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More to the point, with what we’ve witnessed so far, is there any reason to bet in this race at all?
The campaign of the likely Democratic nominee, Jim Schellinger, has been floundering without direction. Late last month the campaign announced its third campaign manager in less than a year, tapping two-time former House Democratic campaign boss Tim Jeffers. His work is as cut out for him now as it was three years ago, when he shipped off to Iraq to work for General David Petraeus.
The Indy architect has yielded credibility not through the effusion of blood, sweat, or tears, but through the diffusion of support from the Indianapolis-centric Democratic establishment. It sycophantically and cynically sought to thank Schellinger for the hundreds of thousands of dollars he’d given them in campaign contributions by kicking back to him the nomination of their—their—party. Yet as the months wore on, Schellinger was repeatedly forced to add “former” to the many titles on his endorsement sheet. Senator Evan Bayh’s Presidential prospects dried up. Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson lost badly. Congresswoman Julia Carson passed. Marion County Chairman Mike O’Connor now presides over an as-losing machine as Dan Parker does for the state. Campaign manager number two came from the same cabal, transferring from the top staff job at the state party to become the Schellinger manager, but then soon became finance director, then adviser, then “exploring other opportunities.”
Schellinger’s campaign in many ways mirrored the potential of Governor Daniels’ as he first mulled over a gubernatorial bid. The chance to create a candidate from scratch can be dangerously opportunistic and transparently poll-driven—and it is—but if executed properly, it can be a masterful show of salesmanship. The circus makes the candidate everything to
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everyone. Dress him up in flannel, stick an ear of corn in the left hand, the right guiding a John Deere, the background muted with the sun rising over farm houses. Folksy-up the slogans (“My Man Mitch”), shtick-up the visuals (RV tour), and voila, film the commercials, cut, print, and broadcast.
Incidentally, Mitch Daniel’s shaky poll numbers can be attributed to a sense of buyer’s remorse that is exacerbated precisely because voters didn’t know what they were buying…though, during the campaign, that was the point. For Schellinger, however, none of the potential energy has become kinetic. Ultimately, his campaign has been as directionless as the candidate, who, like Daniels, could claim no rationale for running nor evidence for electing. For a well-organized, disciplined campaign like Daniels-04, that’s room for growth. For a lethargic, indecisive one like Schellinger’s, it’s just emptiness.
The Schellinger campaign has bet that fundraising to the hilt would guarantee a primary victory, and they’re probably right, given that our state’s primaries lately have been drawing 20-25% of registered voters. Sometimes less. And by deluging the voter rolls with mail in the last couple weeks, Schellinger bets that he’ll bounce his name-id and cruise to the nomination. But such a half-baked, fifty-percent-plus-one strategy won’t survive against the Daniels operation in the general, much less lead the state productively if he were governor.
His campaign hasn’t given the state ideas, vision, not even a compelling rationale for his candidacy. It hasn’t even added the frilly lace and shiny sequins that pass off a farcical candidate as a real one. If our man Mitch could do nothing else, he at least could do that.
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