U.S. Congress - Indiana's 8th District
Incumbent: Brad Ellsworth (D)
Challenger: Greg Goode (R)
The 8th district covers western Indiana including Evansville, Terre Haute and Greencastle. Several universities can be found here: Evansville University, Indiana State, Rose Hulman Institue of Technology, DePauw, and Vincennes University. Other than Evansville and Terre Haute, most of the district is rural.
Brad Ellsworth entered Congress in 2006 defeating six-term incumbent John Hostettler. This has been a hotly contested district where Hostettler faced tough opposition almost every election until losing in a landslide. Ellsworth is one of the most conservative Democrats, a Blue Dog, in Congress. We've already profiled a couple other Blue Dogs, and Ellsworth is probably the most conservative of any of them.
Greg Goode has spent most of the last several years serving as an advocate for Indiana State University on government affairs. After reading his stance on the issues, I'd describe him as a bit of a Pat Buchanan style Republican. Although, he does appear to be opposed to a Palestinian state. His is an ardent supporter of the extension of I-69 from Indianapolis to Evansville in hopes it will be a benefit for the local economy. Despite being opposed to the "encroaching policies" of the U.N., he supports legislation which will "ensure that the companies in foreign countries will have to abide by the same labor, environmental, and occupational safety laws as American companies."
This is a toss-up for me. I've come to find the Blue Dogs to be quite reasonable, and while Goode supports a lot of conservative principles which I agree with, he also has a social agenda hints of authoritarianism.
Endorsement: Ellsworth
Prediction: Ellsworth
5 comments:
Matt: Please cite some examples of Mr. Ellsworth's conservativism as a voting representative in Congress. Thank you.
Thanks for stopping by.
I based my comments on the following:
1. His analysis of bill sponsorship at govtrack.us.
2. His voting trends analysis at opencongress.org.
3. His stated positions from his campaign website.
I appreciate that this is only a partial view, and that promises made on websites can easily be broken. I'd be happy to conduct additional research and/or receive further information from you that you feel is relevant for me to review.
Perhaps specific votes regarding (1)trade agreements (did he vote to send any jobs out of country), (2)tax cuts/hikes, and (3) social issues. This info could likely be obtained from his congressional office staff. I suspect those to be the three primary markers for true conservativism.
Excellent that you look into these things, Matt.
There have been 1869 roll call votes in the time that Ellsworth has been in the House. I do have a goal (and a bit of a plan) to do some sort of vote analysis at some point in the future. Although, I will probably start with the Senate since it has fewer members. I will try to think of some other ways to look at the House record in a way where I can better characterize the reps.
That said... I hear what you are saying. I should probably clarify that I have described him as a conservative Democrat - not as a Democrat who is conservative. In other words, it is all relative. Of course, so is the term conservative.
On one hand, I stand by my point. Another data point I found is looking at the Washington Post's "Congress votes database". He ranks 230 of 241 Democrats in terms of voting "with the party" (87.9% of the time). Incidentally, no House member votes with his/her party less than 74.7% of the time.
So, there gives another measure where he at least doesn't always toe the party line.
Now, I'm by no means an Ellsworth apologist. He is the least "doggy" of the Blue Dogs. I really could have gone either way in this race. I just found Goode's positions to be incomplete, a bit protectionist, and too socially conservative for my taste.
Understood. Thanks for your time and effort on this, Matt. I will continue to watch your blog for updates.
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