Monday, October 23, 2006

Legislative Candidates Struggle To Get Noticed

The Star's Mary Beth Schneider has a story today prominently featuring the 86th District race between Rep. David Orentlicher (D) and Kathryn Densborn (R). In our bloggers' forum last week with Orentlicher, state representative candidate John Barnes (D) and state senate candidate Russell Brown (D), we discussed the struggle state legislative candidates have in trying to get mainstream media coverage of their campaigns. Barnes pointed to a front-page story in a neighborhood newspaper on the city's eastside. Unlike other news stories, this was one his campaign had to purchase.

Orentlicher's and Barnes' campaigns received a big boost when the Star endorsed their candidacies last week. While Barnes' District 89 race against Rep. Larry Buell (R) did not get the attention Orentlicher's race got today, I suspect his race is every bit as competitive as District 86. Republican Jon Elrod, an attorney, also got a boost from a surprise Star endorsement last week in his uphill fight against Rep. Ed Mahern (D), as did Robin Olds (D) in her bid to unseat Rep. Phil Hinkle (R). Susan Fuldauer (D) has been campaigning tirelessly against House Speaker Brian Bosma, but her campaign has gotten little attention from the media, presumably because the district is so Republican.

Some of these candidates have wisely elected to use bloggers to help get out their message, while others have pretty much ignored them. The way I look at it, it's free media. With the high cost of mounting a campaign, a candidate can extend his/her reach considerably by reaching out to the blogs.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's really a sad statement of the print media in Indianapolis these days. It's like having a local paper that's in reality flying over at 10,000 feet.

The alternative print media - Nuvo and the Recorder each have their own heavily biased agendas that it's almost a laugh to even seriously consider them as reliable media.

Then there's us.

Anonymous said...

Orentlicher has been putting out some pretty low class stuff. No surprise when Julia Carson is his honorary campaign advisor.

Anonymous said...

Susan Fuldauer will be the surprise winner November as well as all of Lawrence Twp. Good for Julie, good for R. Brown and good for the State of Indiana. www.votesusan.com. See ya in the State House.

Anonymous said...

I would love to see Fuldauer beat Bosma. It would be nice to see our lawmakers at work without all of the money wasted on prayer grandstanding and gay bashing. After Bosma is gone they could focus on issues that effect average hoosiers such as jobs, education and health care. Getting rid of that 4 to 1 retirement perk would be a huge plus as well.

Anonymous said...

Densborn's stuff is just as bad, or worse.

Besides, I know her.

She's to the right of Atilla the Hun.

David needs to win.

He will.

Wish I had the faith in the Star endorsements you have, AI. I'm glad David and some others got endorsed, but hoenstly, I think their overall endorsement policy and choices were so damned goofy it has no effect whatsoever.

Jon Elrod won't get 40%.