Donnelly should have run as a Democrat

Is it possible for a Democrat to run for statewide office in Indiana as a Democrat and get elected?

Maybe not, but it would be interesting to see someone try.

Joe Donnelly didn’t do it.

Despite the D beside his name on the ballot, the incumbent U.S. Senator pretty much ran as a Republican.

In his face-offs with winning GOP candidate Mike Braun, Donnelly spent most of his time and most of his energy trying to “out-Trump” a very Trumpy opponent.

At times, Donnelly seemed as if he were running in a Republican primary rather than a general election.

He billed himself as “pro-life” but was on record allowing for a number of exceptions that true anti-abortion single-issue voters would find unacceptable.

He billed himself as “pro-gun” but was on record in support of a number of reforms that the true NRA folks would find disqualifying on that count.

His campaign was more of an echo than a choice.

But what if he’d done things differently?

What if he’d said that while he finds the moral implications in a decision to have an abortion immense and troubling, he believes the decision ultimately should rest with the woman not the government?

What if he’d said that while he’s okay with gun ownership, he believes that there are reasonable measures that can be taken to keep guns out of the hands of those who are mentally unstable?

According to most polls, both of those positions are in line with the majority of American public opinion.

Indiana, however, is another matter entirely.

It’s entirely possible that any Democratic candidate running with those very Democratic positions would get whalloped at the polls.

Then again, Joe Donnelly got whalloped at the polls pretending to be a Republican. Who knows what would have happened if he had run as a Demo-crat? — J.R.