Indiana House race tests mood on Bush
Indiana House race tests mood on Bush
By David D. Kirkpatrick. Copyright by The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2006
NEW ALBANY, Indiana Fate has turned Representative Mike Sodrel's re- election campaign into a test case of the effect of public discontent with President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.
Two years ago, Sodrel, a Republican and the owner of a trucking company, stood shoulder to shoulder with Bush in support of the invasion of Iraq, and his campaign featured a procession of appearances with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and several cabinet members. Bush won 59 percent of the vote in the district, and the Republican tide helped push Sodrel to victory by a few hundred votes over the Democratic incumbent, Baron Hill.
This fall he faces a rematch against Hill, but like Republican incumbents around the country, Sodrel is running at a time when disillusionment with the war has turned association with Bush from a credential to a question mark in the eyes of many voters.
"We have lost so many young men that I think it is time we need to make some changes," said Betty Robbins, a shopkeeper in Scottsburg, Indiana, who said she voted for Bush in 2004 and then pulled the lever for every Republican on the ticket, including Sodrel. Robbins said that she now viewed Bush as "asinine," and that if she went to the polls this autumn she was unlikely to vote again for Sodrel. "I would jump the fence," she said.
Republicans around the country are openly debating how to distance themselves from voters' dissatisfaction with Bush and the war, but without further tarnishing their party and its public face in the process. For Sodrel, who won the razor-close race on Bush's coattails, the problem is especially acute.
At a public meeting recently in Scottsburg, Sodrel said he stood by his support for the war and for the president, although he acknowledged that it was not always easy.
"I know a lot of people have said they want to see the president or the vice president come in and raise money for them, they just don't want to get caught in public with them," Sodrel said, laughing at the awkwardness many Republicans feel toward the White House.
"My attitude is, he is my president," Sodrel continued. "My wife and I have been married 38 years and we don't agree all the time. When there are things we don't agree on, I tell him so. But I am happy to have him come in here and stump for our campaign."
Sodrel declined to say whether with the benefit of hindsight he would have supported the invasion of Iraq. "I don't think coulda-shoulda-woulda is very helpful right now," he said.
In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of the public said they believed Bush lacked a clear plan to win the war in Iraq, and as support for his leadership on that subject has fallen Republican incumbents have become increasingly open in their criticism of the administration over other policies, including its domestic surveillance program and its management of the budget.
Standing too close to an unpopular president or stepping away too far each has political risks. In a recent memorandum written for the Republican Party's chairman, Ken Mehlman, the pollster Jan van Lohuizen argued to Republican incumbents that trying to "drive a wedge" between themselves and the president would backfire by hurting their own image as Republicans.
"The president is seen universally as the face of the Republican Party," van Lohuizen wrote, according to a copy reproduced by the Web site of National Journal. "We are now Brand W. Republicans."
In many culturally conservative rural areas of Sodrel's district along the Kentucky River, Bush is still more popular than not. But his name arouses deep anger in many liberals, who dominate the university town of Bloomington at the district's northern end. And across the state, an Indianapolis Star poll in early March found that just 37 percent of people believed Bush was doing a good job while 56 percent disapproved.
Laura Nichols, an official of the liberal Center for American Progress who was an adviser to Richard Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader, said Democratic incumbents faced similar awkward questions during President Bill Clinton's second term, albeit over his personal behavior rather than a war.
"Everybody had to come up with their own rap about how personally offensive it was and how bad it was," Nichols said. But the backlash against Clinton's critics ultimately benefited Democrats more than the embarrassment hurt them, Nichols added, just as some Republicans are hoping talk of impeaching Bush may help them this year.
Hill, the Democratic candidate, voted to authorize military action in Iraq but has sought to use his experience to attack the White House. He said he was won over after administration officials showed him photographs of drone airplanes and centrifuges that Hill now believes exaggerated the Iraq threat.
Sodrel and the National Republican Congressional Committee have said they expect the election to turn on local issues, not Bush.
By David D. Kirkpatrick. Copyright by The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2006
NEW ALBANY, Indiana Fate has turned Representative Mike Sodrel's re- election campaign into a test case of the effect of public discontent with President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.
Two years ago, Sodrel, a Republican and the owner of a trucking company, stood shoulder to shoulder with Bush in support of the invasion of Iraq, and his campaign featured a procession of appearances with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and several cabinet members. Bush won 59 percent of the vote in the district, and the Republican tide helped push Sodrel to victory by a few hundred votes over the Democratic incumbent, Baron Hill.
This fall he faces a rematch against Hill, but like Republican incumbents around the country, Sodrel is running at a time when disillusionment with the war has turned association with Bush from a credential to a question mark in the eyes of many voters.
"We have lost so many young men that I think it is time we need to make some changes," said Betty Robbins, a shopkeeper in Scottsburg, Indiana, who said she voted for Bush in 2004 and then pulled the lever for every Republican on the ticket, including Sodrel. Robbins said that she now viewed Bush as "asinine," and that if she went to the polls this autumn she was unlikely to vote again for Sodrel. "I would jump the fence," she said.
Republicans around the country are openly debating how to distance themselves from voters' dissatisfaction with Bush and the war, but without further tarnishing their party and its public face in the process. For Sodrel, who won the razor-close race on Bush's coattails, the problem is especially acute.
At a public meeting recently in Scottsburg, Sodrel said he stood by his support for the war and for the president, although he acknowledged that it was not always easy.
"I know a lot of people have said they want to see the president or the vice president come in and raise money for them, they just don't want to get caught in public with them," Sodrel said, laughing at the awkwardness many Republicans feel toward the White House.
"My attitude is, he is my president," Sodrel continued. "My wife and I have been married 38 years and we don't agree all the time. When there are things we don't agree on, I tell him so. But I am happy to have him come in here and stump for our campaign."
Sodrel declined to say whether with the benefit of hindsight he would have supported the invasion of Iraq. "I don't think coulda-shoulda-woulda is very helpful right now," he said.
In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of the public said they believed Bush lacked a clear plan to win the war in Iraq, and as support for his leadership on that subject has fallen Republican incumbents have become increasingly open in their criticism of the administration over other policies, including its domestic surveillance program and its management of the budget.
Standing too close to an unpopular president or stepping away too far each has political risks. In a recent memorandum written for the Republican Party's chairman, Ken Mehlman, the pollster Jan van Lohuizen argued to Republican incumbents that trying to "drive a wedge" between themselves and the president would backfire by hurting their own image as Republicans.
"The president is seen universally as the face of the Republican Party," van Lohuizen wrote, according to a copy reproduced by the Web site of National Journal. "We are now Brand W. Republicans."
In many culturally conservative rural areas of Sodrel's district along the Kentucky River, Bush is still more popular than not. But his name arouses deep anger in many liberals, who dominate the university town of Bloomington at the district's northern end. And across the state, an Indianapolis Star poll in early March found that just 37 percent of people believed Bush was doing a good job while 56 percent disapproved.
Laura Nichols, an official of the liberal Center for American Progress who was an adviser to Richard Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader, said Democratic incumbents faced similar awkward questions during President Bill Clinton's second term, albeit over his personal behavior rather than a war.
"Everybody had to come up with their own rap about how personally offensive it was and how bad it was," Nichols said. But the backlash against Clinton's critics ultimately benefited Democrats more than the embarrassment hurt them, Nichols added, just as some Republicans are hoping talk of impeaching Bush may help them this year.
Hill, the Democratic candidate, voted to authorize military action in Iraq but has sought to use his experience to attack the White House. He said he was won over after administration officials showed him photographs of drone airplanes and centrifuges that Hill now believes exaggerated the Iraq threat.
Sodrel and the National Republican Congressional Committee have said they expect the election to turn on local issues, not Bush.
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