Former state representative and current Congressional candidate, Dave Crooks, got the Democratic Party endorsement to challenge incumbent Representative Larry Buschon for the 8th District Congressional seat. In a procedure I have not seen before (though my history watching such things is pretty limited), the 8th District Democratic party chairs caucused and voted for Crooks to be the party’s nominee this year.
The candidates to be the Democratic nominee were Crooks and Patrick Scates, a former aide to Brad Ellsworth. Warrick County Democratic Chairman Terry White had also been a nominee but dropped out earlier this week. Scates and Crooks agreed to let the nomination be decided through a caucus process. Technically, the primary will still go forward and another candidate could file, but in all likelihood this settles the matter.
The idea is to avoid a bruising, expensive primary battle. Typically, I disagree with that common wisdom. My belief is that primaries leave candidates better organized and better tested. However, watching the current GOP Presidential campaigns, that belief is being challenged. Having no direct experience with campaigns, I also have little sense of the financial concerns. So, whatever the political merits of going through with a traditional primary, it might well be that the Democratic nominee was unlikely to have the financial wherewithal to mount both a serious primary campaign and a general campaign against an incumbent.
Personally, I’m happy with the result. I’ve mentioned before that I have had the opportunity to work with Dave when he was in the legislature and was even lucky enough to be on his radio show a couple of years back. He’s a smart, stand up guy who would serve the 8th District well. This is not, by the way, to take anything away from Scates or White with whom I have no experience.
“it might well be that the Democratic nominee…”
It is somewhat ironic to hear Crooks called a “Democratic nominee.” I would argue that the phrase below wouldn’t have been accurate without the use of capital letters. It is backroom politics, rather than a democratic process.
The Indiana Dem. party have come to the conclusion that having contested primaries for Senator (2010+2012), Governor (2012) and 8th district Congress (2010+2012) are something to be avoided. I can’t say I agree with that conclusion.
Having a caucus like that before a primary is very unusual. You usually only have something like that when a Democrat is sent to jail while still in office, which happens quite frequently in Lake County (51 times and counting).
I’ve always wondered at the 5th District Democrats. They never caucus like this. They regularly have two (sometimes more) candidates for this office, and the primary simply sheds one (or more) from the ballot, not to run in the general election for anything. The Hamilton County ballot is regularly full of holes for local offices, and I marvel at the ‘wasting’ of a perfectly good candidate via the primary process, when a caucusing might direct a willing candidate to step aside from the perhaps ‘sexier’ Congressional run and rather doing the party a favor by occupying another ballot position, thereby giving local Dems more incentive to vote.
Regarding Crooks, I had the pleasure of working with him recently on a Common Cause project on redistricting. He was very focused on the issue of drawing incumbent blind maps, and was not a partisan advocate within the group. Very refreshing. I came away with an extremely positive impression
Glad to hear you had a positive experience with Dave. Policy preferences are obviously going to differ; but, that notwithstanding, I think he’s just a good guy.