The Indiana governor's race has been largely overshadowed by the presidential election, but it is shaping up to be a very close one. Around IU, Mitch is the devil. Democrats dislike him with a passion. They are still upset about daylight savings time, although to me that's the biggest "GET OVER IT" issue I think I've ever heard. But mainly, his privatization of the toll road and desires to do more of this rankles them quite a bit (and not spending enough on education, tax cuts, and other things).
His opponent, Jill Long-Thompson, is on a losing streak. She lost to Mark Souder several years ago, then lost to Chris Chocola back in 2004. In the primary, she was shunned by the Democratic Party as they put all their money and resources into her challenger, whom she narrowly defeated. So, while I know Democrats want Mitch unseated, they haven't exactly welcomed Long-Thompson with open arms (in addition, she had zero t.v. ads for a 6-week stretch starting in September).
I happen to really like her, although that's because I've had a little bit more personal experience with her. For two of my graduate classes at IU South Bend, she was my professor. One of the classes was Public Finance, which she obviously knew a lot about and could relate much of the inner workings of Congress. She was very sharp and knew her stuff. Although interestingly, teaching wasn't necessarilyi her forte and she stumbled often in teaching the class. But I guess that made her all the more "human" and not as much of a political machine. Besides, she bought us all pizza a couple of times (that will always go over well with college students).
She seemed very much a downhome country girl from Indiana. Yes, kinda Palinesque. Seemed very much an outsider (although she wasn't) but I never felt like I was listening to a politician. I really enjoyed her as a professor and I'll be voting for her. Now, in my final exam in her class I said how much I enjoyed having her as a professor and that I'd vote for her. I guess that could either be interpreted as my thinking she's truly the best candidate or a lame attempt at a good grade.
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3 comments:
If Obama bought you pizza would you vote for him too?
Obama would make us Master's Degree students feel so guilty about our achievement that, while he would buy us the pizza, he would make us give it away to the poor undergraduate philosophy students.
or give it away to poor communications or Christian Ed. undergrad students!
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