Joe Donnelly Switches Support For Gay Marriage

U.S. Sen Joe Donnelly was one of a handful of Democratic senators to oppose same-sex marriages. Not anymore. Donnelly posted the following statement today on his Facebook page explaining his change of heart:

In recent years, our country has been involved in an important discussion on the issue of marriage equality,” Donnelly wrote. “With the recent Supreme Court arguments and accompanying public discussion of same-sex marriage, I have been thinking about my past positions and votes. In doing so, I have concluded that the right thing to do is to support marriage equality for all.”

Donnelly was pressured in some quarters about his position in last year's Senate race based on claims that his only son was gay. The media never asked Donnelly to address that issue, and he's never spoken about it publicly. The Indiana Stonewall Democrats, nonetheless, were pleased that Donnelly has now taken their side on an issue that the Supreme Court is now taking up in two separate cases addressing the federal government's Defense of Marriage Act and California's constitutional amendment that was approved by voters which prohibits recognition of same-sex marriages. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) recently switched his position in favor of gay marriage, attributing his change in position to his son coming out to him.

UPDATE: The Star's Tim Swarens, who admits voting for Donnelly, thinks it was wrong for him to mislead voters in last year's election. Here's a bit of his quick take on Donnelly's flip flop on gay marriage:

How convenient for Sen. Donnelly, who won’t be on a ballot again for more than five years.

How unfortunate for Indiana voters, who deserved to know his true position on same-sex marriage before he was promoted to the U.S. Senate . . .

Are we to believe that Donnelly suddenly had an epiphany on gay marriage? Are we to accept blindly that a politician who proudly touted his social conservatism for years has now reversed course so soon after a contentious election?

A lot of Americans have a well-founded cynicism about politics and politicians, and Donnelly’s brand of say one thing on the campaign trail and do another once elected only feeds into that cynicism . . .

My guess is that Donnelly was under a lot of pressure from gay rights supporters, who were threatening to make his son an issue if he didn't switch his view, and he wanted to spare his family from a public airing of matters he would rather keep within his family. On many other issues, I think Donnelly is a complete phony. He ran as a moderate conservative on many economic issues, but in reality he is a committed tax-and-spend liberal. His views on social issues are driven by his Catholicism and his desire to avoid conflict with his own church on hot-button issues, even if that means upsetting traditional liberals within his own party.

Star political columnist Matt Tully embraces Donnelly's switch on the issue without delving more deeply like a good political reporter would. "It was clear that Donnelly’s position was going to change; formally changing it now just makes sense," Tully writes. "It also eliminates a nagging political headache." The only political headache the issue caused for Donnelly was the discomfort involving his position given the circumstances within his family. Tully and all of his colleagues are very familiar with that elephant in the room; they just choose to ignore it because they personally like Donnelly in contrast with Richard Mourdock, who Tully and his colleagues at the Star thoroughly despised and did everything they could in their reporting and editorializing to make sure Mourdock lost to the point of lying about and twisting his record at every turn. There was nothing about Mourdock's life they would have shied away from reporting, but when it's someone they like, such as Donnelly or former Sen. Richard Lugar, professional courtesy dictates not discussing matters that are deemed too uncomfortable to discuss.

GOP consultant Jennifer Hallowell adds this comment, which is pretty much spot on:

"He campaigned as a social conservative Democrat, essentially tried to get Hoosier voters to believe that he was a Republican with just a 'D' by his name," she said. "And we've seen him turn his back on Second Amendment rights. And now this. And my guess is, he'll probably switch his position on the life issue before summer."

Donnelly Supports Democratic-Passed Budget Plan That Includes $1 Trilllion In New Taxes And No Spending Cuts

It didn't take Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) long to prove that he will consistently side with the tax-and-spend liberals in the Senate. He cast the deciding vote in joining with Democrats in passing their budget plan on a 50-49 vote that will continue to add trillions to the national debt and even higher taxes. In the early morning hours, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed its first budget in four years. The $3.7 trillion proposed budget for the next fiscal year includes no net spending cuts but nearly $1 trillion in new taxes. By the year 2023, it projects budget deficits in excess of a half trillion dollars a year.

While the Democratic-approved budget plan outlines spending reductions of nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, including $275 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, it would halt nearly $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts triggered under current law. It also tacks on $100 billion in new infrastructure spending in the short run to stimulate the economy. Obviously, the plan stands no chance of passage in the Republican-controlled House.

Mourdock Outraises Donnelly

Richard Mourdock was criticized by political pundits during most of his primary race against Sen. Richard Lugar for lackluster fundraising. Lugar easily outraised and outspent Mourdock by millions of dollars. Since defeating Lugar by a landslide margin in May, Mourdock's fundraising has picked up considerably and he's now on pace to outraise and outspend his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly.

According to the respective campaigns, both had successful second quarter fundraising results, but Mourdock outperformed Donnelly, raising $1.6 million compared to Donnelly's $900,000. Mourdock's total for the last quarter nearly matched the $1.96 million he had raised prior to the last quarter. Donnelly, who had no primary race, has more than $1.3 million cash on hand. According to the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Mourdock's campaign has not provided an available cash figure yet, but it is expected to be considerably less than Donnelly's total. Final reports are due by Sunday.

Meanwhile, Indiana Democrats continue the drumbeat of attacks on Mourdock's decision to challenge the government bailout of Chrysler on behalf of the state's pension funds. Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker claimed that Mourdock's lawsuit cost Indiana taxpayers $2.8 million, more than the $2 million claimed by Mourdock. Mourdock's campaign spokesman, Chris Conner, countered that the state's agreement with its lawyers capped the state's legal expenses at $2,050,000, even though the total bill came to $2.8 million. The Democrats maintain that Mourdock's lawsuit put thousands of Hoosier auto worker jobs at stake and wasted taxpayer dollars.

Tully Likes Donnelly For Senate, Big Surprise

Star political columnist Matt Tully all but endorses Joe Donnelly for the U.S. Senate in his Sunday column. This should come as no surprise to voters since Tully is still smarting over Richard Mourdock's landslide victory over Richard Lugar, the only politician in Indiana who can do no wrong in Tully's eyes. Tully didn't even mind that Lugar had committed vote fraud for decades by registering and casting votes from an Indiana residence at which he didn't reside, but he thought Charlie White was a "poor lost soul" and an "embarrassment" because he registered to vote at his ex-wife's home for a several month period while he was in between homes. So why is Tully so big on Donnelly? Tully says because "he delivers a message built around two core ideas: create more jobs and turn Washington, D.C. into less of a toxic dump."

Tully condemns Mourdock for being what he calls a "partisan warrior" for refusing to deal on the same terms as Congress and the President have engaged one another in dealing with the nation's massive budget deficits. Tully has labeled Mourdock's plan to reduce federal spending "laughable" because it calls for the elimination of several federal agencies. I guess Tully doesn't find "laughable" or even a cause for concern the more than $4 trillion Congress and the President have added to the national debt over the past four years with no concrete plan for controlling deficit-spending at any point in the foreseeable future. Tully praises Donnelly's support of Obamacare, which represents the largest expansion of the federal government in the role of providing health care to Americans, including a massive expansion of the Medicaid program for low-income persons without any mechanism for paying for it. That to Tully is a "simple message worth hearing if you're tired of all the political dysfunction."  That to Tully makes Donnelly "an appealing candidate." Oy veh!

Donnelly Poll Shows Tied Senate Race

The first post-primary poll conducted for the Democratic Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, to no surprise, claims the race is tied. According to a Global Strategies poll, the two candidates split 40% of the vote each with 20% undecided. The good news for Mourdock is that he's still running even with Donnelly despite the poll's claim that his unfavorable rating is three times higher than Donnelly's. The poll found 37% had an unfavorable opinion of Mourdock compared to a 12% unfavorable rating for Donnelly. More of the poll's respondents gave a higher favorable rating to Mourdock, 36 to 28%. Given that the poll likely used push poll questioning, you can extrapolate that Mourdock actually holds a lead over Donnelly. The poll claimed to have a margin of error rate of plus or minus four points.

UPDATE: HoosierPundit reminds us that early polling in the 2010 Senate race between Dan Coats and Brad Ellsworth showed the two virtually tied. Coats won less than 40% of the Republican primary vote compared to Mourdock's 61% landslide win over long-term incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar.

Lugar Residency Problem Will Be Donnelly's Number One Issue

Forget what Ann "Tokyo Rose" DeLaney says on "Indiana Week In Review" about Lugar's residency being a non issue, the Democratic Party and its nominee, U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, plan to make the fact that he hasn't lived in Indiana in 35 years the number one issue in this campaign. After all, what better isssue could you have to run against someone who was first elected to the Senate when Paul Simon's "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover" was topping the pop charts and "All In The Family" was the most watched TV show? The Star's Mary Beth Schneider found Donnelly campaigning at the Workingman's Friend bar on Indianapolis' west side as Lugar was at a downtown hotel at which he stays during his visits to the state defending his residency before a battery of reporters.

U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly sat at a table at the Workingman's Friend tavern in Indianapolis on Monday, chatting with voters as part of a statewide tour launching his campaign for the Senate.

He talked about his commitment to creating jobs, helping veterans and protecting Social Security. And he made sure they knew that he thinks "the answers are not out in Washington, they're here at home."

"That," Donnelly said, "is why I try to come home almost every weekend."

Stressing that his home is in South Bend, not in Washington, might not seem like much of a campaign theme.

But this might not be an ordinary campaign. Donnelly, a Democrat, will run against the winner of the Republican primary, a race in which Sen. Richard Lugar is being pounded by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock over questions of residency . . .  

But as he travels the state, Donnelly said, voters do bring up the issue of Lugar's address.
"They don't understand it," he said. "This is not to be disrespectful to the senator, but they don't understand how he didn't have a residence here for such a long time."

Voters will decide whether that's an important enough question to influence their vote, he said.

"But here's what I know: I come home almost every weekend. My ability to do my job comes from sitting in restaurants in Rochester and going to fish fries in LaPorte and visiting schools in my district and meeting with folks back home. There's a lot more wisdom in Indiana, from Evansville to Steuben County, than there is in Washington, D.C.," Donnelly said.

Lugar Political Director: GOP Chairmen Duped Into Backing Mourdock

An e-mail missive sent by Sen. Richard Lugar's political director, David Willkie, is likely to draw the ire of the more than two-thirds of the state's county GOP chairs who have endorsed Lugar's primary opponent, State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Willkie said the chairs were "duped" into backing Mourdock, who he accused of relying on the same consultants as last year's failed GOP Senate candidate in Colorado, Delaware and Nevada to advise him:

Unfortunately, a large number of Republican County Chairmen have been duped into participating in the same failed scheme that resulted in Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle and cost us two crucial Senate Seats in 2010. (If the Republican parties in Delaware, Nevada, and Colorado had taken the Reagan "big tent" approach, we would have already repealed Obamacare.) Mr. Mourdock has hired the same consultants that brought us these unelectable candidates, and with Mr. Donnelly joining the race the pattern is complete . . .

Willkie also turns Lugar's label of being President Obama's favorite Republican senator on Mourdock. "Right now, Richard Mourdock is Obama's favorite Republican because if he wins that primary and Joe Donnelly is the nominee that's their (Democrats) shot at the Senate seat held by Dick Lugar," Willkie quotes Peter Rusthoven, a former Reagan White House Counsel and conservative political commentator as saying. Willkie suggests in his e-mail that Mourdock's challenge to Lugar is what drew Donnelly into next year's senate race.

Donnelly Looking Forward To Running Against Lugar, Not Mourdock

U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly is expected to make official today his plan to seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Richard Lugar. Contrary to the thinking of some political pundits, Donnelly hopes to face Lugar and not Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Lugar is seeking an unprecedented seventh term to the seat he captured from former Sen. Vance Hartke in 1976. While Democrats expect Lugar to take a beating in his primary bid against Mourdock, who is backed by more than two-thirds of the party's county chairs, they are hoping to wage a campaign focused on a long-time incumbent out of touch with Hoosiers. The silver bullet issue Democrats will use to bring home that point is the issue of Lugar's residency. Many Democrats were stunned to learn that Lugar no longer maintains a residence in Indiana and has been voting for decades at a home he long ago sold. Emboldened by their ongoing challenge of Secretary of State Charlie White's eligibility to hold office based upon the argument he voted in a precinct in which he didn't reside, the Lugar residency challenge is a no-brainer. Don't be surprised if a legal challenge against Lugar's residency issue is mounted if he is successful in winning re-nomination next year.

Although the residency issue has been ignored by the mainstream media in Indiana, it is a potentially explosive issue. Lugar contends that Indiana law permits him to rely on the residence he established at the time of his initial election to the Senate back in 1976, even though he long ago gave up that residency. The U.S. Constitution requires a lower standard of residency for Senate candidates. It requires a candidate to be an "inhabitant" as opposed to a "resident" at the time of his or her election. The word "inhabitant" was chosen out of concern "resident" would exclude persons who are absent from the state for personal or public business. Even if Lugar can overcome a challenge that he is not an "inhabitant" of the state for purposes of eligibility to hold the office, he still faces the same problem Charlie White is now facing. Democrats will argue Lugar has committed voter fraud under state law by casting a vote in a precinct in which he has not maintained a residence for decades. If Lugar had simply relied on his Marion Co. farmhouse or a rented apartment for voting purposes, this would not be an issue; however, it is undisputed he has not owned or resided at the home at which he has been casting votes in Indiana elections for decades. Lugar Senate aide Mark Helmke acknowledged to reporters earlier this year that Lugar stays in a hotel when he is back home in Indiana. Democrats won't let that issue pass without a fight, politically or legally. Mourdock could raise the issue himself, but he has so far avoided making it. That could change depending on how the Charlie White issue is resolved.