer, S. A., & Dantico, M. K. (1991). Negative advertising in the 1980 senate races: Does the truth ever catch the lie? Political Communication, 16, 1-14.

Bannon, B. (1982). NCPAC's role in the 1980 senate elections. Campaigns and Elections, 3, 43-46.

Will 2004 Be Like 1980?
2004 v. 1980 re 527s

~snip~

"What seems to worry the GOP is that the Democrats will be as successful as Republicans were with similar tactics in 1980. In that year -- when Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress -- Republicans introduced two innovations that are central to today's controversy: soft money and independent spending."

~snip~

"The innovation in 1980 was the creation of conservative committees, most notably the National Conservative Political Action Committee, that were not only independent but hostile. The GOP was at war with itself, and the conservative groups refused to cooperate with party leaders, whom they regarded as unacceptably moderate. They focused on a few U.S. Senate campaigns and specialized in running negative ads against the Democratic candidates."

~snip~


http://hnn.us/articles/4759.html

~snip~

Most of the $1 million NCPAC spent on independent expenditures during the 1980 Senate races financed attack ads against incumbents. A NCPAC target could face as many as 72 negative radio ads a day and 200 television commercials per week, well before the election.31 A sample of NCPAC ads includes one that called fight against inflation "One very big piece of baloney;" a campaign that said McGovern was "touring Cuba with Fidel Castro while the energy crisis was brewing;" and an ad depicting an empty missile silo, stating that "Senator Church has always opposed a strong national defense."32

~snip~
http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/law_bagtricks/loop4.asp

"In 1980, I think that it wasn`t so much what we did wrong, but we were targeted in that race. The -- all the right-wing groups ganged up, and they picked out five senators that they were going to target. Gaylord Nelson was one. Frank Church, Birch Bayh, John Culbert (ph), myself. They defeated all five of us. It was an incredible campaign of distortion of our records in all cases. But they were successful."
- George McGovern http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript?ProgramID=1797

[murielm99]

6. Thank you!

This is exactly what I was looking for!

That is how Bayh lost. I remember the nasty ads.

[Rowdyboy]

5. Birch Bayh was an "in-your-face" liberal who did not back down

His wife, who was a soulmate, suffered terribly from cancer during the later years of his 3rd term in the senate and died in 1979. With Marvella dead, his bid for the presidency in 1976 a failure, and Indiana being a very conservative state, he was always at risk. Then, in 1980, the Republicans had a "perfect storm" and we lost a lot of great senators from our side.

Many good Democratic senators lost to sleaze balls in 1980. Birch Bayh was only one, but he was my favorite.

[saltpoint]

8. Posters above have nailed it down -- Bayh was targeted --

-- and smeared by conservative groups.

I lived in Indiana then and received several mailings that election showing aborted fetuses. Birch Bayh was blamed for "killing babies" because he was pro-choice.

He and Marvella were among the most evolved human beings I can think of then.

There are a lot of Judge Roy Moore voters in Indiana, even though the Mason-Dixon Line is technically further south. Dubya's margin of victory even in 04 was disturbingly huge.

[Rowdyboy]

9. It nice finding someone who remembers Marvella

I read her autobiography (mainly dealing with her struggle with cancer) years ago and it impacted me severely. She was quite a lady.

[saltpoint]

11. Hi, rowdyboy. Yes. Marvella was the one.

Really miss her.

Good wishes to you.

[DrGonzoLives]

10. ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION

At least, that's one reason. But yeah, it got real nasty. Indiana politics can be suprisingly bloody.

[salin]

13. just posted the same thing

(with some extraneous other stuff)... first campaign I can recall that used graphic representation of abortion as a big part of their nasty campaign.

[JPZenger]

15. Don't Forget Indiana is Conservative GOP Terrritory

Don't forget that Indiana is one of the more solidly Republican states in the Country. It was a fluke that Bayh was able to stay in office as long as he did.

[salin]

16. State is a little more complex than that

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.

[IrateCitizen]

17. Don't forget that Indiana was once a hotbed of socialism, too...

Eugene Debs was from Terre Haute, and in the time around the turn of the 20th century, Indiana was one of the states in which the Socialist and Populist Parties were strongest.

Of course, Indiana also was heavily under the influence of the Ku Klux Klan back in the early 1900's, so that displays the split personality that the state has always exhibited.

Birch Bayh's success was hardly a "fluke". It was representative of national trends at the time, trends that saw liberal Senators from now solid-red states -- like Frank Church from Idaho.

[bobbieinok]

23. and Fred Harris from OK

[ComerPerro]

18. Republicans lie

they lie their asses off.

[WI_DEM]

19. Several long time liberal senators from GOP states were defeated in '80

which was a very republican year. In addition to Bayh--McGovern went down in SD, Church went down in Idaho, Culver (?) went down in Iowa--which was considered more Republican then than now and in Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson went down. Also Bayh, Church, and Nelson were seeking their fourth terms so longevity had something to do with it as well, people wanted a change and the mood in the country was moving to the right.

[cosmicdot]

22. while googling, I was looking for names that we still have with us

as a result of the 1980 smear coup ... the GOP names ...

anyone know of any?

[bobbieinok]

24. Bush senior and whole family