ShareThisBy MARA LEE
Monday, November 06, 2006
In the Gaslight Restaurant at Huntingburg, Ind., Anne Hamilton was saying the kinds of things former Rep. Baron Hill wants to hear.
The 73-year-old Huntingburg resident is a Republican, yet she said, "I was almost to the point of voting any incumbent out, just to change our representation." But Anne and her husband, Ray, a Democrat, have already voted for Sodrel.
Ray Hamilton, 73, says he doesn't want the House to go Democratic.
"They're so liberal. They have no policy," he said. "They're more interested in partisan bickering than the government."
The change in sentiment in this county two years ago can account for Republican Mike Sodrel's 2004 victory over Baron Hill.
Now, however, Democrats hope to defeat the one-term incumbent to win back the majority, and this race is considered one of the 10 most competitive in the country.
Although the Sodrel-Hill race occupies the minds of election watchers inside the Beltway, not much interest was to be found in New Albany, Tell City, Jasper and Huntingburg in the final days before the Nov. 7 election.
Hill and Sodrel yard signs were running fairly even across the district, but they were not thickly planted.
When asked if he wanted to keep his congressman, Terry Herthel said, "Who's that, Sodrel? Not me." Herthel, 44, was having lunch with Bill Wright, 53, at a cafeteria just north across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky. New Albany has a downtown full of charming old buildings built as long ago as the 1820s. But there are as many for rent signs in blank display windows as there are antique shops.
Wright said he would support Sodrel because he thinks "he's done a pretty reasonable job." Herthel said he's for Hill, mostly because of the war in Iraq.
Brent Minton, 32, works two jobs, as a cook and at a Toyota parts supplier.
"Trying to get caught up, trying to get ahead, really," he said. They have small children, a new house, and two car payments.
Minton tends to favor Democrats, but he supports Republicans, too.
"I don't like (Sodrel). I don't know if I like Hill, either," he said. "He just talks bad about Sodrel."
Gladys Jones, 74, said, "I hate those God-awful ads. It almost makes you not want to vote."
Indiana University political scientist Russell Hanson said, "The point of negative ads is almost never to convert voters but to cause them to stay home." The national parties are spending more than $1 million apiece slamming each man.
When voters agree with the negative ads, it9s usually because it reaffirms their views, Hanson said. Like Wayne Naviaux, who called Hill "a total bleeding-heart liberal."
Sodrel said at a campaign event, "Some of them that are trying to help me get my blood pressure up." The video games ad is tacky, he said. "If I could've pulled it down, I would've.
"By the time this campaign is over, people are going to be nauseated."
