Evan Bayh will announce today he’s retiring from Congress. Which is a huge blow for the Democrats and a big, big surprise.
Seems like the very effective political knee-capping of Dan Coats was all for naught. And that raises something questions in itself, since I’d heard that Bayh’s people played a big role in that.
Says the Indy Star …
Only days ago, Bayh’s staff, close associates and Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker, who was manager of Bayh’s re-election campaign, had assured an Indianapolis Star reporter hat he would definitely seek a third term in the U.S. Senate. And Democrats recently released a poll showing Bayh easily ahead of both former Sen. Dan Coats and former U.S. Rep. John Hostettler, two of the four Republicans seeking the GOP nomination.
What seems very odd about this is that Bayh and his political team were making active preparations for a run as recently as mid-late last week. And not just the kind of public, optics stuff that you need to be sure to do to keep your options open. We’re looking into it.
