Free Republic

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Indiana voters shows former GOP Congressman John Hostettler leading Baron Hill 49% to 31% and Brad Ellsworth 46% to 27%.

For most of the press and pundits and, certainly, the party establishments, last week's election was a numbers game. It wasn't so much about personalities and candidates and ideas as it was about how many seats it took for a change in power in the House and Senate. For many, lost in the power politics of Election Day was the fact that some very good men lost their jobs – and with those lost seats, the American people lost dedication, experience and principle. Anyone who knows me understands that I do not suffer fools nor have much patience with politicians....

Rep. John Hostettler trails his Democratic challenger, Brad Ellsworth, by 15 percentage points in a new poll commissioned by the Evansville Courier & Press. The poll of 603 registered voters in Indiana's 8th District shows Ellsworth with 47.4 percent of the vote compared with Hostettler's 31.8 percent. Undecided voters number 16.6 percent, and 4.1 percent refused to answer. Of those polled, 32.7 percent identified themselves as Republicans and a fractionally higher number, 33.5 percent, identified themselves as Democrats. The remainder were not affiliated with either major party. The poll, conducted Sept. 6-21 by Indiana State University's Sociology Research Lab, has...

Congressional Republicans who are taking a harder line on illegal immigration than President Bush are more in touch with constituents and less willing to kowtow to interest groups, Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., said Thursday night. Appearing live on WNIN-PBS9's "Shively & Shoulders," Hostettler came under fire from co-host Patrick Shoulders, a Democrat. "The plan that the Senate has adopted is essentially President Bush's plan," Shoulders said. "Here's the former governor of a border state who, one would think, if he understand anything, would understand this problem. "Why is the House, (which is controlled by) his own party, biting him on...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Indiana’s John Hostettler is trying for the fifth consecutive Congress to prevent the American Civil Liberties Union from receiving government funds when it succeeds at legal challenges to public expressions of religion. This year, the Republican representative has more hope than before thanks to the American Legion. The country’s largest veterans organization, with about three million members, has aggressively thrown its influence behind Hostettler’s bill, and the persistent congressman is encouraged at his proposal’s prospects. Hostettler’s measure, the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679, is designed to close what he considers a loophole in federal law that...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) introduced a bill today to repeal an illegal alien harboring exemption for religious groups that was signed into law last week. Tancredo’s bill, H.R. 4321, would repeal the agricultural appropriations rider inserted by Senator Bob Bennett which allows religious groups to “conceal, harbor or shield” illegal aliens from federal law enforcement. The bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Todd Akin, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Virgil Goode, Gil Gutknecht, J.D. Hayworth, John Hostettler (Chairman of Judiciary’s Immigration Subcommittee), Steve King, Jack Kingston (Vice-Chairman of the Republican Conference), Mike Pence (Chairman of the Republican Study Committee),...

Ellsworth has eye on Hostettler By JOHN MARTIN Courier & Press staff writer June 1, 2005 One by one they've tried, and one by one they've failed. From Jon Jennings to Gail Riecken, from Jonathan Weinzapfel to Dr. Paul Perry, Democrats have continued to come up short in their attempts to oust Republican Rep. John Hostettler, R-Indiana. Can Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth break Hostettler's hold on Indiana's 8th District? Or will he join the growing list of Democratic contenders who entered the race with high hopes, only to have them dashed on election night? Ellsworth on Tuesday took a...

An Indiana congressman plans to curb the ACLU's appetite for filing suits targeting religion in the public square by introducing a bill that denies plaintiff attorneys the right to collect attorneys fees in such cases. Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., is expected to file his measure next week to amend the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorneys fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings. "Every other civil right case, there is some injury to somebody," American Legion attorney Rees Lloyd of Banning, California,...