Published: August 13, 2008 12:38 pm      

GOP leaders say pundits are wrong

State chair urges one-on-one contact to spread the word

GALVESTON — The best tool the Indiana Republican Party has during a campaign is one on one contact with voters was the message delivered by Chairman Murray Clark.

Clark along with State Treasurer Richard Mourdock and congressional candidate Luke Puckett met with the county chairman from most of the 2nd congressional district on Tuesday at the home of District Chairman Joyce Smith.

“This is the year we’re all waiting for,” Clark said. “We elect a president and governor in the same year, Indiana is only one of 17 states that does that.”

Clark said the pundits on the east and west coasts were talking about a doom and gloom election year for Republicans, but he said that would not be the case in Indiana.

“2006 was a tough year for Republicans,” he said, “but in Indiana we had solid victories, winning every state elected office.”

Clark said most people didn’t understand grassroots politics — volunteers working countless hours to get voters to the polls.

He predicted the presidential election this year would be a close contest adding that Indiana is a save state for GOP candidate Sen. John McCain.

“Sen. Obama has spent $1 million over the last three weeks trying to redefine himself to Hoosiers,” Clark said of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. “He is trying to distance himself from all that liberal talk during the May primary, but Hoosiers will see through that.”

Clark said the best tools Republicans had were volunteers having personal contact with voters.

“Be prepared to tell why we support John McCain,” he said.

Mourdock delivered the message to the choir of why Gov. Mitch Daniels should be re-elected and Puckett should be elected in the 2nd congressional district over Democrat Joe Donnelly.

He compared this year’s campaign to the 1994 election when the campaign carried many Republicans into the U.S. House in the middle of Bill Clinton’s first term as president. In that election, he said, lots of Democrats stayed home instead of casting ballots, and the same thing could happen again.

Mourdock called Puckett a natural leader and pointed to his recent trip to Alaska to encourage oil exploration in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.

“The overwhelming issue is energy and national security,” Mourdock said.

He said Puckett showed the people of the district that the area is not a wilderness mountain range but arctic tundra.

“Joe Donnelly won’t fight to save American jobs, but he will fight to save the American mosquito,” Mourdock said referring to a video clip of Puckett being swarmed by mosquitoes in Alaska.

Puckett is focusing his campaign on the increasing cost of gasoline and the fact that Donnelly in the past has not supported oil drilling in Alaska or off the coast.

“Walk into a gas station and tell them prices are going to go down because Luke Puckett will vote to allow drilling and refining of our own oil,” he said.

Puckett said after his return from Alaska the South Bend media outlets wouldn’t let him talk about the trip.

“It is arctic tundra,” he said. “I have the proof. That is a myth that has been busted. We have to keep pushing ahead and tell people we have a vision of what our country can and will be.”