Jack Jordan

Becky and I were invited to a meet & greet fundraiser for Jack Jordan at the home of Carol & John Zeglis last week.  Carol and John are always wonderful hosts and make everyone welcome.  There were a lot of new faces there, but it was still a comfortable setting.

Jack Jordan

Jack and his wife,  Hope, were very personable.  He has the basic Republican positions, but with a strong “anti-politician” message.  One of his issues is term limits and he has promised no more than three terms.  I wish I could believe in that… I want to believe in that…  It seems though, that those that run for political office quickly become  politicians.  The number of incumbent politicians that believe in term limits is significantly less than those using that platform plank in their first run for office. 

Jackie Walorski

Jack is running against Jackie Walorski in the Republican primary for the second district seat currently held by Congressman Joe Donnelly.  This will be a tough race for Jack, both in the primary and in the general election.  In the primary, Jackie is well liked and has performed well in Indiana politics.  She has held State office for several years and is respected by the Republican party.  While I don’t know her personally, I have heard her speak at several Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) functions and she has been a friend to ABC on many of our issues.  It is important to me that our representatives understand how legislation affects our businesses.

Jack made an excellent presentation and broke down the factions in our district.  According to his research, the 2nd District is fairly evenly split by party.  He believes that Jackie cannot beat an incumbent in the current climate.  Joe has not been a radical congressman and so far has not severely alienated his constituents  [Ed. Note:  That was until Sunday March 21st when he changed his vote and went against his constituents’ wishes on the health care bill!]  nor been demonized by the opposing party.  He believes that Jackie has supported several issues including the Time Change and the Toll Road Lease at the State level that would prevent her from gaining any crossover votes.

Jack believes there is an anti-politician/anti-incumbent mood this year.  It is partially embodied by the Tea Party movement (who have endorsed Jack), but even left leaning voters are unhappy with Congress.  He believes that he could pull votes from Joe because of this, where Jackie would be seen as another politician and one that has some baggage as listed above.  He believes it would be close, but he thinks he can beat him.  I think he is on to something and on this basis I agree that he has a better shot at taking out Joe than Jackie has.

His problem is the Primary.  He also stated this and I tend to agree.  Jackie is a good person and has friends on the right.  Her voting record on my small business and construction issues is excellent.  Jack is taking the high road and isn’t saying anything bad about her in his ads.  Unfortunately he’s not making his point about her being unelectable.  Unless he can get that point across to the voters in the Primary, his campaign will end there.

Jack’s slogan is, “Enough is Enough!”  It’s a slogan I can get behind, but I don’t think it’s enough to take Jackie out.  I think Jack’s math is good and his chances against Joe are good.  If he doesn’t get it sold correctly to the primary voters though, he’ll never have a shot.  That said, I do wish him the best.  I put a bug in the ear of our representatives at ABC and will probably do the same with NFIB.  He deserves an opportunity and I want to see him on the radar.