Indiana's Second District Is the First Race to Watch

Jillian Bandes | November 02, 2010 4:35 PM

Indiana's 2nd District is one of the first races to close tonight at 6pm EST. Analysts are pegging it as an early indication of what could happen in the rest of the country; Republican Jackie Walorski faces an uphill battle against incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly, as her district is the epitome of "moderate." Here's what her press secretary, Matthew Kirby, had to say about voter turnout and their race being the canary in the coal mine.

We certainly are in a unique position for a couple reasons. One being that our polls close early, and two that Jackie’s district here, this district encompasses Elkheart, which is the city that President Obama kind of picked as a measuring stick for our economic policies. As everyone knows, Elkheart’s considers jobs and economy the top issue of this election. So it certainly puts us in a unique position

Anecdotally, we’re hearing really from South Bend to Kokomo, that the hard Republican areas, that the lean Republican areas are experiencing high turnout. The lean democrats are experiencing lower, but its all fairly anecdotal at this point. I know that conservatives in certain countries actually ran out of ballots about halfway through the day.