A Special Message from Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark

Republican Friends,

Thank you for your continued commitment to the Indiana Republican Party. Your time, talent, and treasure allowed us to play a meaningful role in 2006, supporting candidates across the state while also advancing the agenda of Governor Mitch Daniels. It was a challenging election year for us, but it was not without important victories.

At the top of the ticket, Senator Richard Lugar won a record sixth term to the United States Senate. Despite a difficult environment, we were victorious in all three statewide offices, re-electing Secretary of State Todd Rokita, electing State Auditor Tim Berry and State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Indiana Republicans now have an 11-0 record since 2002 for state office elections!

While Republicans in the Midwest were dealing with double-digit losses in state legislative races, we posted the best results in the region as the only state not to lose a Republican State Senate seat. Congratulations to Senator David Long of Fort Wayne on his election as President Pro Tem – his leadership is critical to our success.

By capturing a narrow 51-49 majority, Speaker Pat Bauer didn’t come close to his predictions on State House seats. Perhaps our biggest victory came in defeating Democrat Ed Mahern, the master of the gerrymandered maps. Representative Brian Bosma and his team demonstrated their strength in keeping Democrat gains to a minimum and they are already putting a plan in place to win back the House in 2008.

Your State Republican Party’s first priority this year is to lay the groundwork and strengthen the Party infrastructure to re-elect Governor Mitch Daniels. To do that we are significantly increasing our communication efforts across the state so that Hoosier voters know about the positive results of Governor Daniels’ leadership. We must also invest tremendous resources into Party-building efforts such as list development, voter registration, voter identification, and various voter contacts programs at all levels.

We will be working closely with Mayors, candidates for Mayor, and County Parties to increase the strength of our organization and to implement new technologies that will prove invaluable in target races for Governor, Congress, and the State House in 2008.

We must leverage financial resources now not only to support our targeted mayoral candidates, but also to provide Governor Daniels with the Party infrastructure he needs for re-election. The countdown has already begun. I hope we can count on your support.