The Indiana News-Sentinel published an editorial on Thursday urging Hoosiers to vote against Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), citing his vote opposing Judge Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.
The News-Sentinel suggested that Donnelly would imperil his political future if he were to oppose President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court; Donnelly voted against confirming Kavanaugh last Saturday despite polls showing an increasingly tight race between him and Hoosier businessman Mike Braun.
The Hoosier paper also pointed out that despite Donnelly’s vote against the president’s nominee, during Monday’s debate against Braun and Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton, he attempted to tie himself with Donald Trump.
“It was clear in the televised, hour-long debate that Donnelly was hitching himself to the president as much as possible to assuage the concerns of Indiana’s swing voters who may have voted for Trump in 2016,” the News-Sentinel wrote.
“I go against my party all the time,” Donnelly said in an attempt to rebuke Braun’s attack that he follows Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) marching orders. “I’ve been with the president 62 percent of the time.”
However, the Hoosier paper notes that the same Congressional Quarterly report details how Donnelly also voted with the Democrat party 74 percent of the time, and another report notes that Donnelly voted with Schumer 85 percent of the time since 2013.
During the debate, Braun said that a vote for Donnelly represents the status quo.
“If you want more of the same. Joe’s your guy,” Braun said.
On Monday’s debate, the Hoosier Democrat said that he opposed Kavanaugh due to his alleged “impartiality and judicial temperament,” despite that Donnelly cites Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault accusation against Kavanaugh as his primary concern. Donnelly said that Ford’s testimony was “disturbing and credible” and called on the FBI to investigate the accusation.
“Donnelly never mentioned the judge’s temperament or any issues of impartiality until after the FBI’s report that there was nothing to substantiate Ford’s claims,” the News-Sentinel explained.
The Hoosier News-Sentinel contended that no matter the explanation, Sen. Donnelly, and most Senate Democrats, planned to vote against Kavanaugh to block a conservative majority on the Supreme Court and because of that, Hoosiers should vote against Donnelly in November.
“We still believe Donnelly, like the vast majority of Democrats, was set on voting “no” against Kavanaugh no matter what in order to block a conservative majority on the court,” the Hoosier paper concluded. “And for that, we still believe Indiana should vote “no” for another Donnelly term in Washington.”