For the record, I didn't like the idea of former Senator Dan Coats coming back from Virginia last month to save us from ourselves and retake the Senate seat he left many years ago. Since I've been open about my distaste for Washington insiders attempting to make this call for Hoosiers, I was approached with some insights casting light on a campaign that is having a hard time moving forward.
The details are sketchy and heresay, and as I've been told before "you'll print whatever fits your pre-conceived narrative." So I've said it upfront, the Coats campaign doesn't feel right to me. Here's what I'm hearing, if I'm wrong say so. If Dan Coats does win in May, I'd like to think the campaign will get a whole lot more organized now or risk losing to Ellsworth.
- Today's most recent email alert, yes the one implying the endorsement of Governor Mitch Daniels which is misleading, comes to us from Pete Seat the new press secretary for the Coats Campaign. Pete is formerly from the Bush administration and lives in Schererville. He has terrific connections and abilities, I cannot say anything negative about Pete or any of my friends who have gone to work for the Coats campaign. I would highly suggest the use of an official email address not a gmail address though... and for whatever it's worth don't imply the endorsement of Mitch Daniels when he expressly said he was not endorsing any of the candidates. (I'd even go further and suggest using Exact Target which is based in Indianapolis for email marketing, not Constant Contact)
- It would appear the campaign is being run by Washington insider Kevin Kellums, who also hails from Kentucky, although my source tells me that there is mass confusion inside the campaign about who is running it and who is making decisions. Perhaps Anne Hathaway, or staff members in Washington? Here's an open question for the Coats for Senate Campaign, who's running things right now? You have some of the best consultants in the state, the best that money can buy, but where is the campaign?
- The last place finish at the Warsaw Tea Party event on Saturday may have caused some internal problems, for some reason there is surprise in the Coats campaign that tea party members can't seem to see the logic in a lobbyist coming back to rescue the party. What's the next step for the now named "Washington for Coats" campaign? Emails and blog posts today suggest a line-up of "conservative leaders" will tell tea party activists and conservative grass roots groups what's best for them. Take it from me, Mayor Costas tried that last year and I think Attorney General Greg Zoeller won convincingly.
- The website is now functional (see Coats for Indiana) and I won't badger the online team since I'm sure trying to build a site in the short amount of time offered was a rush. I would highly suggest turning on the RSS feature, and checking links in the feed box since many return a blank page. Glad to see the fundraising only site is gone though.
- I did hear just Friday that some member churches of the Indiana Family Institute, where Kurt Smith is now President and was reportedly a central part of the recruiting effort, may be looking at how firm their commitments are to the organization.
I'll be roundly denigrated as a partisan hack for Marlin Stutzman I'm sure, but to be perfectly honest Marlin isn't the issue here. If Mr. Coats and his team are so much better at this than John Hostettler or Don Bates or Marlin, then I say step up and engage all of us. Pithy twitter posts about mock surprise at the existence of hills in Southern Indiana don't measure up (Link not avail because I believe the tweet was deleted) and merely made it apparent he hasn't been in Indiana for quite some time.
