The wild, wild ride of 2008 continued well into the night for Indiana voters, who have experienced the euphoria of being a swing state in the presidential sweepstakes for the first time in almost a half-century.
Indiana was tabbed as too close to call going into Election Day, and remained so until the final 10 percent of the state’s votes were counted.
That’s when the tide turned and the state turned blue.
While McCain led in the vote count most of the night, Obama’s stronghold of Lake County in northwest Indiana brought the Democrat back to the brink of an upset victory in a state that has not gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.
It’s been strange, uncharted territory for Indiana. But finding itself in a position where its votes actually mattered has been an exhilarating political experience.
It will be nice to get a break from the intensity of presidential politics for a while. But we suspect Indiana would not mind doing this again sometime.
• Vigo County, despite Indiana’s gyrations, maintained its unique bellwether status by voting once again for the winner in a presidential race, as it has done in all but two elections in the past 100-plus years.
Vigo County has not failed to vote for the eventual presidential winner since 1952, when Illinois Sen. Adlai Stevenson won a narrow victory here over Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Much has been said about Vigo’s uncanny streak. Tuesday’s results guarantee we have not yet heard the end of it.
• Reports of the demise of the Vigo County Democratic Party may have been a bit premature.
Despite its problems in the last two elections, including very public fractures that led to elections of Republicans to the lofty positions of Terre Haute mayor and county prosecutor, Democrats won every contested county race, even recapturing a council at-large seat it had lost to Republicans.
The Republican Party, which had put together a good cast of candidates this year, may have been victimized by a strong surge by Barack Obama at the top of the ticket. With Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels luring enough Democrat voters over to his side of the ballot to narrowly win the county, the local GOP had a chance to make further inroads. But it failed to do so.
The loss of Mike Morris in the council at-large seat is a major blow to Vigo Republicans, and the party had high hopes of capturing an open judge’s seat. Democrat Mike Rader, who unseated the incumbent Democratic judge in the primary, was able to hold off Republican Dan Kelly.
It is equally significant that the Democrats won their local races by comfortable margins.
Don’t count out the Republicans just yet, however. It was a tough year for Republicans everywhere, and the pendulum could easily begin to swing back toward the GOP up and down the ballot by the next election in 2010.
