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Indiana: Junior Senator Sen. Evan Bayh (D) Last Updated July 10, 2003
Evan Bayh (pronounced BY) was elected in 1998 to the Senate seat his father Birch Bayh first won in 1962 when Evan was just 6. He grew up mostly in Washington, graduated from Indiana University and the University of Virginia Law School, then returned to Indiana to practice law--and politics. His father, a charismatic candidate, beat three serious opponents: Incumbent Senator Homer Capehart in 1962, later-Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus in 1968, and future Senator Richard Lugar in 1974. But in 1980, with Evan helping run the campaign, he lost to Dan Quayle. In 1986, at 30, Evan Bayh was elected secretary of state, an office that is often a steppingstone. In 1988, at 32, he ran for governor. Republicans had controlled the office, and most of Indiana state government, for 20 years. However, their smoothly run machine had grown sluggish: The Republican nominee promised innovation, but Bayh was a young and fresh face. Birch Bayh had had a mostly liberal voting record in the Senate; Evan Bayh has been one of the most conservative Democrats. He calls himself "pragmatic" and says he wants to find "the sensible center." As governor, he balanced the budget, cut taxes and piled up a $1.6 billion budget surplus. He trimmed a deficit in state pension plans and sliced Medicaid spending. He claimed credit for the creation of 350,000 jobs, as Indiana's manufacturing economy revived. He did less to reform education and other government services, but he was immensely popular when he left office. It was widely expected that Bayh would run for the Senate in 1998, and in December 1996, incumbent Republican Dan Coats announced he would not run for reelection; he is now George W. Bush's Ambassador to Germany. Bayh's 1998 opponent was Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, the moderate in the field, who had backed tax increases in Fort Wayne and who even had kind words for the Clintons, whom he had known since law school. He narrowly won the primary with 35% against two more conservative candidates. Helmke argued that Bayh "still comes across a little the empty suit." But Bayh's platform--a balanced budget, saving Social Security, raising education standards and a "fairer, flatter" tax--preempted the Hoosier political center. He ran ads showing his wife extolling his accomplishments, saying he "cracked down on deadbeat dads, sponsored Indiana's fatherhood initiative … worked to make our schools safer and drug-free and to move people from welfare to work." Bayh won 64%-35%, carrying 88 of 92 counties, although it is a victory that probably never would have happened if Birch Bayh had not beaten Homer Capehart by 10,000 votes 36 years before--one election can make a big difference. In the Senate, Bayh has pursued the issues he campaigned on. He managed to irritate some Democratic constituency groups, voting reluctantly for PNTR for China in 2000 and voting to ban partial-birth abortions in 1999; he says he opposes abortion personally, but in most instances doesn't want to impose his religious beliefs on others; as governor, he vetoed an 18-hour waiting period. He was one of two Democrats and one of only 21 senators to vote against allowing the importing of foreign price-controlled prescription drugs in July 2000. This was portrayed as truckling to Eli Lilly, one of Indiana's biggest employers and on whose board Bayh served in 1997-98, but his stand was vindicated when HHS Secretary Donna Shalala declined to enforce the law later in the year. His first major bill was passed in November 2000, a measure to protect senior citizens from fraud. In May 2000, Bayh and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman sponsored a revision of the basic federal aid to education act, which would increase spending by $35 billion over five years, target poor-performing school districts, foster English proficiency among immigrants, promote public school choice and demand accountability of teachers and students. Many of these measures became part of the Bush education bill, for which Bush gave Bayh some of the credit. Bayh has taken other stands favorable to Bush. He voted against the Bush tax cut and has come out for individual investment accounts as part of Social Security. But he voted against the confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft and criticized the Bush energy package. After September 11, he co-sponsored with Arizona Senator John McCain the Call to Service Act that would expand AmeriCorps support from 40,000 to 250,000 volunteers. Since August 2000, he has been chairman of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, which helped foster the national career of Bill Clinton and which has advanced many innovative policies. "There's a whole cluster of cultural issues or values issues on which we need to make sure that people in Middle America--Iowa, Indiana, the South, the Plains--understand that we are not cultural elitists," Bayh said in a speech in Iowa. Bayh serves on the Intelligence Committee and has backed the Bush administration in the war on terrorism. After September 11 he said that Congress should "think carefully about a more proactive response to terrorism. We should think carefully about some of the prohibitions that have been put in place the last 30 years." Well into 2002, he opposed the idea of an independent commission to examine what happened before September 11. "The problem was that we couldn't connect the dots because the dots weren't all on the same page. The FBI had some dots, the CIA had some dots, foreign intelligence services had some dots." With Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, he sponsored a bill to cut off aid to countries that permit "state-sponsored" hate propaganda and don't share intelligence on terror. He has called for funding for state stockpiles of drugs that may be needed in the event of a bioterrorism attack. He was one of the Democrats who early on indicated he would support a resolution authorizing military force in Iraq. Birch Bayh ran for president in 1976 and Evan Bayh has often been mentioned as a candidate for national office. In July 2000, he was on Al Gore's short list of presidential possibilities. But leaders of feminist organizations opposed him because of his vote for a partial-birth abortion ban. In June 2001, he announced he wouldn't run for president in 2004; it would keep him away too much from his young children. But a vice presidential run, which would take only three months, was something else: "Well, that's another issue. That's completely up to whoever the party's nominee is, and only time will tell with regard to that." In late 2002, he seemed sure to run for reelection in 2004. Few Republicans seemed interested in running; names mentioned included Helmke and philanthropist Crystal DeHaan. But Indiana's political landscape changed in December 2002, when Lieutenant Governor Joe Kernan shocked Indiana Democrats by announcing he wouldn't run for governor in 2004. State Democrats immediately looked to Bayh; Bayh's spokesman said it was "unlikely" he would run, but Bayh refused to say no. In January 2003, though, Bayh announced he would not seek the governorship. "To both serve in the Senate and simultaneously run for governor would not be responsible," he told The Indianapolis Star.
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