INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Evan Bayh was the Democrats’ prize Senate recruit this election cycle, a popular former senator and governor with a huge war chest and sky-high name ID in his home state. Top Democrats heralded his surprise entrance into the race in July with hopes that Republicans would abandon his little-known and underfunded GOP rival, Rep. Todd Young, and give up on Indiana.
Instead, outside GOP groups including the Chamber of Commerce and the billionaire Koch Brothers have poured some $10 million into the race, eroding Bayh’s fund-raising advantage and closing his lead over Young to low- or mid-single digits. With Republicans determined to retain their narrow majority in the Senate, they have brought big-name surrogates like former President George W. Bush and House Speaker Paul Ryan into the state. They have succeeded in putting Bayh on the defensive, in the process turning the race into one of the hardest fought contests in this year’s heated struggle for control of the U.S. Senate and the balance of power in Washington, D.C.
“I’m not a lobbyist,” Bayh was forced to insist in an ad responding to a barrage of attacks on his work in Washington, D.C., since leaving the Senate six years ago. And with Bayh dropping fast in the polls, outside Democratic groups are belatedly coming to his aid, with the Senate Majority PAC and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee both announcing spending on his behalf in recent days, a move some Democrats once hoped would not be necessary.
“Clearly our message is resonating with Hoosiers – and over a very short time period,” Young said at a recent news conference before former President Bush headlined an Indianapolis fundraiser on his behalf.
“This race for United State Senate here in Indiana could dictate control of the U.S. Senate and even composition of the Supreme Court moving forward,” Young added. “It is essential that Republicans hold on to this seat in what is otherwise a Republican state.”