IBRG, the political arm for the Indiana Chamber, has a long relationship with The Strategy Group for Media in working together to do political TV advertising for IBRG endorsed candidates. The Strategy Group for Media has been honored with 6 "Pollie Awards" and 11 "Telly Awards" for creative advertising produced in 2008. They were recognized by the American Association of Political Consultants and Public Affairs Professionals at its recent annual awards conference. The "Pollies" are widely recognized as the political Oscars. The Telly Awards were presented for creative TV produced in 2008. The Telly Awards honor "the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials."

Our favorite TV spot they produced for IBRG in 2008 was in support of the Randy Truitt for State Representative campaign. This was an open seat race that Truitt won by 26 votes after a recount. The Truitt ad came at a critical juncture in the campaign and helped to successfully shift the message to highlight Truitt’s economic development background. 

Congratulations to our friends and partners Rex Elsass, Scott Schweitzer and the rest of the talented staff at The Strategy Group for Media on your awards and producing the most creative and compelling political advertising for IBRG. They are well earned.

Early this year, IBRG mail vendor Faulkner Strategies won a Reed Award.  See that post here.

For a number of years, I have had a strong bias against challenger candidates who lose and then run again in the next election cycle. Some of you have probably heard me say this whenever one of these repeat candidates makes that second attempt. For a repeat candidate to be successful, there must be something significantly different the second time around for that candidate to have a chance to win. This difference must fit into one of these categories: 1) the second attempt occurred after redistricting and the district is now different; 2) the race was an open seat race during the second try (as opposed to challenging an incumbent); or 3) something major changes the perception of the incumbent before the rematch, such as a scandal or the incumbent being clearly out of step with the district due to votes cast.

Now, thanks to some excellent research by IBRG manager of political affairs Chase Downham, this theory, and my long-time bias, have some numbers to back it up. Over the last 10 years, there have been 81 candidates (we have only included Democratic and Republican candidates) who have lost and then made a second attempt for the General Assembly in the next election cycle. 

From this group of 81 repeat candidates, only 8 (9.9%) were successful in their bid to become a state legislator. Let us take a look at these 8 successful repeat candidates and see how many had something significantly different in their second attempt:

• In 2000, Don Lehe narrowly lost to incumbent Claire Leuck in HD25. After the 2001 redistricting, Lehe defeated George Baranowski in the open HD15 contest of 2002.
• In 2000, Terri Austin lost to incumbent Jack Lutz in HD36. After the 2001 redistricting, Austin defeated Andy Kincaid in the open HD36 contest of 2002. Following the redistricting, HD36 changed significantly and incumbent Lutz was moved to HD35.
• In 2002, Joe Micon challenged incumbent Sue Scholer and lost in HD26. Following Scholer’s retirement, HD26 was an open seat in 2004 and Micon defeated Connie Basham.
• In 2002, incumbent Vern Tincher was defeated by Brooks LaPlante in HD46. In 2004, LaPlante initially did not seek re-election following a $10,000 fine from the Indiana Election Commission, but was placed on the ballot near general election day. Following a court case, Jeff Lee was removed from the ballot and LaPlante inserted. Tincher then defeated LaPlante.
• In 2004, appointed state senator Nancy Dembowski was defeated in the SD05 contest. In 2006, Dembowski ran for the House against incumbent Steve Heim in HD17 and won.
• In 2004, incumbent Ron Herrell was defeated by John Smith in HD30. In 2006, Ron Herrell defeated John Smith in a recount. The significant difference here is that labor unions played a major role in 2006 after helping the Kerry effort out of state in 2004.
• In 2006, John Barnes challenged incumbent Larry Buell in HD89. In 2008, following Buell’s retirement, Barnes won the HD89 open seat.  Read the rest of this entry »

Faulkner Strategies of Granger has been awarded a Reed Award by Campaigns & Elections’ Politics magazine for political professionals in the category of “Republican State Legislative Candidate.” Faulkner Strategies is the best political mail vendor in the Midwest and is a growing Indiana company with a talented staff. IBRG has hired Faulkner Strategies on several races in the last few elections to handle direct mail for our endorsed candidates in competitive races and is a company we have an excellent relationship with.

The mailing that earned Faulkner Strategies this award was for Rep. Dan Leonard’s primary election. This is a race where IBRG was heavily involved and Chase Downham, Indiana Chamber’s manager of political affairs, spent considerable time on the ground running Rep. Leonard’s competitive primary race. Rep. Leonard was a terrific candidate who has done great work for the people he represents and the mail program designed by Faulkner Strategies was effective in telling this story. It played a major role in helping Rep. Leonard win re-election.

Congratulations to Chris, Angela, Jared and the great staff at Faulkner Strategies for this well-deserved award and thank you for being an Indiana Chamber member.

Click here to see the award-winning mail piece.

A colleague told me as we walked into our office together, “Michael, you have a little extra bounce in your step today.” Yes, I do. I love a Presidential Inauguration Day. I enjoy soaking in the history, the formalities, the reflections of past inaugurations and speeches that today brings. For a Republic, it is hard to imagine a day more special than today.

From staying at Blair House, attending a church service, riding to the U.S. Capitol with the soon-to-be former President, the music, poetry and of course the oath of office and inaugural speech are all fascinating for this political junkie to watch.  Then to top it off, we watch the former President depart D.C. quietly as the new President takes a slow ride back to the White House for a grand parade in his honor.

For me, other than special moments with my family, the days that I always have that “extra bounce in my step” are Election Days, a Papal Conclave (which is the oldest ongoing method for choosing the leader of an institution), day of the Indianapolis 500 and Presidential Inauguration Day. These are special days and today will certainly be a day to remember.
 
Today, all of us — Democrat, Republican or Libertarian — should be optimistic. We should all be supportive of President Obama and truly wish him well as he leads us for the next four years. Let us not forget that we live in the most powerful nation on earth and we will watch another peaceful transfer of power between individuals of different political parties. History teaches us how rare this is.

Yes, today is a new day in America. Let’s ALL enjoy it.

Here is one giant reason why and how Barack Obama won Indiana – new voters. 13% of voters this year were first time voters participating in their first election. Among this group, Obama beat McCain 67% to 32%. This very lopsided number resulted in Obama beating McCain in Indiana by a total of 125,671 among new voters. Obama won Indiana by just 26,012 votes. His advantage for newly registered voters was enormous.

There were 525,314 total newly registered voters in Indiana this election and 67.8% of those voted. This turnout percentage was higher than the overall turnout percentage of 60.8% (for voting age population, not registered voters). For registered voters, the turnout was 63.4%. Clearly, newly registered voters were more interested and voted in a higher percentage than already registered voters.

What does this prove? Most importantly, it proves that a far superior ground game driven by a superior registration drive can — and will – work, resulting in Indiana voting for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1964. Obviously, there were many other reasons why Obama won Indiana, but this is one very significant reason why.

2008 marked the first election in a number of years that any political party or candidate made truly serious efforts to grow the electorate — and these efforts paid off in a big way for the President-elect. Future candidates, from any political party, better spend considerable time and effort on these newly registered voters and make serious efforts to increase the electorate with like-minded voters if they want success in the future. 

This certainly goes for the business community, too!

Note: You can also find our updated Election Report here.

After all of the provisional ballots have been counted, Randy Truitt emerges victorious in HD26. At the start of the day, 414 provisional ballots needed to be counted. Of these, 112 were in HD26. Truitt increased his lead from 21 to 26 over John Polles. The final result stands at 14,049 for Truitt to 14,023 for Polles. 

Indiana Business for Responsive Government (IBRG) provided significant assistance in Truitt’s effort by producing and paying for a TV spot and invested nearly $50,000 in his campaign. Randy is a strong pro-business individual and will be a strong ally in the upcoming legislative session. Congratulations to Randy!

The House remains at 52-48 Democratic control.

Here is the latest on HD26: Tippecanoe County election officials have looked at the 414 provisional ballots. Of those, only 80 will be allowed and they are in the process of doing exactly that right now. Of the 80, we are unsure how many are in HD26. Even if all 80 are in HD26, John Polles (D) would have to win 50-30 to catch Randy Truitt (R).

It’s looking good for Truitt, but there are still a couple of hours to finality.