This is, quite literally, the most childish attack in Indiana’s Senate race – By Tony Cook (indianapolis Star) / April 25 2018
If you think the fighting among Republicans seeking Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat is childish, wait until you get a load of this.
Todd Rokita’s newest attack on primary opponent Luke Messer is not a television ad or a mailer, but a children’s book.
That’s right, a children’s book.
Titled “Oh, the Places You’ll Forget,” the book mimics Dr. Seuss’s classic, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.” It is a rhyming assault on Messer, who the Rokita campaign claims abandoned Hoosiers when he moved his family to the Washington, D.C., area after winning a congressional seat in 2012.
“We can’t find Congressman Messer. Have you seen him around? We’ve looked everywhere. He’s nowhere to be found,” the book begins.
“We searched Columbus, Muncie, and a local Richmond pub,” it continues. “I heard someone saw him at a Virginia country club.”
The text is accompanied by illustrations featuring a Seuss-like character with an “M” on his shirt. On one page, he is seen on a golf course. On another, he stands atop the U.S. Capitol building, which is labeled “The Swamp.”
The Rokita campaign has even set up a publicity site for the book. “It’s like ‘Where’s Waldo?’ if Waldo abandoned his constituents,” one plug reads.
The campaign says it has printed about 20 hard cover versions of the book.
Needless to say, Messer’s campaign is not impressed with the book.
“Using a ‘children’s book’ as a facade to hide his record of voting against President Trump is just more childish antics from Temper Tantrum Todd,” said Messer campaign manager Chasen Bullock.
While the medium is somewhat novel, the line of attack is nothing new.
Rokita has been relentless in his effort to label Messer as a member of the Washington elite who has abandoned Indiana. Rokita often compares Messer to former senators Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh, who lost elections after being plagued by residency questions. Their names are crossed out on the children’s book’s dedication page and replaced with Messer’s.
Messer, however, has compared himself to Vice President Mike Pence, who once held Messer’s congressional seat and also moved his family to Washington during his time in the House.
Messer has said that as someone who was raised by a single parent, he wanted to be an active part of his children’s lives. For example, he coaches his son’s fifth grade Mclean (Va.) Youth Basketball team.
His campaign said he maintains strong ties to Indiana. He co-owns a home with his mother in his congressional district and will have spent 39 days in Indiana from March 1 to the May primary, his campaign said.
The Rokita campaign’s new book is only the latest mix of politics and children’s literature.
Messer and his wife, Jennifer, created a children’s book in 2006 titled “Hoosier Heart: A Story about Hoosiers and the Great State of Indiana.”
In that book, Messer writes that a Hoosier remains a Hoosier even when they leave the state.
More recently, Pence’s wife, Karen, and daughter, Charlotte, recently wrote a children’s book that capitalized on the popularity of the family’s pet rabbit, “Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President.”
John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight,” responded with a spoof book, “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.” In his version, the rabbit is gay.
Rokita and Messer are competing for the Republican nomination with former state Rep. Mike Braun in Indiana’s May 8 primary. The winner will take on incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly in the November general election.
