Underdogs With A Bite

The thought occurred to me last week as I was watching the pre election commercials on the local news for candidates that in our excitement to cover Federal and certain state and local races there are a lot of candidates out there running active campaigns struggling for any publicity that they can possibly find. I know this because I was once a candidate for lower office once myself and I couldn’t get any attention whatsoever from any media folks and this was in pre-blog times so there was no other outlet to tell voters about how great I would be as their representative.

So I decided I was going to find a couple of underdog Democrats who could use someone to let them have a platform for an airing of their views. I went looking for the most outgunned guys I could find and found a couple of scrappers who are taking the fight to their opponents. An inspirational couple of candidates who remind me that its guys like these who are the mortar of democracy. These guys are already winners before the first vote is cast because they took the ring when they entered the ring.

Greg Marchant is duking it out in Indiana House District 29 with his opponent Kathy Kreag Richardson who has represented this rapidly growing area of Hamilton County since 1992, making her one of the longest serving women legislators in the General Assembly. Marchant is a Professor of Educational Psychology at Ball State University where he leads a research team that studies the effects of standardized testing regimes used in our schools. He’s the sort of guy you want in your legislature working on the standardized testing issue.

Greg Marchant Audio:

John Barnes is putting up quite a challenge to the District 89 incumbent Larry Buell who has represented the district 24 of the last 26 years. Buell’s list of accomplishments while in office those 24 years could be written on a post it note. Barnes is an exceptionally bright and articulate, energetic man who has spent the last 30 years teaching government and history to students, first at Warren Central High School and now at Stonybrook Middle School in Warren Township. He’s also managed to pick up the official endorsement of the Indianapolis Star who feels that Buell

“…has recorded a sparse list of accomplishments in recent years. He has offered a worthwhile proposal to cap the compensation of county sheriffs, but that’s not enough to merit another two years in office.

Barnes has the energy and focus needed to serve district residents at a high level. He wins The Star’s endorsement.”

John Barnes Audio: