Indiana’s 9th congressional candidates collecting cash as May primary date nears

(The Center Square) – Republican candidates in Indiana’s 9th congressional district primary have been scrambling to raise money for ads before the May 3 primary hits.

Mike Sodrel, a trucking company owner who represented the district in Congress for one term from 2005-07, is self-funding his race, and loaned his campaign $425,000.

Of the nine candidates, he’s raised $467,370, when including the loans and has $57,753 in his campaign account.

Erin Houchin, who was a state senator from Salem until February, had raised the second-highest amount – $377,205, but as of March 31 still had $250,476 in her campaign account. Houchin left the Indiana Senate in February to campaign for congress full-time. This is her second time running for in the 9th. She last ran in 2016, coming in second in the Republican primary to Trey Hollingsworth, a first-time candidate who was able to self-fund his campaign.

Close behind Houchin was Stu Barnes-Israel, a combat veteran who fought in Afghanistan and has worked as a business consultant since 2018.

Barnes-Israel raised $366,325, which included a $100,000 loan he made to his own campaign.

Of the remaining candidates, commercial real estate broker Jim Baker has raised $63,635, Army veteran Dan Heiwig has raised $44,889, and IU-Southeast economics professor Eric Schansberg has raised $28,711.

Schansberg ran against Sodrel as a Libertarian Party candidate in both 2006 and 2008, when Sodrel was trying to win his seat back from Democrat Rep. Baron Hill, who defeated him in 2006.

“I did not vote for Trump,” Schansberg said Monday in a phone interview. “I’m a Libertarian by ideology and I couldn’t stand…Trump had a lot of bad policies.”

He says he ran against Sodrel before and is running again, because when he looked at his votes, he didn’t think he was really conservative.

“Mike was a solid Republican,” he says. “But being a Republican is not good enough. We need conservatives.”

Federal Election Commission records show that among Houchin’s contributions is $10,000 from VIEW PAC, the Value in Election Women Political Action Committee, chaired by former Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio; $5,000 from the Susan B. Anthony List PAC, a pro-life PAC; $5,000 from the GOPAC election fund, the Newt Gingrich PAC; and $1,900 from the Big Ideas Create Excellence PAC, a PAC started by Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma. Houchin also got a $2,900 contribution from state Rep. Chuck Goodrich, R-Noblesville, and a $1,000 from Indiana attorney Jim Bopp, whom she said she considers a friend.

For Stu Barnes-Israel, FEC records show many out-of-state contributors, including from Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and New York. Barnes-Israel got $5,000 from SEAL PAC and notably, $2,900 from Paul Singer, the pro-Israel hedge fund manager and backer of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida.

Sodrel showed just $37,500 in individual contributions, with $2,900 coming from the 9th district chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, Jamey Noel, who is also the sheriff of Clark County and the Clark County GOP chairman. Sodrel also got a $1,000 contribution from Indianapolis power-broker Bob Grand, the managing partner of law firm Barnes & Thornburg.

In the Democratic primary, high school teacher and local teachers union leader Matt Fyfe reported raising $33,015, with just $7,206 cash on hand. Isak Asare, an employee of Indiana University, raised $25,203 and had $10,358 as of March 31.

Early voting began in Indiana on April 5 and continues through May 2. Polls are open on May 3 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., local time.

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