Left of Centrist has some coverage of Dr. Tom Hayhurst’s campaign kickoff in his run against Mark Souder to represent Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District. According to Left of Centrist, three of Hayhurst’s main goals if elected are:

1. He wants a law that will require the U.S. government to negotiate with the drug companies for the best possible prices for prescription medication for Medicaid recipients.

2. He wants to establish a healthcare plan that will allow several small companies to join together to get the best possible insurance for the lowest possible price. He sees an inadequacy in small businesses being able to provide affordable healthcare compared to businesses that employee hundreds or thousands.

3. He wants to level the playing field when it comes to trade agreements. He doesn’t understand why our jobs are going overseas to countries, such as China, that aren’t bound by the same regulations as those in the United States. He specifically mentioned China and the fact their factories freely pollute the air and have a cheaper labor force.

For what it’s worth (not much probably), I look for Dr. Hayhurst’s campaign to be surprisingly competitive. There has been a lot of talk about the Ellsworth/Hostettler race and the Hill/Sodrel race, both of which should be close. But I think that because of the prominence of those races, the Hayhurst/Souder race is running under the radar. If nothing else, I hope Souder is given a steady diet of his own words from back in ’94 when Souder promised he would serve no more than 6 terms. He is now running for his 7th.

Democratic Congressional candidate Barry Welsh looks to have retooled his website. Lots of information there. He seem to be doing his best to leverage Internet capabilities to keep up with Pence who will probably have a ridiculous amount of money for this campaign if he needs it. Pence seems to be a bit arrogant about keeping his seat, though, refusing to return money he received from Tom DeLay’s PAC.

Anyway, go check out Mr. Welsh’s site if you live in eastern Indiana’s 6th Congressional District. Find out some of the differences between Mr. Welsh and Mr. Pence and figure out which one most closely represents your vision for America and vote accordingly.

The opening days of the campaign for Indiana’s 8th Congressional District opened up in a style fitting of the District’s moniker of the Bloody Eighth: with Republicans taking shots at Ellsworth’s teenage daughter. The Evansville Courier Press published a story after Indiana Republican and blogger Joshua Clayborn blew the whistle on pictures Ellsworth’s daughter, age 19, posted containing images of herself with bottles of beer. Clayborn’s sites include In the Agora and The Indiana Barrister.)

By way of full disclosure, I drank underage in college. A lot. By the caseload, on at least one occasion. I even drank in the presence of my parents between the ages of 18-21. I’m comfortable saying this since I don’t figure my parents will be running for office anytime soon. (And, if they did, they would most assuredly be running as Republicans — my political leanings these days are likely a source of some disappointment, my college drinking, on the other hand, wasn’t really counter to our family ethos.)

Taking Down Words has a lot of words addressing this tactic. I have just one more: Classy.

Due to the similarities in names, at one time, I wondered whether the blog “Advance Indiana” had something to do with Eric Miller’s social conservative political organization “Advance America.” From today’s entry that would appear to be a resounding “no.” Advance Indiana has an extensive report on investigation it has done into the financial relationship between Advance America, Mr. Miller’s compensation as executive director of Advance America, fees paid to Mr. Miller’s law firm by Advance America, and the proper application of Indiana’s lobbying laws. I do not know Indiana’s lobbying law well enough to offer an opinion on the accuracy of Advance Indiana’s conclusions but, regardless, the post is well worth reading.