With a vote expected on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in Congress in a couple of weeks, Indiana's Stonewall Democrats, who are no fan of U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, are still pressuring him to support the legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Stonewall Democratic members of the Indiana Democratic Party's central committee have threatened to withhold support for Ellsworth when the state party meets to anoint him as its Senate candidate to replace Sen. Evan Bayh. The group would like Sen. Evan Bayh to publicly support the legislation in a move to further pressure Ellsworth. Many prominent GLBT supporters of the Democratic party are declining invitations to donate to Ellsworth's campaign because of his decidedly anti-gay positions. That's not deterring his fundraising to date. I suspect Ellsworth is thinking more about a general election campaign against a conservative Republican candidate in what is shaping up as a Republican year and would rather forgo support from the GLBT community than risk support from conservatives who have supported him in his past congressional races.
As a side note, Sen. Evan Bayh recently competed for the top spot at the NCAA to replace Myles Brand, who died last year of pancreatic cancer. If Bayh had been chosen for the top spot, an early retirement to assume his new job would have allowed Gov. Mitch Daniels to appoint a Republican to the spot. Wouldn't that have made Democrats in this state and D.C. happy?
I would think that the GOP would be sad to see Bayh leave the senate early. He thinks like them and votes with them most of the time anyway.
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