Brad Ellsworth for United States Senate

Aug 09, 2010
Ellsworth in his element at event

The South Bend Tribune
By Kevin Allen

SOUTH BEND — U.S. Senate candidate Brad Ellsworth was clearly in his element Saturday during a campaign stop at the Fraternal Order of Police.

Chatting with officers during a firearms competition at the FOP shooting range southwest of the city, the two-term Democratic congressman from Evansville and former Vanderburgh County sheriff joked, “I saw this on the schedule and thought, ‘All right, I get to do something fun in politics for once!’æ”

Ellsworth said he doesn’t normally shoot in competitions, but he brought his pistols — a 9 mm Smith & Wesson and a .45-caliber Sig Sauer P220 — to fire some rounds with Capt. Mike Grzegorek, assistant commander of the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit and the Democratic candidate for sheriff in this year’s election.

The congressman announced it had been a while since he fired a weapon, and he poked fun at himself for the few shots out of 36 that didn’t land in scoring range on the cardboard target bearing an outline of a human above the waist.

But he said it was a good feeling to be around police officers and share law-enforcement stories Saturday.

“It’s like getting back with a bunch of buddies you never met,” he said of the camaraderie among officers.

Ellsworth has been pushing his image as a former sheriff as he battles Republican and former Sen. Dan Coats for the seat Evan Bayh is leaving.

The banner across the top of his campaign website shows him leaning against a Vanderburgh County patrol car, and his press releases and televised campaign ads also stress his experience as a sheriff instead of his time in Washington.

Coats’ campaign and other Republicans have accused Ellsworth of overemphasizing his time as a sheriff to distract people from his record as a congressman.

Ellsworth said Saturday that he is proud of his entire résumé.

“I’m not shying away from my three and a half years in Congress,” he said. “I’m trying to introduce myself to people who want to know where I’ve come from.

“I was in law enforcement for 24 years and eight months, so that was most of my life before I went to Congress three and a half years ago.”

Ellsworth pointed out that his time as a sheriff and deputy is just about equal to the amount of time Coats has spent in Washington as a congressman, senator and lobbyist.

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Aug 04, 2010
Ellsworth: No lobbying careers for former lawmakers

The Indianapolis Star
By Mary Beth Schneider

INDIANAPOLIS - U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth on Tuesday proposed changing how Washington does business, including one reform aimed directly at his Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate: a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress.

Throughout this campaign, Democrats have targeted the lobbying resume of Ellsworth’s Republican opponent, former Sen. Dan Coats. Coats, who like Ellsworth made a campaign stop in Indianapolis on Tuesday, joined a Washington law firm as a lobbyist after leaving the Senate in 1998 and again in 2005 after serving as ambassador to Germany.
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Ellsworth said Tuesday that the need to “put a wedge in that revolving door” between Congress and the lobbyists goes beyond Coats.

“I’ve seen it on both sides of the aisle,” Ellsworth said. “I hear people talk about what they might do when they’re done, (serving in Congress) and it’s wrong, and it influences their decisions.”

In recent years, Congress has tried to slow the jump from lawmaker to lobbyist, with the Senate adopting a two-year cooling-off period and the House a one-year ban.

“It’s just not long enough,” Ellsworth said.

Ellsworth, first elected to Congress in 2006, said he’s been there “just long enough to see how messed up it really is.”

At his Downtown news conference Tuesday, he also called for more disclosure of the meetings lawmakers have with lobbyists, banning staff from lobbying for six years, requiring members to put all their investments in blind trusts, more disclosure of Senate candidates’ personal financial information and changes to the Senate filibuster rules. Those included barring senators from secretly blocking legislation and lowering the number of senators it takes to break a filibuster to 55 from the current 60.

He also called for the Constitution to be amended to require a balanced federal budget with flexibility to allow for emergency spending but with spending cuts to lower the nation’s ballooning debt.

Coats, in town for a health-care round table discussion with doctors at St. Francis Hospital, did not personally respond to Ellsworth’s proposals but focused on what his campaign considers Ellsworth’s weak point: his vote for the health-care reforms enacted this year. Coats repeated his call for the health-care package to be replaced with other reforms.

Coats’ campaign spokesman, Pete Seat, said Coats welcomed Ellsworth’s call for a balanced federal budget. But, Seat said, Ellsworth’s words and votes in Congress don’t jibe.

“Ellsworth has rubber-stamped massive government spending sprees, leaving Hoosiers to pay the bill when many are without jobs,” Seat said.

“But in Indiana, just three months before the election, he’s a fiscal hawk committed to balancing a budget he has willingly allowed to reach unprecedented levels.”

Coats’ campaign simply ignored Ellsworth’s call for a lifetime ban on lobbying.

And Seat dismissed Ellsworth’s other reform proposals—particularly to make it easier to defeat a filibuster—saying that “this election is about getting America back on track and Hoosiers back to work, not trying to rewrite procedural rules to benefit an extreme liberal agenda.”

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Aug 04, 2010
Ellsworth offers plan to change Washington

Northwest Indiana Times
By Dan Carden

INDIANAPOLIS - A lifetime ban on lawmakers becoming lobbyists and a balanced budget amendment are among the reforms U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., vows to pursue if Hoosiers elect him to the U.S. Senate.

The two-term Evansville congressman announced his Plan to Change the Way Washington Works at an Indianapolis event Tuesday. Ellsworth’s 10-point plan focuses on increasing government transparency, reducing government spending and fixing procedural issues that slow the legislative process.

“Too many times, the people in Washington, D.C., from both parties, put other peoples’ interests—special interests—in front of their own and in front of the people back home,” Ellsworth said. “There are ways that we can restore the public’s confidence in their elected officials, and that’s what we have to start doing.”

One of Ellsworth’s proposals would prohibit U.S. senators from working as a lobbyist after leaving office. Current senators must wait two years before they can lobby their former colleagues.

“So many times that’s what people intend to do, as opposed to public service, and why people go to Washington, or any elected official, they use that to trampoline or to bounce in to a more lucrative job,” Ellsworth said.

Former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, Ellsworth’s Republican opponent, worked as a lobbyist after leaving the Senate in 1999 and again after serving four years as U.S. ambassador to Germany. Ellsworth told reporters Tuesday that he would never work as a lobbyist.

Other Ellsworth reform proposals were big on ideas but short on specifics.

For example, Ellsworth said he would support a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget but would not identify specific programs or services he’d cut right now to eliminate the estimated $1.35 trillion shortfall for 2010. He said the amendment would allow government spending to exceed revenue during “emergencies,” which he did not define.

Ellsworth also wants to reduce the number of senators required to end a filibuster from 60 to 55. However, changing that rule requires getting 60 votes to end debate on the rule. Neither political party currently controls that many seats in the Senate, nor is likely to after the fall elections.

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Jul 26, 2010
Ellsworth: Gary revival depends on teamwork

Post-Tribune
By Jon Seidel

U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, the Democrat hoping to replace outgoing Sen. Evan Bayh, says elected officials need to take a team approach to making Gary an attractive place for new businesses to open their doors.

“That’s what’s going to bring the jobs back there,” Ellsworth said Friday in an interview.

The federal government might even need to invest in the city’s clean-up, he said, but while keeping an eye on the “federal pocketbook.”

“We need to make sure that that money is spent wisely,” Ellsworth said. “We have to make sure it goes to what it’s intended to.”

Bayh already lured Ron Sims, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to Gary last year to see its crumbling infrastructure first-hand. But Gary’s bid to land HUD dollars for demolition failed.

Ellsworth said local, state and federal officials need to work together on Gary issues.

The two-term congressman from Evansville made his comments ahead of a weekend trip to Northwest Indiana. He plans to attend the Indiana Sheriff’s Association State Conference in Merrillville.

“I try to do that every year since I retired from the sheriff’s department,” Ellsworth said.

Ellsworth spent 25 years working for the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department, eight of which he spent as the sheriff. The distinction is at the heart of the latest tiff between Ellsworth and his Republican opponent, former Sen. Dan Coats.

The Republicans attacked Ellsworth for running a television ad where he begins by talking about his “25 years as a sheriff.”

“Apparently he is trying to be clever by overstating the amount of time he served as the elected sheriff in hopes that it will fill in the four-year gap on his resume that he’s spent in Washington,” Indiana GOP Chairman Murray Clark said.

Ellsworth laughed off the attack Friday, saying, “if that’s their biggest gripe about me, I’m in pretty good shape.”

He said he didn’t intend to imply he had been sheriff for 25 years, something prohibited by Indiana’s term limits. But he said it’s not unusual for people to refer to deputy sheriffs as “the sheriff.”

However, Ellsworth took the opportunity to point out Coats’ own Washington resume, where the former senator spent time as a lobbyist and an ambassador under the Bush administration.

Coats visited Northwest Indiana this week as well, stopping by the Porter County Fair on Thursday.

“I plan to retire here,” Ellsworth said. “As you know, Sen. Coats moved back here in January to run for this office.”

Republicans have also complained about $12,000 in donations Ellsworth received between 2005 and 2007 from Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, who has been accused of violating House ethics rules and possibly breaking the law.

Ellsworth announced Friday evening he would donate that money to Indiana charities.

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Jul 21, 2010
U.S. Senate hopeful raps foe, cap-and-trade

The Journal Gazette
By Benjamin Lanka

FORT WAYNE – Rep. Brad Ellsworth traveled to Fort Wayne on Tuesday in part to criticize his opponent’s past support of cap-and-trade legislation.

Ellsworth, a southern Indiana Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, spoke at Midwest Pipe and Steel Inc. about the importance of cheap energy to make Indiana a place for businesses to locate. He said the pollution-curbing bill in Congress would hurt the Hoosier economy.

Indiana coal production and use has helped provide affordable energy and good jobs to Hoosiers, Ellsworth said.

In comparison, Ellsworth said his Republican opponent, former Sen. Dan Coats, lobbied for the bill on behalf of a client. Coats previously was a lobbyist for Washington-based King & Spalding, and Ellsworth showed reports of Coats’ involvement in the cap-and-trade lobbying effort.

According to the lobbying reports, Coats’ firm was paid $480,000 for the work from June 2007 to September 2008.

“I believe it is disingenuous to rail against cap-and-trade on the campaign trail in Indiana but then to be paid to lobby for these policies when you’re in Washington,” Ellsworth said.

Pete Seat, spokesman for Coats, said by e-mail that the legislation passed the House under the urging of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom Ellsworth helped elect to her position.

Seat did not mention Coats’ lobbying history in his response.

“Dan opposes attempts to cap-and-tax energy, which would have a devastating effect on Hoosier businesses and cost thousands of jobs,” Seat wrote. “He has never advocated for these liberal job-killing policies and would vote against them as a United States senator.”

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