Report from the bloggers' conference call with Indiana GOP Senate candidate Dan Coats

Yesterday afternoon I participated in a bloggers' conference call with Dan Coats, the Republican candidate for the US Senate in Indiana. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Coats served the Hoosier State in the upper chamber in the 1990s. Since then, Coats spent four years as our ambassador to Germany.

Opposing Coats in the general election is Rep. Brad Ellsworth, who voted for the unpopular ObamaCare bill--after a "coincidental" donation of $1 million to his campaign fund from Sen. Evan Bayh, who currently holds the seat. Bayh is not seeking reelection.

As with most states, high unemployment is the biggest issue in the Hoosier State. I spent much of Labor Day in Mishawaka, Indiana, which is just outside of the recreational vehicle manufacturing hub of Elkhart. The Elkhart-Goshen area has a 14.1 percent unemployment rate.

Coats decried the latest national jobs figures because most of the jobs created last month are temporary Census positions, which Coats calls "very discouraging news in the terms of this so-called recovery." The push by the Democrats for public sector jobs, as opposed to private sector positions, does not stimulate the economy, Coats reasons.

After leaving the ambassadorship, Coats worked as a lobbyist for two law firms, which has given the Democrats the opportunity to make things up. Coats has never, despite the claims by the Dems, worked for Hugo Chavez, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Yemen, or BP. Read more here.

I was fortunate enough to ask a question. While I was in Mishawaka, I saw a billboard emblazoned with the phrase "DoNotLetEvanBayhKillJobs.com." Bayh is a supporter of the jobs-killing so-called Employee Free Choice Act. Coats opposes it, but Ellsworth is obfuscating. Yet he was a co-sponsor of EFCA when it was brought to the floor of the House in 2007 and he voted "Yes" on this union boss-approved legislation.

So does Ellsworth still support EFCA? Coats says he doesn't know, but he stated that Ellsworth's vote "speaks for itself." He added, "Usually when the heat is off and you are not in the middle of a campaign, you vote how you feel. And I think that vote in 2007 is a pretty good indication on where he comes down on that issue."

My take? Indiana is a conservative state and Hoosiers don't want their right to a secret-ballot election when deciding to join a union taken away from them. The card check provision in EFCA will do that. And Ellsworth needs to tell Indianans where he stands on EFCA.

As for the smearing of Coats, it isn't working--he enjoys a big lead in the polls.

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