2018      General Election       Lost 57 — 43

The New South Bend

South Bend ain’t what it used to be.  Few brands in this country have the resonance of the Fighting Irish.  Notre Dame doesn’t win as many football games as it used to.  But it wins a lot.  Basketball, too.  Women’s basketball, especially.  South Bend has changed.

The mayor, Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg, went to Harvard, was a Rhodes scholar, made a run at chairing the DNC, and is gay.  The mayor’s supporters and staff were there when Mel Hall https://www.melforcongress.com/unexpected/ announced he was running for Congress.  Hall is not the only Democratic candidate running.  He is the one with resources and name recognition.  Even so, Daily Kos sees Indiana’s second Congressional District as a long shot.  Half of the Republican held seats are more likely to flip than this one.  Mel Hall is the Democrat who will get the chance to win this seat.

Mel Hall is a strong candidate.  There is money there.  He entered 2018 with just under a half million dollars on hand for the campaign — a little more than half of what the incumbent has.  The incumbent is working hard to dump her nickname — Wacky Jackie. That’s not an easy name to escape. Four years ago, Walorski won by only a point.

Mel Hall is definitely not wacky.  He is earnest and successful.  He comes from an Indiana farm family.  Went to Taylor University and Seminary — not Harvard or Notre Dame.  He graduated as a Methodist minister and volunteered to be sent to Detroit.  With a wife and, eventually, two young boys, he served in one of Detroit’s poorest neighborhoods for seven years. 

Mel Hall left Detroit with a new understanding of the world, ready to do something different.  He imagined a doctorate in statistics from Notre Dame.  Working for two of the faculty, he became, as he tells the story, employee number 34 of Press Ganey, a firm devoted to undertaking research for medical care organizations.  As Director of Research, COO, then CEO, he helped create and then ran the firm.  He continued briefly with the firm out of state after it was sold, but returned to South Bend where his two sons were. 

South Bend is the base from which this Methodist minister — an advocate for the urban poor, an academic statistician, and an innovative businessman — is running his campaign.  Mel Hall’s website includes a segment explaining just how transparent a businessman he was and how transparent government should be.  He outlines six issues that are his priorities.  These are broad statements which do not address the most controversial issues such as immigration or abortion. 

  • Health Care.    This is the field he worked in.  He is confident that the Affordable Care Act can be both protected and improved.  He spent a career surveying patients about how to make health care better and advocates required bids for medical equipment as one way to get control over costs.
  • Jobs and the Economy.    He says he would ensure that tax breaks go to small businesses, not Wall Street.  He supports pay equity and the rights of workers to organize — not an automatic in Indiana.
  • Social Security and Medicare.    Although he is turning to the indignities of politics instead of retirement, he wants to protect social security and Medicare so that others can retire in dignity.
  • Veterans.     Like almost every candidate for Congress, he deplores inadequate health care for veterans.  He sets the tone remembering that his great grandmother sent 11 sons to fight in World War II. 
  • Education.     Making college affordable, providing training for jobs that require new skills, and supporting public education are what he advocates.
  • Infrastructure.  He has a local focus.  17% of Hoosiers don’t have access to the internet.  Indiana has inadequate north – south roads.  He seeks federal help for old fashioned highways and the virtual new ones.

Trump carried Indiana’s second district in 2016.  Mel Halldoesn’t quarrel with the Republican tax cuts.  He is not unhappy with either the modest middle class cuts or, notwithstanding his opposition to tax cuts for Wall Street, the corporate tax cuts.  His campaign does not target Trump.  it targets Walorski, particularly her opposition to the Affordable Care Act and her lack of transparency.  Mel Hall focusesonher failure to hold a town hall to get public comments about health care. He is skeptical about her so-called policy against holding town halls. 

Mel Hall https://www.melforcongress.com/unexpected/ insists he is the right fit for this district.  The district is urban, working class, Catholic and the home of the nation’s best known Catholic University.  The candidate grew up on a farm, is a former CEO, a Methodist minister, and divorced. His political views were formed by his experiences as a CEO and by his experience as a minister in a poor neighborhood in Detroit.  Indiana 02 is not Detroit.  Mel Hallis comfortable in South Bend.   He has lived there for most of his life.  He is comfortable with the entire community and most people are comfortable with him. He was central to creating a major business which was a substantial employer in town.  He is putting that same energy and some of the resources he earned into this campaign.  Add some resources yourself.  Mel Hall will have a chance to replace Jackie Walorski as the representative of Indiana 02 if you and others can make him part of a Democratic wave.