There’s no place like home — unless you’re former Sen. Evan Bayh. Then you prefer ritzy hotels over your own Indianapolis condo.
Those expensive tastes and apparent lack of any connection to his nominal Hoosier State address might now cost Bayh the election.
When Bayh traveled back to Indiana for two weeks in 2009, he broke Senate rules and spent his nights in hotel rooms at a cost of $2,058 to taxpayers. After haggling over the details with Politico, who first reported the story, Bayh’s campaign agreed to pay back just $737.
Regardless of how the final reimbursement all shakes out, the original expenditure cannot be undone. Bayh’s own home, or at least what he calls his home for campaign purposes, was about a 20-minute drive from the hotels he frequented.
This report is just the latest in a series of increasingly unfortunate story lines for Bayh, who has faced heat for his cozy relationship with Wall Street, his multiple homes outside the Hoosier state, and his lobbying career.
Pouncing on each, his Republican challenger Rep. Todd Young has clawed his way into the lead. A new WTH/HPI poll has Young pulling ahead by five points to a 46-41 lead. That’s a shocking turnaround for the Republican who trailed Bayh by more than twenty points this Summer.
Since the beginning, Young’s campaign has tried to paint Bayh as a carpetbagger, who’s only passing through Indiana to pick up a Senate seat. And it’s worked. Voters now question whether Bayh lives in Indiana or even likes the state. It’s made what Democrats what considered an easy pickup into a longshot that depends on the polls being wrong.
The candidates have slung plenty of mud in this race. Of the thousands of Senate ads run by both men, more than 70 percent went negative. But that dirt has clung to Bayh more than Young. The Democrat’s favorability ranking has slipped from double-digit positive to minus six.
Heir to a powerful Midwest’s political dynasty, Bayh’s name carried significant clout in the state before the race. Democrats were banking on that popularity to return Bayh to Capitol Hill and their party to control of the Senate.
But in part because Bayh couldn’t sleep in his own bed at night, and because he pursued a high-flying D.C. lobbying career that made him lose touch with Indiana, Democrat hopes in the Hoosier state are dwindling.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
