Steve Israel and his latest anti-Choice recruit-- looking for a knock outIndiana's 2nd district-- the north-central part of the state from South Bend, Elkhart, Goshen, and LaPorte down to Wabash and Peru-- used to be a swing district with a PVI of R+4. In recent times it was represented by far right extremist Chris Chocola, current head of Club for Growth, and Blue Dog Joe Donnelly who used it for a springboard to an unlikely Senate win last year. Donnelly decided too run for the Senate because he knew he'd have no chance to win in the newly redistricted second. The Republican state legislature had gone to great lengths to make it redder specifically to defeat Donnelly. The PVI is now R+6, relatively out of reach without a massive political wave. Last year, Jackie Walorski, the Republican who had nearly defeated Donnelly in 2010-- he squeaked by 48.2- 46.8% before the gerrymander kicked in-- beat DCCC Blue Dog recruit Brendan Mullen 49.1-47.5%. Of the 10 counties in the district, Mullen won three-- LaPorte, St. Joseph (the biggest) and Starke. Obama and Donnelly were on the top of the ticket last year and Obama ran up nice margins in St. Joseph and LaPorte. Donnelly-- as well as Democratic losing gubernatorial candidate John Gregg-- also won those two counties as well as Starke County.Walorski was looking for a much easier race next year. She has a crackpot teabagger, Curt Nisly, threatening a primary as well as a Libertarian, Travis Burns, who doesn't seem to understand the difference between running for state rep and a congressman but until last month there was no Democrat. Steve Israel tried re-recruiting Mullen, who they DCCC and House Majority PAC had only spent around $500,000 on last year-- far less than would have been needed. After Mullen turned him down, the DCCC pivoted to another conservative Democrat, Joe Bock, an anti-Choice former state Rep in Missouri who is currently an administrator at Notre Dame. Brian Howey, Indiana's top political columnist, seemed enthusiastic when he broke the story last week.
Bock brings to this 2nd CD race the kind of resume that makes political operatives pant. He is director of Global Health Training at the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame. Previously, he was director of External Relations at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, also at Notre Dame.He researches and publishes on violence prevention, which is one of the sub-fields of global health. He has 12 years of international humanitarian experience, directing the Catholic Relief Services’ programs in Pakistan and Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza Strip, and oversaw programs in Bosnia, Croatia, Guinea, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Thailand, and Uganda while serving as vice president of American Refugee Committee.Bock's credentials are interesting in the context of the Affordable Care Act, the law that appears to be keeping Democratic challengers from emerging in districts across the nation. Conventional wisdom suggests that Obamacare is deeply unpopular in Indiana. That, in tandem with the '14 cycle falling in President Obama's final mid-term election, was seen as considerable headwind for Democratic challengers. And the Bock candidacy began to emerge during the disastrous Obamacare rollout on Oct. 1, with the government website floundering. This was largely obscured by the government shutdown and the flirtation with a U.S. default.Bock's background in health issues potentially gives him credibility on the Obamacare issue. By autumn 2014, voters in the 2nd CD will have much more information on whether Obamacare is a success, or, as Walorski has consistently said, is a train wreck.Last week, Walorski voted against the bill that reopened the government. She had said that she did not want to see the U.S. default, explaining, “As I have said before, I do not support defaulting on our nation’s debt. Tonight, I am glad that a deal was reached to temporarily avoid default and reopen the government, allowing more time for the House and Senate to reach a long-term compromise. However, without any spending cuts or budget reforms aimed at getting our fiscal house in order, I could not support this plan."Polling, however, has shown American voters did not favor using a government shutdown as leverage in the effort to defund Obamacare, particularly with independent voters. In a tight general election race, Walorski will have to defend that.The HR2775 vote could have been a Walorski inoculation to a potential Republican primary challenge by Curt Nisly, the husband of Elkhart County Republican chairwoman Mary Nisly. That potential candidacy has angered Indiana Republican Central Committee members. Nisly told Colwell that he applauded Walorski's vote, but said he is concerned that the congresswoman could lose a general election race.Walorski is in good shape financially. She reported $222,000 on her 3rd quarter FEC report, has raised $761,000 for the cycle and has $540,000 cash on hand.She may need every penny of it in 2014 if she has to thwart a Tea Party challenge from the right in the primary, and then move back to the center for a potentially competitive race against Bock in the general.
By Sunday, DCCC operatives were running around bragging about their latest anti-Choice recruit. A real Democrat, Dan Morrison, is also running but the DCCC is trying to derail his candidacy in favor of the conservative Bock."My first professional job out of high school was as a firefighter, and I've been fighting fires and humanitarian disasters ever since," Bock said. "Right now, the humanitarian disaster is in Washington, D.C… I consider myself a problem solver, someone who is less concerned about ideology and more concerned about getting things done." That's exactly the kind of fluffy, content-less quote that Israel lives for. Don't expect to hear anything that gives anything away from Bock. He wants everyone to think he's on the same page they're on, and that's the Steve Israel mystery meat strategy for filling the Democratic House caucus with rotten conservatives.
A self-described pragmatist-- "I consider myself a problem solver, someone who is less concerned about ideology and more concerned about getting things done," he said-- Bock said the No. 1 issue in the 2nd District is jobs."Our economy has been anemic for years and people have suffered-- they've lost their homes, they've lost their jobs, they haven't gotten raises. And I think the most important thing that needs to be fixed right now is to get our economy back in shape," he said.He said the best thing Congress can do in that regard is get out of the way."We are in a place where we have business people who are keen to reinvest," he said. "But there's a lot of investment that's not happening because there's so much insecurity in governance, and I think there are a lot of ways that that can be turned around."…"I believe that the overwhelming number of people in our district here in northern Indiana want a pragmatic member of Congress who focuses on their interests above ideology," he said.If he has an advantage over Mullen, who lost to Walorski by about 1 percentage point in 2012, it's that he's able to point to the freshman lawmaker's actual record as a member of Congress, he said."Brendan Mullen was pointing out how Congresswoman Walorski would be an extremist guided by ideology above pragmatic solutions for the people of this district," he said. "He pointed out the hypothetical. I'm now in a position to point out what actually has happened."Asked if he would describe Walorski that way-- as an "extremist guided by ideology"-- he said, "My desire is not to attack her as a person, but I would say her record speaks for itself."That record includes Walorski's refusal to support a short-term spending plan that included continued support for Obamacare, which led to the government shutdown, and her 'No' vote on a bi-partisan deal to avoid a government default."The government shutdown was a great example of the inverse of what we need to be doing to exude confidence and show the kind of stability that's required for people to be investing and offering people jobs and giving people raises," Bock said.Walorski, for her part, has described those votes as representative of her position.
Districts with PVIs of R+6 are much more difficult to win than districts with R+1, R+2 or R+3, like the ones represented by Republican policymakers Paul Ryan, Fred Upton, Buck McKeon, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mike Rogers, etc, who Israel refuses to take on. He's just happy when he can waste money on conservative, anti-Choice candidates in impossible districts. I guess that's what Pelosi meant when she said he is "sufficiently reptilian" for the job. In the last 3 years, he's looked more and more like Boehner's pet alligator though. The Democrats will never win back the House as long as Steve Israel heads the DCCC-- regardless of how many waves there are.