Former Councilman Hayhurst to Run for Congress in 2010
By: Kristin Mazur
Updated: August 18, 2009
Former Democratic City Councilman Tom Hayhurst announced his intent to run for Congress in 2010.
“Its my duty to run for Congress and connect with the people in Northeast Indiana” says Hayhurst.
Hayhurst ran for Congress back in 2006 but lost to current Representative Mark Souder by a narrow percentage.
“I think a big factor was we got down near the end and I did not have quite the funds that was needed with regard to getting the message out” adds Hayhurst.
During the 2006 election, around 7-to-8-hundred-thousand dollars was put into Hayhursts campaign.
Souder has served as the 3rd districts congressman for the past 15 years. “While I expect it to be a tough race, I hope it wont be as difficult as when there was a democratic tide in this district” says Souder.
Souder also says the trend now seems to be against a bigger government. He opposes Hayhurst’s take on single-payer federal healthcare along with his views on alternative energy.
Yet Hayhurst says that “the entire time Congressman Souders been there...the situations been deteriorating consistently with regard to health care citizens in Northeast Indiana”
Hayhurst also plans to focus on unemployment, putting that near the top of his list on concerns.
He says “were losing jobs, we have poor-quality jobs, one of the highest unemployment counties in the entire nation, Elkhart County in here.” He will spend the next few weeks traveling around the district talking with citizens to address any specific problems they may have.
