Democrats attack Coats on news of Senate exploration

[LiberalFighter]

Source: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

WASHINGTON – Democrats came out hitting hard Wednesday morning less than 12 hours after news hit that Republican Dan Coats was exploring a Senate run.

"Dan Coats is a Washington lobbyist for the banking industry, who lives inside the beltway, and is registered to vote on the east coast. Sounds like a great candidate for the heartland. Was Jack Abramoff not available?" a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee said.

Dan Parker, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Coats has been out of Indiana so long that "he couldn't sign his own petition," because only registered voters can sign the petitions Senate candidates are required to collect before getting on the Indiana ballot.

The allegations and accusations Democrats lobbed at Coats in interviews and news releases offer clues to the kind of attacks they are likely to make in a campaign -- his residency, his work as a lobbyist, his years away from Indiana. In the early reaction, none brought up Coats' conservative ideology.

The Constitution requires a Senate candidate to be an "inhabitant" of the state, and Indiana law defines "inhabitant" as "resident." A residence, according to state law, is "where a person has the person's true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment; and to which the person has, whenever absent, the intention of returning."

Coats was not registered to vote in Indiana in 2004 or 2002 either. He left the Senate in 1999. Usually, if the voter doesn't do anything about their registration they would still be a registered voter. It takes about 4 years to remove an inactive voter. He must had taken action to be removed as a voter in Indiana.

[IndianaGreen]

1. and Evan Bayh's whore of a wife sits on the board of several health insurance corporations

It is ridiculous to accuse Coats of doing for the banking sector what the Bayhs are doing for Big Insurance and Big Pharma.

[democraticinsurgent]

2. agreed

It's also disingenuous of Dems to attack Coats for carpetbagging when Hillary and others have a history of this. At least Danny is from Indiana, even though he hasn't actually lived here in a decade.

The funniest thing is the Republican backlash that's coming thru. Some here don't want him back.

[indypaul]

3. If Coats is a candidate perhaps he could shed light on

that Indpls Power & Light/AES transaction since he
too was a member if IPL's Board of Directors at that
time. Mighty Mouse Daniels would not or could not
explain why that transaction took place when AES's
financial problems were either ignored or undisclosed
at the time.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Perhaps Evan can shed a light on why it is not a conflict of interest to have his whore of a wife

work for an industry that derives benefits from his votes in the Senate.

[indypaul]

6. Don't quite know how to take this comment

Is it an attack on Bayh, defense of Coats, or both?

[IndianaGreen]

7. It is an attack on both Bayh and Coats

and why neither of them deserve our votes.

[Jokerman]

4. "Indiana's Three Dans Too Many".

Reminds me of the late Harrison Ullman when he was the editor of Nuvo describing Quayle, Coats, and Burton as "Indiana's Three Dans Too Many".

I was hoping we'd heard the last from all but Burton but apparently not.