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Eight-term U.S. Rep. Mark Souder will face his biggest challenge yet next year, with Tom Hayhurst preparing for a rematch of their 2006 race. The last thing Souder needs is a primary challenge as well.
Phil Troyer is expected to announce today he will run against Souder in May’s GOP primary and will most likely cast Souder as not conservative enough. But other candidates have tried to run to the right of Souder and been trounced, and whether Troyer can pose a credible and effective campaign remains to be seen.
Republicans with long memories will most likely not forget Troyer’s performance in and after the 1992 congressional primary. Bitter after finishing second to the unknown Chuck Pierson (who may have benefited from the name recognition bestowed on gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Linley Pearson), an upset Troyer called on Orvas Beers, then the county GOP chairman, to resign. The party organization may not have handled the primary well – Pierson is probably the weakest Republican to run for the congressional seat in decades – but publicly dissing the legendary Beers won Troyer few friends in the party establishment.
Remember, too, that Souder’s biggest primary threat thus far was in 2002 when former Mayor Paul Helmke challenged him – and Helmke won just 37 percent of the vote.
Assuming Souder wins the primary, he will most likely face Hayhurst in a rematch of 2006, which Souder won with 54 percent, his lowest margin since winning the seat in 1994. This time around, the national Democratic Party will probably give Hayhurst a lot more financial and strategic help; in 2006, the party focused on three other GOP congressional districts in Indiana where the races were closer. Democrats won all three.
Both candidates will likely make health care reform a major issue in their campaigns.
City Councilman Mitch Harper was playing coy at last week’s Republican bean dinner about whether he might run for mayor in 2011. Republicans are used to this – and while some are bemused, others have grown tired of his habit of throwing out his name for offices he doesn’t seek.
“Fort Wayne Classic 2011, Mitch Harper, Long Distance Run” read the signs he posted at the annual GOP get-together and rally.
Harper’s name has come up before in relation to other offices. Most recently, Harper was similarly coy when a movement to draft him to run against County GOP Chairman Steve Shine emerged and died without Harper running.
In 1995, Harper went so far as to publicly proclaim he was running against David Long for the state Senate seat being vacated by John Sinks in 1996, even passing out Harper-for-Senate material. But then the filing deadline came and went without Harper.
Meanwhile, County Councilwoman Paula Hughes is plainly seeking the 2011 GOP mayoral nomination, no faux mystery involved, more interested in winning than gamesmanship.
