State lawmakers endorse Obama for president

By Mary Beth Schneider
Posted: March 27, 2008 A group of state legislators from every corner of Indiana today endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Thirteen of the 25 lawmakers backing Obama held a Statehouse news conference to urge Hoosiers to support Obama in the May 6 primary election.


"There, you've had it," Sen. Earline Rogers, a Gary Democrat, said after the lawmakers spoke. "Indiana, north, south, east, west, middle. Black, white, Hispanic. Urban, rural. We cross all of these spectrum. And with those kinds of demographics that Indiana possesses, those are precisely the democgraphics that will make Barack Obama the next president of the United States.

Other legislators are backing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, including House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend; Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville and Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis.

At today's news conference, state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said he has been angered by some of the political attacks on Obama, including from Clinton, because of the controversial comments made during sermons by Obama's f ormer pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"One of the things that has angered me the most is the comments that Barack Obama should be held accountable for the comments made by his minister," he said.

"That is truly the most ridiculous part of this campaign. ... I wish that that could go away, yet his opponent wants to keep that alive by trying to deflect comments that she made that were kind of erroneous about Bosnia, by saying that well, if she were in church she would just get up and walk out of the church. Does anyone just leave their church home simply because of one or two comments that may be made by their minister if it is their long-standing church home?"

Brown was referring to comments by Clinton, which she has since blamed on sleep deprivation, in which she described a 1996 visit to Bosnia when she was first lady. Clinton spoke of sniper fire that cut short a welcoming ceremony, though news video of that event showed no such problems.