2010-05-19
Representative Mark Souder (R-IN3) Resigns After Sex Scandal
It shocks me that Republicans are still pro-2nd Amendment when all they seem to use their guns for is to shoot themselves in the foot.
This is US Representative Mark Souder of Indiana's 3rd Congressional District, which is the northeastern part of the state, including the Fort Wayne area. If the name sounds familiar, it's because KTracy.com has named IN-3 one of the most contentious Congressional Seats in the past two election cycles.
Indiana fills vacancies different from many other states. Our Governor is unusually weak in most areas and, as a result, he isn't the guy who is going to fill the vacancy. Instead, the State Constitution mandates a special election, in which County Chairmen and Chairwomen will have caucuses with their precinct committeemen and committeewomen to determine the candidates that will be placed on the special election ballot. This happens in both parties. Because this is happening after the Primary, precinct committeemen and committeewomen also have to fill the vacancy on the General Election ticket. This vacancy must be filled within 30 days of the resignation. It won't take that long.
We'll discuss the options and dynamics this creates in a post later this week.
The hope of this blogger and of many more bloggers across the Hoosier State have is that the Republican committees will chose former State Representative Marlin Stutzman, who resigned to run for US Senate but was ultimately defeated by Ron Paulers dividing the grassroots vote and former US Senator Dan Coats.
Stutzman's biggest challenge in the 2009-2010 campaign was internal, where a lack of campaign organization across the entire state led to scattered mayhem after Coats entered the race. A race for House of Representatives will be relatively easy to orchestrate compared a state-wide race in 92 counties. Plus, Marlin Stutzman already has more name recognition than anyone else that could potentially be fielded, an advantage he lacked in his Senate campaign.
Another advantage he will have will be the backing of the Washington and Indianapolis power brokers. The RNC and HRCC don't want to lose this seat to Democrats and they're going to make sure that they set Stutzman up for success. That's the one significant advantage Dan Coats had over the other four US Senate Candidates in the Republican Primary.
When I first found out that Souder would be resigning last week (bound by secrecy, sorry), I was told that Stutzman was already the candidate of choice by just about everyone. Officially, Stutzman is currently talking things over with his family and staff, but I think it's a done deal. Stutzman is likely just waiting for the Souder stuff to blow over and, probably next week, he'll announce his official intent to be placed on the ballot.
Stutzman is really an incredible conservative candidate and he's going to do the people of Indiana proud in the US Congress.
The special election will be no sooner than 60 days after the resignation on Friday, which means late July or early August. Whoever wins that race will barely have time to be sworn in by Speaker Pelosi, as the General Election will be a mere three months away and the campaign trail waits for no one.
