Hoosier politics took an unexpected turn Monday night when Democratic Senate candidate Tamyra d’Ippolito accused the White House of conspiring with party officials to secretly draft Rep. Baron Hill to run against her.Seriously, there can be no surprises at anything Rahm Emmanuel does, but if this story turns out to be true, it will cast an unfavorable light on Senator Bayh, because it will affirm that he gave the White House notice of his intentions to retire from the Senate well ahead of the general public. It is unlikely that the Hoosier state will take kindly to an attempt to deny Democratic voters the chance to choose their own primary candidate.
As the only other Democrat in the field, d’Ippolito became the presumptive front-runner for the Democratic nomination when Sen. Evan Bayh announced Monday that he would not seek re-election. Indiana Senate candidates must collect 4,500 signatures to appear on the ballot, including 500 from each of the state’s nine congressional districts.
As of 9:30 p.m. Monday d’Ippolito told The Daily Caller she was 1,000 signatures short and had volunteers across the state planning to work through the night to accomplish the goal before the noon deadline on Tuesday.
However, d’Ippolito said she was informed Monday that Hill, a blue dog who represents Indiana’s 9th District in the House, already has the necessary signatures and is sitting on them until the deadline. She accused White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel of colluding with Hill and the Democratic party county chairs to secretly supplant her as the nominee.
Ed Morrissey shares his thoughts and some background on Rep. Baron Hill at HotAir.com.
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