Some Repbulicans are apparently giving Lt. Gov. nominee Sue Ellsperman grief because she voted in the 2008 Democratic primary when Hillary and Barack were duking it out:
One prominent Democratic blogger went so far to question whether Pence had properly vetted her to be his running mate. Even some of the more extreme elements of the Indiana tea party (I know that may sound redundant) have called Ellspermann a RINO (Republican in Name Only) for taking a Democratic ballot and not fully explaining why she did to their satisfaction.
Pretty silly controversy, if indeed it has achieved that status. Ellsperman is a conservative Republian, and Pence deserves credit for choosing an ideological soulmate instead of a polar opposite the way Democrat John Gregg did. One crossover does not negate her conservative record in the General Assembly. Why wouldn't she want to vote in the Democratic primary and be, as the poster calls it, "a part of history"? Thousands of other Republicans did just that. There wasn't much point in voting in the GOP primary, since John McCain was going to be the nominee and everybody knew it. The Democratic side of the ballot was where the action was.
Even editorial pages don't sit out races we're not ideologically committed to. This page endorses candidates in Democratic primaries and The Journal Gazette endorses in Republican ones. In the Clinton-Obama race, as it happens, we endorsed Clinton for the simple reason that she was the more conservative of the two. Not by very much, mind you, but every little bit helps.
