State Rep. Dennie Oxley, who will be Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson's running mate this year, is good people.
He's nice-looking with a gorgeous wife and two adorable daughters. He's a close ally of House Speaker Pat Bauer, which means he's seen firsthand how party discipline is enforced. (No one runs a more efficient, obedient caucus than Bauer.) He's also a talented singer, which gives him five instant bonus points in my book.
All that being said, I have to agree with the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette's Tracy Warner when he writes this morning that "Oxley - and, for that matter, incumbent Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman - will mean little in the November race for governor."
When Mitch Daniels ran in 2004, Skillman was something of an afterthought. Her name wasn't part of his omnipresent green-and-white brand, and he spent more time talking up and appearing with former Secretary of Commerce Pat Miller than he spent hanging out with Skillman.
She didn't help with fundraising, nor was she involved in crafting the Guv's campaign message or strategy. She was a formality of sorts, someone who could reach out to voters in a non-threatening, ribbon-cutting way. Good for the photo opps and not much else.
(For what it's worth, Skillman adapted well to that role on the campaign trail and has never seemed to mind it much as Lite Guv; it's almost as if she knows she'll never be considered for the top job, and she's just fine with that.)
Long Thompson may try to change that mold, especially since she needs to shore up her name ID and popularity in Oxley's part of the state.
But at the end of the day, as Warner points out in his column, this election is about Daniels -- should he stay, or should he go? -- and nothing more.
