Eric Schansberg for Congress (GOP Primary in May 2022)

 February 9, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. Eric Schansberg enters the 9^th CD race

Dr. Eric Schansberg, a long-time economics professor at Indiana University Southeast, has announced his candidacy for the U.S. Congress in Indiana's 9^th District.

Dr. Schansberg has taught economics for more than 30 years. He has been a prolific author, including two books on public policy: Poor Policy: How Government Harms the Poor and Turn Neither to the Right nor to the Left: A Thinking Christian’s Guide to Politics and Public Policy. Schansberg said, “My focus has often been about the ways in which politicians and interest groups harm those who are not politically connected. Generally, government should do much less—and the federal government should do much, much less.”

Schansberg is passionate about the Constitution and “follows the science” in being adamantly “pro-life”. But his top priority is to reduce the “rampant spending and dangerous debt” pursued by most politicians in both parties. Schansberg said, “Nobody knows where the cliff is—from the federal government’s debt and liabilities such as Medicare and Social Security. But we do know that we’re driving the wrong direction with our foot on the accelerator. It is reckless to spend and borrow this much money. And it is immoral to spend the resources of our children and grandchildren without their consent.”

Schansberg also says he hopes to follow in the footsteps of Rep. Trey Hollingsworth—as a principled outsider entering politics. “More than just casting votes, I hope to be a civil, knowledgeable and passionate voice in DC on the economy and the Constitution. Especially these days, maybe it’d be helpful to send an Econ Prof to Washington.”

EricSchansbergForCongress.org / EricForCongress.org  

SchansbergForCongress@gmail.com

END

the breakage of various wars-- and the C-J's support for that breakage

Today, the C-J editorialists ask: "Do we still own breakage of Iraq?"

a.) Yes, we do-- as a country.


b.) Yes, you do-- if you were a proponent of our country's strategy.


c.) Yes, the C-J does-- since they were advocates.


d.) Yes, the C-J owns a lot of breakage for their brutally-flawed economic and social policies.


"Most galling is that a number of the pointers are the ones who didn’t bother to ask harder questions back [then] when the X administration got a blank check to start [this policy]. Much of the tragic mess in X bears a whiff of inevitability around it...Here’s what happened the last time we decided to take on X and its complexities, without quite understanding or appreciating what we were getting into. We underestimated everything...That’s just the money. And that’s not even counting what X did to the U.S. economy...We’ve done something [like this] before, and we need to ask ourselves if it was worth it...and whether it would be worth it again. We’ve seen this movie before. Knowing what we do, are we willing to bankroll a sequel?"


Too bad that the C-J didn't do what it could on Iraq.


Too bad that the C-J supports so many domestic wars-- against poverty, drugs, children, and so on-- without asking the same questions.

I would have been endorsed by the Indy Star this time?!

They endorsed Hill this time;

they rated me above Hill last time;

and not much (good) has changed since then.

Sodrel "now fully on board" to de-fund Planned Parenthood

From Mike Sodrel's January 20th press release:

I am running to retake the Indiana Ninth Congressional District seat currently held by Baron Hill. Hill has not been a pro-life voice in Congress. He has only voted the pro-life position 41% of the time. When I represented the Ninth District, I voted with National Right to Life 100% of the time (11 for 11). If elected, I will gladly support de-funding of Planned Parenthood and I will support a Human Life Amendment.

It's good to know that Mike now avidly supports de-funding Planned Parenthood.

In this, he joins me, Travis Hankins, and probably Todd Young. (If Todd's campaign wants to clarify his position on this, I'll be glad to update as appropriate.) This is a good move politically as well-- since it will help Sodrel compete with Hankins and Young for pro-life voters.

It's too bad that Mike downplayed the issue and made excuses about it in our 2006 and 2008 campaigns. Even worse, the GOP didn't take care of this when they controlled the Congress and the Presidency under Bush. But it's certainly better late than never!

In both campaigns, I took a lot of guff from people who didn't want me to make this an issue. Something to do with pragmatism, if I recall....

But I'm glad to know that I might have helped to get the GOP interested in this issue. It was Indiana's own Mike Pence-- in the next district over-- who brought up the issue just after the 2006 campaign.

if it was decided on votes per dollar...

According to a piece on the C-J website, Hill and Sodrel combined for Indiana’s most expensive congressional race this fall with a combined $4.7 million.

Of that, the Democrats spent $3.6 million ($2.2 from Hill; $1.4 from the DCCC). Sodrel spent $1.1 million with no help from the national party this time.

In 2006, they spent more than $8.2 million. Hill spent $1.8 million while Sodrel spent $2.7 million. The DCCC only spent about $700K while the RNCC spent more than $3 million.

Last time, I spent $25,000; this time, it was $30,000.

crunching some numbers from 11/4

We ended up with exactly 12,000 votes-- after getting 9,920 in 2006. Unfortunately, with 93,000 more voters this time (from 221K to 314K), that translated into a lower percentage: 3.8% this year vs. 4.5% in 2006.

Going into the campaign season, we thought this was a strong possibility: more voters, but a lower percentage-- given the higher voter turnout during presidential elections (especially this year). Beyond that, and to generalize, these voters are characterized by the relative excitement they have for the presidential election and the relative ignorance they have about the down-ticket offices.

As for specific counties, I'm a bit surprised that we received fewer votes in six of the 20 counties. (I thought they'd vote for me again in 2008 if they voted for me in 2006, but perhaps memories are short?) We increased our vote percentage in four counties (Dearborn, Floyd, Ripley and especially Switzerland). Jackson and Brown were still our two best counties. Washington moved up to 3rd. Switzerland, with a significant radio campaign, moved from 18th to 4th. Perry and Spencer became our bottom two. (We got very little media coverage there and didn't purchase much media.)

Many people have asked whether I'm disappointed. Yes and no. I'm not disappointed with the way in which we ran the experiment. We did everything we could given the resources we had. We worked very hard and as far as I know, we worked smart. But of course, we were disappointed in the results. We wanted to win. If not win, then we wanted to hit double-digits and make a far bigger splash. But it is what it is.

Perhaps I turned off a lot of people with one of our TV ads. Perhaps people were somehow more prone to the (lame) "wasted vote" idea. Less media coverage of the race. Only one debate. Far less negativity from the other two. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. We'll never know. But I think the biggest thing, by far, is the limited extent to which people pay attention to politics. As I've often said, we're fortunate to live in a country where we don't need to pay much attention to politics-- and people take advantage of that. The problem, of course, is that we allow all sorts of shenanigans to go on.

What does the future hold for the 9th District, for the Libertarian Party, and for freedom? Stay tuned...

IDS election coverage

Nice coverage in a good overview article from Zina Kumok in the Indiana Daily Student...

A fight between two long-time rivals ended in a landslide Tuesday....

Sodrel conceded the race at about 9 p.m. Tuesday.

“I’m grateful to my family, friends and great volunteers that have supported me in this race,” Sodrel said in a statement. “I have known victory, and I have known defeat. I am at peace with the outcome.”

Hill said in a press release that he was grateful to be chosen again.

“It is with deep and heartfelt gratitude that I thank the people of southern Indiana for allowing me to continue serving in Congress,” Hill said in the statement.

Schansberg, an economics professor at IU-Southeast New Albany, said he thought campaigning in a presidential year made the race more difficult for him. While voters seem worried about the economy, Schansberg said a lack of overwhelming support made him doubt their true concern.

“People say they want change, but they have an economics professor in a time when that kind of expertise would seem to be pretty welcome,” Schansberg said. “It’s odd people don’t vote for that more often.”

Hill’s vote against Congress’ $300 billion bailout, Schansberg said, was a key factor in his victory. Despite getting his issues out there, Schansberg said he expected a higher percentage of support.

“It’s a platform to talk about things that don’t get talked about if I wasn’t in there,” Schansberg said. “I’m not disappointed in the sense we did everything we could do. I am disappointed in the numbers.”...