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Democrat Bayh easily defeats Helmke in Indiana
Indiana Democrats gain first Senate seat since 1974
(AllPolitics, November 3) -- Former Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh on Tuesday night handily won the U.S. Senate seat his father, Birch, occupied in the 1970s. By defeating Republican Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, the 42-year-old Bayh presented the Democrats with their first Senate seat in Indiana since 1974.
Pre-election day polls showed the former two-term governor ahead of Helmke by a staggering 25 points.
As Indiana governor from 1989 to 1997, Bayh presided over an economic boom. When he left office Indiana had a $1.7 billion surplus and an overhauled welfare system.
Helmke, who has spent a decade as mayor and is president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, ran as a moderate, focusing on the idea of localization. But he angered some Republicans by remaining friends with President Bill Clinton, who was a classmate at Yale Law School.
Money was also a problem for Helmke. Bayh's position as a conservative Democrat hampered GOP efforts to portray differences between the two candidates. Consequently, many groups and organizations that normally would have been expected to back a Republican candidate supported Bayh instead.
Helmke had won a tight race against two conservative Indianapolis lawyers for the GOP nomination.
Bayh, who gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1996, is a charismatic figure Democrats are grooming for stardom.
He ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the seat formerly held by his father. The seat, which has been in Republican hands since the elder Bayh lost to Dan Quayle in 1980, is being vacated by two-term Republican Dan Coats.
CQ's Alan Greenblatt, Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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