Hostettler has legions of religious fanatics---abortion causes breast cancer!---and Ellsworth has staff that has lost no fewer than three Presidential campaigns, according to the Evansville Courier Press:
Ellsworth recently hired a veteran Democratic spokesman to serve as his press secretary, adding to the professional firepower the challenger has amassed against Republican Congressman Hostettler.
Matt Weisman, who served as a regional press secretary in Sen. John Kerry's, D-Mass., 2004 presidential campaign and an assistant press secretary to former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill., in Washington, D.C., began working in Ellsworth's Fourth Street headquarters about two weeks ago. Weisman joins campaign manager Jay Howser, who was a researcher for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and a Democratic adviser during the 2002 Senate race in Minnesota. ... Hostettler, a six-term incumbent, serves as his own campaign manager and press secretary. Hostettler's sister and campaign office manager, Karen Hammonds, works out of a cubicle in a room she shares with an unpaid summer intern. A second small room in the Hostettler campaign's Main Street office is a storage area.
One consequence of Hostettler's laziness is that the NRCC continually must bail him out, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a district that should be (it voted 62% for Bush in '04) safely Republican. Much to the caucus's chagrin, Democrats have mounted challenge after respectful challenge, preventing the national GOP from spending the money in more competitive (or what should be more competitive) swing districts elsewhere in the nation.
Chris Chocola found that out last week when the NRCC abandoned his toss-up district, forcing the embattled Republican incumbent to fend for himself (which should be no problem, even if it has to come out of his own well-lined pockets). His coffers already are triple that of Joe Donnelly's and even exceeding Mike Sodrel's totals in IN-09, an even more endangered Republican by any measure.
The DCCC has committed to spending upwards of $1.8 million in the district for television ads on Ellsworth's behalf, both of which are featured on the right. The NRCC's already paid for two spots as well, both attacking Ellsworth's record as Vanderburgh County Sheriff ("On the Road" is on the right).
