Not much to say.  5.4 earthquake centered in south central Illinois.  I'm in Indianapolis, and it woke my shit up.  So give us your reports, fellow Midwesterners.  Did you feel it, and where are you at?

Cross-posted from Blue Indiana. Come join us!

The American Research Group (ARG) released a poll today taken April 2-3 that shows Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama by a 53-44 margin.  The poll has a 4% margin of error.

The results nearly mirror a poll released earlier this week by polling firm Survey USA, which showed Clinton in the lead with a 52-43 margin.  It runs in contrast to a poll by Research 2000 which shows a much closer race, with Clinton ahead 49-46.

The ARG poll has Clinton as the favorite of Democratic voters, whereas Obama is preferred by the overwhelming majority of independents, who are eligible to vote in Indiana's Democratic primary.  There are no cross-tabs or regional breakdown available at this time.

Indiana
Likely Democratic Primary Voters Apr 2-3

Clinton 53%
Obama 44%
Someone else 1%
Undecided 2%

Indiana
Likely Democratic Primary Voters
Democrats (78%) Independents (22%)

Clinton 59% 31%
Obama 38% 64%
Someone else 1% -
Undecided 2% 5%

I expect to see a lot more of both senators in the near future.

I'm proud to share that one of my favorite bloggers, Thomas from Blue Indiana, filed a challenge to John McCain's ballot petitions yesterday.  In Indiana, a candidate for President must get 500 signatures from each congressional district, for a total of 4,500 signatures.

Apparantly, Sen. McCain was 9 signatures short from Indiana's 4th Congressional District.

Thomas puts this best:

Let's be clear here: This is one of the most Republican-friendly districts in one of the most Republican-friendly presidential states. John McCain has been endorsed by Governor Mitch Daniels, Attorney General Steve Carter, state GOP chair Murray Clark, and Secretary of State Todd Rokita.

And despite all of this high-level help, these guys managed to screw up one of the most basic steps that any candidate can take in the state.

...

This doesn't just make John McCain look silly -- and it does -- but this makes the entire Indiana Republican Party look silly. Silly, and clumsy, and inept, and generally incapable of running a national campaign, let alone the entire country.

Blue Indiana

With so much focus on the presidential contest, another important race takes place Tuesday in Maryland's 4th Congressional district featuring Netroots favorite and progressive activist Donna Edwards against corrupt, corporate Democrat named Al Wynn.

This is a rematch from 2006, when Wynn supporters physically assaulted Edwards supporters outside polling sites.

In recent days, Wynn sent out robocalls attacking Donna Edwards as a tax cheat. The Wynn campaign is very desperate and is making this very personal.  http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?do cID=news-000002668478

Al Wynn is everything you can ask for in a bad Democrat.  He voted for the Iraq War.  He's a champion of predatory lenders and credit card companies.  He's pro-big oil.  He supports No Child Left Behind.  He's spent so much time in Washington he's forgotten where he came from.

I ask you to give Donna some 11th hour love.  She'll need every dollar she can get to defeat Wynn, something she came within 3 points of doing in 2006.  Visit my ActBlue page and give what you can.

http://www.actblue.com/page/voxpopuli

A victory for Donna is a victory for progress in the Democratic Party.  Thank you!

This is a short commentary, but one of the 'quiz of the day' features on CQ politics was the question:

How many times have Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama disagreed on key Senate votes?

a) 25

b) 15

c) 7

d) 3

They've shared three years in the Senate.  Obama talks oft about bringing change to Washington.  But just how much does he differ compared to Hillary Clintion?

Answer below the fold.

For the past four years, I have been a supporter of John Edwards for President.  I have promoted him to my friends, family, and complete strangers across the Internet.  I have donated a substantial (to me) sum of money to him, and raised even more money for him via ActBlue and a private fundraising page.  I admired his boldness, his dedication, and most of all I admired his voice in this race.  I admired him for standing up against the big interests and for rejecting lobbyist and PAC money for all three of his federal races. Even though he didn't win a single state, he clearly won the battle of ideas.  John Edwards set the Democratic agenda for this primary season from day one, something supporters of all candidates should be thankful for.  

With John out of the race, and with Tsunami Tuesday just 5 days away, the time has come for me to endorse another candidate.

As most of you are aware, Congresswoman Julia Carson succumbed to a battle with lung cancer in December.  Indiana's 7th Congressional District is the second most Democratic in the state, and includes most of the largest and capital city, Indianapolis-Marion County.  Several well-qualified Democrats entered the race, along with the Congresswoman's grandson, freshman City Councilor Andre Carson.  A full rundown on the major candidates seeking to replace Mrs. Carson can be found on my recent BlueIndiana diary.

At Julia Carson's funeral, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed Andre Carson for Congress.  They essentially turned her funeral into an Andre for Congress rally.  Immediately after, the Democratic machine, much of which was built up by Mrs. Carson, started lining up behind Andre.  They leaned hard on other Democrats to try and prevent other Democrats from challenging him for the seat.  The machine did see some success, with former Mayor Bart Peterson--probably the most popular Democrat among Indianapolis Democrats--saying he wasn't interested and endorsing Carson.

This is cross-posted from www.blueindiana.net.  In December, Congresswoman Julia Carson died, leaving an open seat.  This coming Saturday, the precinct committeepersons from the district are going caucus to select the candidate for a special election to be held on March 11.  Candidate filing in Indiana closes on February 12, and the precinct committeepersons will assemble again in February to endorse a candidate for the primary in May.  

Last night, the candidates had their one and only public forum before the coming caucus.  The front-runner by far is Andre Carson, the former congresswoman's grandson.  Please check out the links to learn more about the five major candidates in the race.  This is a primary where the blogosphere can have a great impact if we get behind one candidate.

So I just got home from the 7th District Democratic candidate forum, which featured a whole host of candidates from different regions, races, genders, and even political philosophies.  Present were State Representatives Carolene Mays, David Orentlicher, and and Gregory Porter; Indianapolis City County Councilors Joanne Sanders and Andre Carson; Attorney Randle Pollard; Marion County Treasurer Michael Rodman; and former Indiana State Health Commissioner Woodrow Myers.