You Just Can't Make It Up: Todd Young of Carmel Campaigns for Congress in Broad Ripple

He's been there before.

According to sources present at the event, Todd Young spoke Wednesday evening at the Broad Ripple GOP Club. Lots of 9th District Republican primary voters there.

Let's rehash the geography here. Broad Ripple is on the north side of Indianapolis, in Marion County's Washington Township. It's a nice place. Wikipedia describes it thus:

Located about seven miles (11 km) north of Downtown Indianapolis, Broad Ripple contains many of Indianapolis' premier up scale restaurants, art galleries, and the Monon Trail. It also has a reputation for being socially and racially diverse, and is generally associated with progressive political attitudes.

Just the sort of place that a candidate running for Congress in southern Indiana should be spending time campaigning, right?

I mean, the 9th District snakes all the way up to the north side of Indianapolis, right?

It doesn't, you say?

Oh.

Well then what was Todd Young doing campaigning there then?

I mean, there wasn't anything he should have been doing down south, right?

You know, actually in the district itself?

Well, there was the annual Perry-Spencer Picnic at Mulzer's Camp Tuesday night.

But Todd wasn't at that; he sent former State Representative Billy Bright to speak on his behalf instead.

Perry and Spencer Counties apparently weren't important enough for Todd to make time to visit.

But driving all the way up to the north side of Indianapolis to Broad Ripple to speak to people that can't even vote for him?

That was important.

A guy's got to have priorities.

Some pictures (posted on Twitter by another event attendee):


Todd Young speaking at the Broad Ripple GOP Club. Note the sold-out crowd in the background. Note also the blue shirt. It must be the only shirt that Todd owns; it's in almost every campaign picture of him.

For example, note the same blue shirt over and over again in the photos on his campaign literature:


If I included a picture of the back (I'll have to scan one), you'd see another picture of him in the same shirt.

Anyway, sources present at the event noted that Todd spoke highly to the group about his time growing up not far from Broad Ripple (he grew up in Carmel).

I guess Todd was returning to his roots.

When the issue of why he was in Broad Ripple and not within the 9th District came up, Todd said that the 9th District was "sparsely populated" (it has the same number of people in it as any other Congressional district) and it was hard to raise money there (probably much more important in Todd's eyes than its population).

Todd said that since the 9th was so hard for him to raise money from (which is funny, since other candidates have successfully raised money down here; maybe it has something to do with the candidate), he was up in Broad Ripple to ask people to give money to his campaign.

That's what people in southern Indiana need. Folks in "progressive" Broad Ripple bankrolling candidates in the Republican primary. One source noted that there did not appear to be any takers on Young's request.

But it gets better. When asked about third party candidates (Libertarians are a big deal concern in the Washington Township GOP), Young assured the crowd that there would be no serious Libertarian challenge in the 9th District if he was the nominee.

According to Todd Young, he has spoken with Eric Schansberg, who has agreed (or at least told him, Todd says) that he has no intention of running for Congress again unless Mike Sodrel runs again.

It's good that Todd is reaching out like that, no? Eric Schansberg's apparent endorsement will be appearing on Todd's website very soon, no doubt.

Schansberg, of course, has a different perspective on running again than the one Todd apparently explained to the GOP Club in Broad Ripple. Schansberg, in a recent email, said that he would not be running another full-bore campaign for Congress as a Libertarian again next year. He did say, however, that he might put his name forward again (though not run full-bore) if Sodrel did for "old times' sake" (and presumably for Guiness Book of World Records honors). He also left open the option of running as a Republican.

This, obviously, doesn't quite match up with what Young told the crowd at the Broad Ripple GOP Club. Young appears to want to say or imply that Schansberg is threatening to again be a spoiler if Mike Sodrel runs again, and that Young is not faced with a similar issue.

Yet it is clear in talking to Schansberg that this is not the case at all. Young is taking Schansberg's statements and twisting them into something that is completely different from what the former Libertarian candidate is actually saying.

But regardless of that interesting element, Todd Young sure knows where he needs to go to beat Baron Hill.

It's Broad Ripple.

At this rate, Young is going to being spending less time in the 9th District than Baron Hill.

But at least Baron would have the excuse of being a member of Congress to justify not being in southern Indiana.

Todd's excuse must be a desire to return to his childhood stomping grounds around Carmel and Broad Ripple.