9th District race in the WSJ!

From Douglas Belkin in the WSJ...

Of course, the focus in a national newspaper is on Sodrel vs. Hill, given their history. But of couse, the locals know that it'll be interesting to see if Sodrel can get by Travis Hankins &/or Todd Young!

The political winds that buffeted Massachusetts this week are now blowing across the cornfields of southeast Indiana—smack into Mr. Hill.

After supporting President Barack Obama's health-care plan and his economic-stimulus package, the congressman stands accused by Mr. Berry and others here of jettisoning the Ninth District's bedrock fiscal conservatism....

Mr. Hill's constituents are split nearly evenly along party lines, making his congressional district election one of the most hotly contested this year. For the fifth time in a row, Mr. Hill is running against Republican Mike Sodrel, a self-made millionaire who beat Mr. Hill by 10,000 votes in 2004, but lost to him in tough races in 2002, 2006 and 2008.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sodrel toured the district's southeast corner in a black Escalade with a bumper sticker that said, "Mike Sodrel, Congress, one of us"...

"We're moving in the right direction," Mr. Sodrel told a small crowd in Aurora, Ind., along the Ohio River....Mr. Sodrel complained to the 20 people gathered in Aurora about the expanding role of the federal government and how it is crowding out individual liberties...

"It all comes down to this arrogance that we know better than you how your money should be spent," Mr. Sodrel said about the possibility of a second federal stimulus package. "We're trying to borrow our way out of debt and spend our way to prosperity. It doesn't work that way," he said.

Uhhh...what was Sodrel's position on the Bush "stimulus" in 2008?

Mr. Hill declined to be interviewed for this article....

A poll conducted just before Tuesday's vote in Massachusetts by USA Survey for the Web site firedoglake.com found that, in a head-to-head match-up, Mr. Sodrel would beat Mr. Hill 49% to 41%, with 10% of the voters undecided....

Mr. Hill also faces a burgeoning Tea Party movement that has targeted the Democratic congressman. Those activists have been courted by Mr. Sodrel. But they also are paying attention to two other, lesser-known Republican candidates, attorney Todd Young and Travis Hankins, a real-estate investor....

"I wanted to make sure [the Tea Party phenomenon] wasn't a flash in the pan," [Sodrel] said at a campaign stop at a diner in Rising Sun, Ind. "I wanted to make sure it was real."

A weird quote-- especially to end the article...