indianapolis thomas wolfe once wrote that you can<u+2019>t go home again, but evan bayh<u+2014>a former two-term democratic governor and u.s. senator from indiana<u+2014>is trying. after casting the deciding 60th vote for obamacare, mr. bayh retired in 2011 and cashed in as a fixer on washington<u+2019>s k street. now he<u+2019>s running against republican rep. todd young <u+2014>and his own liberal voting record<u+2014>to reclaim the seat. on friday, the trim 60-year-old dropped by king ribs bar-b-q in west indianapolis for a retail campaign stop. after chatting with some customers (who admitted to being democratic operatives after praising mr. bayh), the candidate spoke with a small gaggle of reporters. within half an hour of arriving, he left with his lunch packed to go. the potemkin stop almost seems to be a metaphor for his campaign. like many former members of congress, mr. bayh made a lucrative second career out of lobbying. since january 2015, he has been paid $4 million by the lobbying firm mcguirewoods and private equity company apollo global management . for the record: mr. bayh denies that he was a lobbyist. his post-senate work <u+201c>assisted a great number of hoosiers,<u+201d> he told me. not least of which himself. financial disclosure forms show that his family<u+2019>s assets have soared since he left office. he now owns two multimillion-dollar homes in d.c. as well as a beachfront penthouse condo in key biscayne, fla. he has maintained a small crash pad in indianapolis. home is where the heart is, and this race will hinge on whether voters believe mr. bayh is still a hoosier at heart. when new york sen. chuck schumer, who hopes to become the next senate majority leader, lobbied mr. bayh to run for the seat being vacated by republican dan coats, it was an ingenious play: mr. bayh already had $10 million in campaign cash left from his years in office. mr. bayh also comes with what they call high favorables. his family has deep state roots<u+2014>his father, birch, was a u.s. senator from 1963 to 1981<u+2014>and he is often accorded the sort of fawning press coverage paid to royalty. in 1995, local tv stations aired live updates on the birth of his twin sons, who were raised in d.c. and now attend harvard. after mr. bayh joined the democratic ticket in july, a gop lock became a likely democratic pickup. one poll by a democratic-leaning pollster showed mr. bayh leading by 21 points. but polls have tightened markedly as mr. young has reminded voters of mr. bayh<u+2019>s second career in washington and his vote for obamacare. as mr. young noted at a debate last week, health-insurance premiums have skyrocketed and insurers are begging to be bailed out. mr. bayh counterpunched that his republican opponent wanted to return to the days when health insurers could charge women more, deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and strip benefits from 370,000 low-income hoosiers. he also claimed that mr. young wanted to <u+201c>privatize social security<u+201d> and increase annual medicare premiums by $6,000. these are the standard assault weapons that democrats use to distort the positions of republicans who support entitlement reforms. for instance, mr. young in 2013 supported paul ryan <u+2019>s budget that would convert medicaid into a block grant and medicare into a premium support system. but it<u+2019>s ironic that the self-described <u+201c>fiscal conservative<u+201d> is attacking mr. young for being one. two decades ago, mr. bayh governed as a moderate democrat in the mold of bill clinton. in 1996, he assailed washington for requiring states to spend more on programs like medicaid and for shifting acid-rain cleanup costs to state utility consumers. mr. bayh is now touting the tax cuts, welfare reform and a middle-class scholarship program (which gov. mike pence renamed in his honor) that he signed while governor. yet as the democratic party lurched left, so did mr. bayh. during his last years in office, mr. bayh voted for every significant piece of liberal legislation including the stimulus, obamacare, dodd-frank and the lilly ledbetter fair pay act (a sop to trial lawyers). thus he<u+2019>s now trying to persuade voters that his values and politics haven<u+2019>t changed. one ad shows the democrat<u+2014>with the tagline <u+201c>fiscal conservative-hoosier values<u+201d><u+2014>playing hoops in his backyard with his harvard-enrolled sons, who are wearing indiana pacers and indiana state sycamores t-shirts. his republican opponent, a former u.s. marine, has earned a reputation in congress as a straight shooter by meeting with and advocating for hoosier businesses. on friday morning, mr. young received a <u+201c>friends of farm bureau<u+201d> award at a small radish farm in bloomington, where he marveled at an unusual green tubular variety. the rustic republican wasn<u+2019>t being honored for his support of ag subsidies<u+2014>mr. bayh has whacked him for wanting to abolish the ethanol mandate. instead, the farmers praised rep. young for backing a repeal of the federal estate tax and the waters of the u.s. regulation, which gives the environmental protection agency jurisdiction over puddles, ditches and prairie potholes. mr. young<u+2019>s biggest liability may be that, like the radish, he<u+2019>s green and rough around the edges. while articulate, he isn<u+2019>t as practiced as mr. bayh. in last week<u+2019>s debate, he left many of mr. bayh<u+2019>s spurious attacks unanswered. most recent polls show mr. bayh with a narrow lead. a new one by wish-tv has both donald trump and mr. bayh ahead by six. hoosiers are known for splitting tickets. mr. bayh won re-election by 25 percentage points in 2004 even as george w. bush swept the state in a 20-point landslide. the democrat needs trump voters to cast their ballots for him. hence, the national education association is airing ads accusing mr. young of voting to protect tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. it<u+2019>s also notable that mr. bayh has been reluctant to criticize mr. trump even as his campaign has tried to bait mr. young into doing the same. when i asked what he thinks about the republican nominee, mr. bayh replied that <u+201c>i am not focused on the presidential race<u+201d> and it<u+2019>s <u+201c>unfortunate that all of these political races have gotten so negative.<u+201d> while mr. young may be down in the polls, the past could be a portent: in 1980, a strong turnout among white, working-class voters for ronald reagan helped the fresh-faced republican congressman dan quayle defeat mr. bayh<u+2019>s incumbent father to claim his senate seat. ms. finley is an editorial writer for the journal.
obamacare comes back to haunt evan bayh in indiana - wsj
allysia finley