With all political eyes on Iowa and part one of the 2020 legislative session wrapping up this week, we thought we’d drop a few odds and ends that might be worth a mention or two.

Enjoy!

We just wrapped up our informal survey of CD 5 voters to get their attitudes about the upcoming election.  Here’s what we found.

  • Republican Kelly Mitchell and Democrat Christina Hale have the most name ID and would be considered the “front runners” in each primary, both averaged about 40 percent of the vote. However, 39 percent of Democrats said they were undecided about the race. While a third of Republicans were in the same camp.
  • As far as Republicans go, potential candidate Carl Brizzi and Kelly Mitchell had the most name ID among Democrats.  Christina Hale had the most name ID among Republican voters.
  • Donald Trump’s approval rating was 59 percent.  Governor Eric Holcomb’s was 62 percent.
  • 37 percent said they were unsure if they would vote for Attorney General Curtis Hill.
  • 58 percent thought the country was on the right track while 71 percent said the state of Indiana was headed in the right direction.
  • 84 percent rated their financial situations as excellent or good.  78 percent said they thought things were excellent or good for people they knew.

CD 5 candidate Dee Thornton is crying foul over and endorsement of the Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee of rival Christina Hale.  “The DCCC’s decision to choose a specific candidate before the voters have had their say appears to be motivated by an age-old Washington tradition: Money, she said in an e-mail. “No longer does it matter how keen an understanding of the issues a candidate possesses, but rather how many greenbacks you can dangle in front of the Washington elite.” Thorton got some pushback from some of her fellow Democrats.  In a Facebook post, Tim DeLaney, former Democratic Statehouse candidate wrote, “Trumpeting your inability to raise money and your past under-performance in a swing district is not the best way to argue that you should be the nominee when that district has an open seat.”

It looks like State Senator Victoria Spartz may announce Wednesday that she is running for Congress.  

In the race for Governor, Josh Owens has about 3,890 confirmed signatures while Dr. Woody Myers was at 3,480. They need to turn in at least 5,000 by Friday.

Indianapolis City-County Councilor Jared Evans has announced he’s running for the seat being vacated by Karlee Macer.

Indy LGBT activist Belinda Drake is expected to drop out of the race to take on Cindy Kirchoffer’s House seat and instead take on Republican State Senator Aaron Freeman.