When was the last time Indiana Democratic candidates unseated three Republican congressmen?
— Harriet Fisher, Indianapolis, Ind. A: Why, in 2006, of course! Unless you meant prior to 2006, a year in which GOP incumbents Chris Chocola, John Hostettler and Mike Sodrel all went down to defeat. The last time Hoosier Republicans had such a bad night was in 1974, when five were unseated: Reps. Earl Landgrebe (who lost to Floyd Fithian), William Bray (to David Evans), Roger Zion (to Philip Hayes), David Dennis (to Phil Sharp), and William Hudnut (to Andy Jacobs). JUST IN THE NICOTINE: Last week’s column had a little feature on presidents who were smokers; this followed the news item that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is trying to quit cigarettes. In the column, I wrote that Ronald Reagan was reputed to be a several packs-a-day smoker before running for president. Not so, says Lou Cannon, the much-missed Washington Post columnist who wrote the definitive biography President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime. “In fact,” Lou writes, “he was not a cigarette smoker at all. He smoked a pipe when
— Harriet Fisher, Indianapolis, Ind. A: Why, in 2006, of course! Unless you meant prior to 2006, a year in which GOP incumbents Chris Chocola, John Hostettler and Mike Sodrel all went down to defeat. The last time Hoosier Republicans had such a bad night was in 1974, when five were unseated: Reps. Earl Landgrebe (who lost to Floyd Fithian), William Bray (to David Evans), Roger Zion (to Philip Hayes), David Dennis (to Phil Sharp), and William Hudnut (to Andy Jacobs). JUST IN THE NICOTINE: Last week’s column had a little feature on presidents who were smokers; this followed the news item that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is trying to quit cigarettes. In the column, I wrote that Ronald Reagan was reputed to be a several packs-a-day smoker before running for president. Not so, says Lou Cannon, the much-missed Washington Post columnist who wrote the definitive biography President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime. “In fact,” Lou writes, “he was not a cigarette smoker at all. He smoked a pipe when
