Republican Scott Brown's upset win in Massachusetts has the GOP dreaming of other electoral gains, some inconceivable just months ago. Politico reports that conservative Indiana Congressman Mike Pence is being encouraged to give up his House seat to run against U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh.
Pence, the No. 3 Republican in the House leadership, will meet with National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn on Thursday. Cornyn is lobbying Pence with the argument that the mood of the country has shifted so much that even Bayh, a moderate Democrat long considered a political heavyweight of the first order in the Hoosier State, is beatable.
Pence and his aides are dismissing any talk about a Senate run. And a senior House Republican also discounted the possibility Wednesday, because of the risk the five-term congressman would take giving up a safe seat in his east-central Indiana district.
