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Keep the change

By PA

Fort Wayne Reader

2010-05-10

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

If you’re a conservative, or a certain type of conservative, that’s what you might have been thinking as you watched the primary results roll in Tuesday night.

Unless you’re a conservative who happens to be named Mark Souder, in which case you might have been thinking “Next time, bring Kryptonite.”

After all the anti-incumbent rhetoric we’ve heard so far this year from the right side of the political spectrum — the accusations that conservatives in office haven’t been conservative enough, that they’ve lost touch with their ideological roots and the people who put them in office in the first place — conservatives in Indiana kept their incumbents on the GOP ticket.

Even former Senator Dan Coats, who has been weathering cries of “carpetbagger!” since the very moment he announced his intention of returning to Indiana to seek Evan Bayh’s senate seat, won the nomination.

In the 3rd Congressional District, Souder faced down three opponents — Bob Thomas, Phil Troyer, and Greg Dickman — to win with nearly 50% of the vote. He’ll once again run against Tom Hayhurst for the 3rd Congressional seat in the fall, hoping to serve a 9th term in office.

Like Souder, many incumbents across the state found themselves facing multiple opponents; Coast ran against four other contenders for example, while former president Bill Clinton’s biggest fan, Dan Burton from the 5th district, faced 82 hopefuls. As many predicted, competing in such crowded fields gave the recognizable names an edge.

The Democrats? Let’s just say that in our area, things were a little less heated. But that’s usually the case.