As Bush Visited Sodrel, Hill Helped the Poor in Bloomington

As Bush visited Sodrel, Hill helped the poor in Bloomington

Herald Times

Kurt Van der Dussen

While 9th District U.S. Rep. Mike Sodrel was hosting President Bush in Indianapolis at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for his campaign, his predecessor and would-be successor was in Bloomington raising food for the poor.

Baron Hill hoped folks would notice. Hill, whom Sodrel unseated in 2004, is just a win in the May 2 primary away from his third straight matchup with Sodrel. He beat Sodrel in 2002 before losing to him by about 1,500 votes in 2004.

Hill-Sodrel III in what has become the "Bloody Ninth" is expected to be savage and hairline close, which is why Bush flew Air Force One to Indianapolis Friday to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sodrel's re-election campaign.

What Hill couldn't match in money-raising, he hoped to turn to his own advantage by contrast. So Friday, he visited Bloomington for a combination political rally and support-raiser at the courthouse, attended by about 150 people.

But any contributions weren't for his race. Instead, in addition to politicking, Hill was bringing in donations for Hoosier Hills Food Bank. He and his wife, Betty, already had visited the Shalom Community Center and Habitat for Humanity in the morning, and they were going to stick around to help serve dinner at Community Kitchen. In between, after lunch at the Uptown Cafe, he readily admitted he hopes people do see a contrast with Sodrel's fundraiser with Bush.

Assuming Hill wins the May 2 primary - one rival, Gretchen Clearwater, is a Bloomington woman who has been running an active campaign - he expects four issues will dominate his fall campaign. One is energy. "This whole energy issue is becoming an issue for me," he said, noting his agreement with President Bush that "we are addicted to oil."

But he argued "we can't drill our way out of the problem." Instead, he said, the nation needs to dramatically accelerate its conversion to ethanol, biodiesel, hydrogen fuels and hybrid vehicles. "We've got the technology to do it. Let's do it," he said. A second issue is Iraq. "I've never been one that said we've got to cut and run," he said of current U.S. military involvement. As long as a "political solution" is achievable within Iraq, he supports keeping U.S. troops there. But if it becomes evident there is none, "then we ought to get out."

A third issue is health care. He said he hears about it across the district - even from Republican business owners whose employee health insurance costs are convincing them that some national health-care system is needed. "The devil is in the details," he said, adding the nation needs a giant "town hall debate" on the issue. Finally, there's the huge federal deficit. Hill, who in Congress was in a group of fiscally conservative House members called "Blue Dog Democrats," said Bush and the GOP Congress have erred in cutting taxes while fighting an expensive war. The deficit has ballooned as a result. "You just can't do that. It's not right," he said of trying to cut taxes and fight a war at the same time.

http://www.baron2006.com/news.php?id=27