Former U.S. Rep. Baron Hill may try to get House seat back

[Freddie Stubbs]

By Alex Davis
[e-mail]
The Courier-Journal

Former U.S. Rep. Baron Hill said yesterday that he might form an exploratory committee in the next 30 days to raise money for a possible campaign next year to win his old job back.

Hill, a Democrat, represented Indiana's 9th District in the U.S. House from 1999 through 2004. He narrowly lost a bid for a fourth term to Republican Mike Sodrel last fall.

"I want to learn from this defeat," Hill said yesterday in a telephone interview from his home in Seymour. "I want to make lemonade out of the lemons that were dealt to me."

Over the next 30 days, Hill said, he will travel the district to speak with voters and learn more about the factors that influenced November's election.

more: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050326/NEWS02/503260380

[salin]

1. He has my support

will look for an address to contribute.

Hill, though more centrist than I, is intelligent and sincere.

He spoke to a group of Dems at the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner just a couple of weeks before the IRC vote (a dinner at which Minority Leader Pelosi was present...) In one on one time he expressed grave reservations against voting for it ... because (he repeated this many times - private and public) he had yet to see evidence of "Immenant Threat".

Then he voted for it. Many of us were stunned, and furious. Felt it had been a political maneuver, given his previous words to us.

However, he was among the group of Congressmen who had been pitched the "dire" but faux intelligence (we later learned). He kept to his word, as he believed it. Here is the thing that more than won me back - AND, I believe, got him targetted as a race to win... When Kay returned - stating that not only were there no weapons found or to be found... but that there had NOT been weapons. Hill grew furious and the deception. He became skeptical. He was among the early sponsors for legislation to call of an investigation into the prewar intelligence. It was clear that he had been duped, he knew he had been duped, and he was shaken by the reality that it had been intentionally misleading. The scales have dropped from his eyes that still hold on many eyes (scales of the belief that while we may have political disagreements with the other side... we believe in their sincerity and can not (yet) accept the level of deception and - indeed - malintent.)

Back to the home district. He was ahead in the polls - of an opponent he had beaten in the previous election... when suddenly on Billboards and radio ads - just a couple of weeks before the election he was slimed, horribly - by a group stealing not only the swiftboat liars tactics but also their name (something "for truth"). The information about the organization behind the ads, and the funding - was unknown until after the election.

Thanks for posting this - I had not heard that he was exploring a run (I am now living in two cities and thus not in regular contact with the local dems who used to keep me, periodicaly, up on things like this.)

[shesemsmom]

2. I had the opportunity to speak with Baron

in January and told him that I very much hoped that he would run again. He told me at that time that it would depend on a lot of factors. Since that time he has worked out a few of the things he needed to deal with. I told him I already had some older folks willing to phone bank for him, and that the reason he lost was that he was caught up in this far right mess, and a big pack of lies. I have lived through a bunch of dirty campaigning but none as bad as this and him getting the worst of it locally. I promised him that people would see the light by 06 and some are already *repenting* I think it will be a pretty easy taking back.

[Jdemsindiana]

3. SUPPORT BARON!!

We have to get that dumb ass douche bag Sodrel out we need that seat back we need to do all that we can to restore Baron's seat back

[DrGonzoLives]

4. Maybe he could run for governor?

Hell, anyone would be better than Bitch.