ABSTRACT
When the small towns and scenic farms of southeastern Indiana became the site of one of the most high-spending congressional races in the nation, it was clear that 2006 was not going to be a typical election year. Indiana’s electoral votes have gone to the Republican presidential candidate in every election since 1964, and the Ninth Congressional District has been represented by moderate to conservative Democrats for all but two of those years. Because of that relative stability, district residents were accustomed to quiet political campaigns. Presidential candidates rarely run ads in the state, and even midterm elections have attracted little attention from non-Hoosiers.
