Croddy's Cruddy Campaign Against Carson

Bob Croddy, a 32-year old financial consultant who lives in Warren Township, is the latest in a line of successive Republican candidates to attempt to unseat seventh district congresswoman Julia Carson. Judging from the way he has chosen to start his campaign, his chances of success are just about as bad as all those who have gone before him. Croddy has decided nearly a year before the primary election to use wedge issues like gay marriage and gay bigotry as his path to victory. In so doing he shows us just how little he is prepared to represent an urban district like the seventh district.

Ironically, Croddy's own website makes a point of emphasizing the diversity of the seventh district. The homepage of the Croddy for Congress website includes a letter from the candidate in which he states, "Few communities in America are more diverse than the Seventh District of Indiana. And yet there probably isn't any district which is less well-served by its Member of Congress." In a press release from Croddy's campaign dated June 8 the headline reads "Extreme Liberal Democrat Leaders Like Julia Carson Are Wrong to Push Same Sex Marriage." The press release goes on to attack Carson for criticizing Democratic city-county council members who voted against a proposed civil rights ordinance which would have protected Indianapolis residents from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity. The statement said, "Julia Carson's recent scolding of local Democrat leaders who chose not to support the city-county council proposal to classify lifestyle as a special interest group shows just how out of touch she is with those of us in Marion County." The release continued, "She chooses extreme liberal special interest groups in Washington and San Francisco over her constituents here in Indianapolis time and time again." Croddy states that he "believes most Democrats in Marion County want to protect our families", and that "thousands of year of tradition should not be discarded so easily."

Does Mr. Croddy, himself the product of a single parent family according to his website, believe that gay marriages pose a threat to his family? I would also remind Croddy that Christian tradition also once barred interracial marriages, treated women as second class citizens and approved of slavery. Does Croddy believe it was wrong to discard those traditions?

Croddy is sadly mistaken if he thinks the far right's bigoted agenda against gays and lesbians is going to propel him into a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the City of Indianapolis. If that is the campaign platform on which he wants to run his campaign, then he should consider running for Congress in Tupelo, Mississippi where he might have a more receptive audience to this form of bigotry. The last Republican elected to represent the City of Indianapolis in Congress was former Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut, a centrist who reached out to all voters. I too find a lot of fault in the way Rep. Carson has represented the seventh district; however, she at least has the common decency not to inject bigotry in any form towards her constitutents. In that respect Mr. Croddy, she is much more in touch with Marion County than you are.

A tagline to Croddy's release implores Republicans not to "give up on Marion County." When Republicans run candidates like Croddy for office in Marion County, they have given up on us. Marion County Republicans can and should find a candidate who is worthy of representing the seventh district. Mr. Croddy is not that candidate.