Brad and Dan

It's official: Democrats chose Brad Ellsworth to run against Dan Coats for the Senate seat being vacated by Evan Bayh:

Off to a late start and an unorthodox selection as Indiana's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Brad Ellsworth officially launched his campaign Saturday, calling himself a former county sheriff "increasing my patrol zone.''

[. . .]

In his first official campaign stop -- the Indiana Kaw Enforcement Academy in Plainfield west of Indianapolis -- Ellsworth noted his experience as a two-term Vanderburgh County sheriff.

"I'm increasing my patrol zone," Ellsworth said. "I have said that I'm going to do the same thing for the folks of Indiana that I've tried to do for the people of the 8th District and the people of Vanderburgh County.

If Ellsworth sticks with this theme during the campaign (and I think we can count on it), it's actually a pretty clever tactic. It focuses on his non-Washington service in a time of anti-incumbent fervor and diverts attention from his pro-Obama votes generally disliked here, such as for health care reform. It also reminds voters, without coming right out and saying anything explicitly negative about Coats, that Ellsworth worked in the trenches here with Hoosiers, unlike a certain other public official who stayed around Washington and got cozy with lobbyists.

The selection of Ellsworth was pretty much foreordained, but the meeting wasn't without a fuss or two. Indiana's Stonewall Democrats, representing the LGBT community, apparently walked out in protest after Bayh told a lame AIDS joke. They also don't plan to support Ellsworth, citing votes they didn't like against the Hate Crimes Bill and the transgender-included version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He also hasn't expressed a willingness to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and won't say what he thinks about gay adoptions:

We do not intend our abstention, in any manner, to be taken as support for Republican nominee Dan Coats. His objection to permitting highly-qualified gays and lesbians to serve in the armed services is well-documented, as is his historical hostility to the gay and lesbian community.

Poor Stonewalls. All that civic energy and no place to put it. Since they already know what it's like to be in the minority, maybe they should consider the Libertarian in the race. Of course, Rebecca Sink-Burris will be arguing for smaller government all the way around, which would include government actions advancing the LGBT community's causes.

Here's a video of Bayh's joke, which involves standard double-word-meaning humor. It isn't exactly hilarious, but it doesn't seem all that offensive to me. Maybe I'd feel different if the joke were about black lung or breast cancer or something else that's killed someone I know. Humor about death in general can be funny even when pointed, but disease-specific humor gets tricky.