Yup Coats straight up wussed out and a gun grabbing RINO Mayor was nominated to face Bayh. And in 2004 an attractive candidate ran but got little support.
His prior statewide races were competitive though, for SOS and his first election as Governor. It’s while he was governor that he acquired his popularity. It was to the extent that his rat LT Frank O’Bannon essentially won a third term for him in 1996 over Steve Goldsmith who seems like he was a terrific Republican candidate to me. I was just a kid in 1996 but I remember the O’Bannon and Goldsmith ads that ran here in the Chicago media market. “Frank O’Bannon is no Evan Bayh” the ads went. Of course I had no clue who Bayh was so the ads lacked meaning for me. ;)
The hope is slight for this race but there may be a glimmer. If he votes for Obamacare he could possibly be Blanche Lincolned.
Speaking of fauxcons in Indiana. In 2004 I tussled with several freepers who were supporting Joe Kernan. I pointed out how the jerk had just helped gerrymander the congressional lines for his fellow rats and doubtless the state house lines as well.
Goldsmith’s loss in 1996 was nothing short of awful. He was quite probably the most accomplished, visionary major-city Mayor in the United States at that time. Had he won and continued his success as Governor, I submit he would’ve found himself on the 2000 Presidential ticket, quite possibly as the head of it.