Extra

Bloomington, Indiana, a Friday night in April, there’s a rally downtown to open the new Barack Obama campaign center. About 50 or so people are milling about the small room, holding plates of food in one hand and shaking strangers’ hands with the other. For the first time in 40 years, a Democratic candidate has a reason to open a campaign office in Indiana.  

Now that results from Pennsylvania are in, the state of Indiana may be the tie-breaker, holding the deciding votes that may choose the next Democratic nominee.  

The effect on the state party has been profound. Suddenly awakened, the state Democratic Party is witnessing action among its ranks of a type not seen since 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy challenged Eugene McCarthy for frontrunner status and made Indiana the jumping off point of his presidential bid.  

New voter registration is up exponentially this year with 150,000 adding their names to the rolls of over 5 million voters this year. People are lining up to volunteer for their preferred candidate’s campaign, and contributions to the state Democratic Party have totaled $1.6 million this year. Republicans pulled in $1.3 million in comparison, a difference that could prove portentous come general election time.  

In fact at Friday’s Obama rally, State Representative Matt Pierce (D—district 61) remarked on his observation that people are “coming out of the woodwork” to help out.  

“The most exciting thing is that there are a lot of people here that I don’ t know,” he said. “It’ s usually just the party stalwarts, but now particularly, young people are making a difference.” 

Will the excitement have lasting effects on the Democratic Party in Indiana? Pierce said that “remains to be seen, but it’s a big opportunity to create a new generation of activists. A lot of that has to do with the outcome this fall. If [Obama wins], people will see that their individual efforts paid off and they’ ll be coming back in future campaigns,” he said. 

Already the presidential campaign seems to have affected the party. The promise of greater turnout has contributed to more longshot candidates entering the arena in the hopes of capitalizing on the grassroots nature of the revitalization. There will be people coming out to vote, many for the first time, who have felt that their issues never had a chance of being voiced. Now there are people lining up to represent them that want to carry these unheard concerns into the legislatures.  

Gretchen Clearwater is running as a Democrat against incumbent Baron Hill (D—Indiana) in the 9th Congressional District race and says she has high hopes that the expected record turnout will ultimately benefit first-time candidates like herself, but that she’s felt some antipathy from state party leaders in regards to her candidacy. She cites the fact that the state party has refused to list on its website four candidates running in her district as Democrats.  

“The state party has deemed them irrelevant,” she says. “There is no opportunity for voters to choose representation. To not give the voter the opportunity to see who I am is not democracy.” 

Clearwater says that when she announced her candidacy, she received a call from someone in the state office (she refused to say who) who tried to persuade her not to run and to back Baron Hill instead. She said the voice on the other end told her that the state party bosses were afraid when she got to Washington, she wouldn’ t vote the way they told her to.  

“When someone like me runs, it throws a cog in the works,” she says. 

Matthew Colglazier, a Democratic candidate running for state Senate in district 44 in Southern Indiana, believes the expected increased turnout can only help challengers like him.  

“Major things can happen in a 24-hour news cycle,” he says. “Voter registrations being up definitely benefits my campaign, it’s fortuitous for a guy like me.” 

“People feeling empowered is always a good thing, and this election can help do that. I’m personally excited about it,” he says. 

Colglazier faces a steep hill, though, because he’s challenging well-seated Republican incumbent, Brent Steele.  

For the last 40 years, candidates like Clearwater and Colglazier would probably have looked at the Democratic turnouts in the state and decided there was no way an unknown, first-timer would have had the support to unseat an incumbent, especially in their own party. But record voter registrations and the promise of record turnouts (the state party projects somewhere in the range of 900,000 Democrats) may play the wildcard in the turnover rate.  

State party chair and superdelegate Dan Parker predicts that the increased turnout will ultimately benefit the incumbents. He also agrees that the prospect of the Democrats holding sway in a presidential election for the first time in 40 years can only be good for the party, with lasting effects.  

“We’re going to have record turnout, record organizing (thousands of identified volunteers, phone calls, canvassing, candidate IDs) and record dollars spent on television,” he said. “In the past we’ve never had spending by the candidates in Indiana. Therefore our state was not even contested. With the issue environment, Indiana should be competitive and I think the primary will help build that foundation.” 

The feeling from party chairs, volunteer coordinators, staff, and the volunteers themselves has been one of optimism and excitement that their party matters again. They never expected it to come to this point, a sentiment reflected in a statement made by Tim Granholm, the coordinator of the local chapter of Students for Barack Obama the night of the Obama rally. 

“We never thought it would come to IU,” Granholm said. “We’ re pretty excited to be a part of it. Students have always been supportive, but now people are coming to us wanting to know what they can do to help.” 

That’ s what Representative Pierce meant when he said, “coming out of the woodwork.”  

Tyler Duffy is one of those who came out to help the Clinton campaign. Duffy is the vice president of Students for Hillary on Campus and says one can’ t help but see the change in the Democratic climate. 

“This has brought a lot of people out that wouldn’ t normally. People are much more motivated, we don’ t want another eight years of Republican government,” he says.  

The Clinton campaign has nearly 30 offices in Indiana and is seeing the same kind of dedication from its volunteers according to Stephanie French, the regional press director of Hoosiers for Hillary. 

“There was so much pressure on Hillary to win Pennsylvania and now that she has the support is coming out even stronger. I feel that Hoosiers can relate to Pennsylvanians and from this point out the momentum needs to stay,” she says. 

In Brown County, Democratic Party chair, Kurt Young says the lasting effects of the new blood in the party won’t be clear until after the general election in the fall. But Young says some old election patterns are changing already. 

“I think a lot of people have gotten away from the usual rhetoric and propaganda. Politics has gotten to the point where it’s 30-second sound bytes. This primary has had a positive effect because it requires people to pay closer attention and realize not everything said in a campaign is accurate,” he says. “Democracy is not a spectator sport.”