The battle over who will have a majority in the Senate has taken quite a bit of twists and turns recently, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Democrat Evan Bayh's attempt to defeat relatively unknown Republican Rep. Todd Young in Indiana, Politico reports.
Bayh, who was senator for 12 years until 2011 and was governor or Indiana before that, entered the race for senator in July and built up steady double-digit leads in the opinion polls that rose to as much as 26 percentage points.
With his name and recognition, Democrats all but chalked that race up as one of the seats they could snatch from the Republicans as they try to win control of the Senate, where the GOP currently has 54 seats.
But a WTHR/HPI Indiana Poll from last week shows that Young has cut substantially into the lead and now trails Bayh by only four percentage points, making it a wide-open race.
The turnaround comes as Republicans have been investing heavily in the race and former president George W. Bush joined Young at two fundraisers, Politico reports. The GOP has also highlighted the fact that, after leaving the Senate in 2011, Bayh worked in the national capital for a lobbying and law firm and corporate board member, trying to cast him as a DC insider out of touch with the concerns of those in Indiana.
In that regard, Bayh has not done himself any favors when neighbors said they rarely see him at his Indianapolis condominium and he could not even correctly recite his home address.
But Democrats insist that despite the setbacks, Bayh will prevail.
Former chair of the Indiana Democratic Party Kip Tew told Politico that "Republicans attempting to redefine [Bayh] is not going to work," because at the end of the day, "Bayh has a name and a brand in this state that's unparalleled."
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