I don’t know what Long-Thompson did wrong but she must have done something. The other statewide races were close.
You want to know what Jill Long-Thompson did wrong?
1. She was a miserable failure with fundraising. She actually pulled ads about a month out because she was out of cash. Daniels had a massive war chest built up and he was running ads last year and ran them non-stop until election day.
2. Daniels had a powerful, organized, disciplined ground game that got the vote out and convinced obama voters to split their ticket (look at the obama #’s and look at Long-Thompson #’s... it doesn’t add up!), which was evident when you drove around Marion County or Bloomington and saw yards with Obama and Daniels signs side by side
3. She did not present a competing agenda. She just said “Mitch Daniels supports the Bush economic policies”. That’s inspiring to some, but it does not add up when you consider that Daniels cuts budgets with an ax, not a scalpel, and he left the Bush administration frustrated with the out of control spending back in 2002! Daniels is a true small government guy who balanced the budget without raising taxes. That’s not Bush, sorry.
Daniels is a rising star within the party. He’s smart, he’s tough, he’s bold, and he’s going to be someone the rest of the country will know in a few years. Yeah, I’m a fan.
I’m also a big fan of Bachmann (which brought me to this thread). I was one of the folks that made an initial donation and then followed up with more support when the GOP pulled their support! When I was solicited to make a contribution to McCain I told them my money went to Minnesota.