Indiana’s 9th District is currently represented in the U.S. House by Republican Mike Sodrel, who is up for re-election this Fall. Most people following Hoosier politics will agree that Southern Indiana is ready for a Democratic representative. For example, Indiana is first in the nation in foreclosure rates. Some of this is due to extreme accumulation of medical debt as a result of the very poor state of health care. Some is the result of the severe rates of job loss that we’ve been experiencing the past, oh, I don’t know, five years or so. Yes, southern Indiana is ready for a Democratic representative.

Statistics show that most people reading this post live outside Indiana’s 9th district, but every state is important and every seat counts. So, I’d like to introduce you to exactly the kind of person we need representing us and someone who is truly “just like y’all” (not the Dubya definition). Gretchen Clearwater is a very solid, progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for this seat.

Her platform is simple: Putting People First. She is concerned about the state of health care, education, job loss, social security, privacy, voting reform and ending the War is Iraq. She is a strong advocate for campaign finance reform, which means, of course, that she has a lot less campaign money than the Republican incumbent or her lukewarm Democratic opponent, Baron Hill, who would probably be better served by the term “crypto-Republican.”

She spent a portion of her childhood in Nigeria around the time of the Biafran war, so she is a candidate who understands the reality of war and knows the meaning of poverty, diversity, tolerance and peace. From her biography:

I have been involved in politics nearly all of my life. I became aware of poverty and world affairs at an early age in Nigeria, and foreign policy and civil rights during the Vietnam war. Martin Luther King inspired me as a high school youth to speak up for what was right and I have been doing so ever since.

I’ve known Gretchen personally for the two and a half years since I’ve been in the Biology Department at Indiana University. She is the graduate student advisor, so I’ve had the great pleasure of interacting with her on a regular basis. I can say with confident resolve that no time is a bad time to knock on her office door. She is outwardly caring and concerned with the welfare of the graduate students and her love of people will only strengthen in serving an entire district.

If you are so moved, visit her campaign website (or even her donation page) and show some progressive lovin’. She will heavily benefit from the support and she will definitely show the current administration the meaning of the word “compassionate.” Besides, the color of her posters and buttons will match so well with your spring wardrobe!

Also at Archaeopteryx

This entry by Becky was posted on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Election Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.