REALLY IMPORTANTVILLE: Inside Braun's Election Night Victory Party—Donnelly's case—Tenderloins on wheat?
By @AdamWren
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DAYS TO ELECTION DAY: 181
BRAUN'S BIG NIGHT: The new Republican nominee for Senate luxuriated in his victory at Moontown Brewing Last night. Revelers sipped craft beer and noshed on jerk-rubbed, red-pepper-sauced chicken wings inside the converted high school and gymnasium. Braun took congratulatory calls from President Donald Trump (they compared their business backgrounds, he told me) and Vice President Pence. Gov. Holcomb called him from Israel.
--I ASKED BRAUN whether he presented a stark enough contrast with Donnelly, given that Donnelly has voted with Trump 62 percent of the time, and confirming 70 percent of his nominees, including Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. BRAUN: "Your implication is that's a very high percentage, and that's not very good. I think the big difference that voters are going to see in me is that I'm going to bring a wealth of knowledge to this position that was learned in the real world in building something. I use the line that all the issues that are important to us—infrastructure, healthcare, maybe not so much securing the border—but on some of the other issues, I've lived through it in building an actual company."
--ON HIS BUSINESS RECORD BEING A LIABILITY, as chronicled by the AP: "They failed to mention that we have one of the best records in the business, and when you pick three instances out of 3,000 employees that we've had, that's about as good as it gets...our record is stellar."
--BRAUN held a fundraiser at his house for then-gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence a month or so before he was tapped by Trump to be VP.
--HOW MANY BLUE SHIRTS DOES HE OWN? "Many." Where he buys them: Sieberts in Jasper.
SPOTTED AT THE BRAUN EVENT: Former Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter.
Good Wednesday Morning, and welcome to a special post-primary edition of Importantville.
Here's how things turned out in other Indiana races last night.
UNDER-REPORTED STORY: Even though the Vice President claimed he was "Switzerland," Messer was supported by a constellation of aides with ties to the Veep, including Greg. This was a loss for Pence World.
--FLASHBACK, from The Star last summer: "Among other well-known Republicans on Messer's finance committee are Marty Obst, the executive director of Pence’s gubernatorial campaign; Jim Kittle, Pence’s campaign finance chairman during that same time; Bill Smith, Pence's former chief of staff; and Bob Grand, the national finance chairman for Pence’s vice presidential campaign."
DONNELLY wasted no time in framing the race ahead. At a downtown availability this morning, Donnelly defined the face that faces Hoosiers as one about "Who's there for Hoosier families?"
--"My job is to be with the president when he's right. And I've been with the president 62 percent of the time," Donnelly said.
--DONNELLY pointed out a contrast in how his campaign and Braun's is funded: Braun dumped $6 million of his own money into the primary, he said; In Donnelly's most recent personal record-breaking quarter, 80 percent of his donations were $25 or less. He also said the billionaire Kock brothers had spent $7 million on the race already.
--ON TRUMP'S CIA DIRECTOR NOMINEE GINA HASPEL: He's meeting with her tomorrow.
--ON THE TRUMP-PENCE VISIT: "I hope they spend a lot of money on businesses while they are here in Indiana." THE LEDES
FROM THE STATE'S PAPER OF RECORD: "In a huge upset against two well-established names in Indiana Republican politics, wealthy businessman Mike Braun won Indiana’s high-stakes GOP Senate primary," writes the Star. "Braun, who fueled his bid with millions of dollars of his own money, defeated U.S. Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita in what has been called the nation’s nastiest and most expensive U.S. Senate primary." PENCE, TOO: "Greg Pence, the oldest brother of Vice President Mike Pence, won the Republican primary on Tuesday for the Indiana House seat once held by his more famous sibling, successfully leveraging his family name into prodigious fund-raising and ample votes that make him a heavy favorite to win the seat in November," according to The New York Times. "In his first run for public office, Mr. Pence, 61, ran a largely hermetic race, declining to debate his opponents and refusing most requests for interviews. Instead he made the rounds of Lincoln Day dinners and met quietly with voters in a district that stretches from Muncie to the north to the Ohio River to the south."
HOW BRAUN WON, from HuffPost's Kevin Robillard: "A few hours after Messer’s coffee shop stop, Braun is in Noblesville, the seat of Hamilton County, a major swing county just outside Indianapolis. After posing with people for some selfies and shaking hands outside an early voting center, he sat down at Syd’s, a local bar, and ordered a pork tenderloin on whole wheat, a side salad and fries when the waitress recognized him.
“You’re the guy from the commercials,” she said.
IMPORTANTVILLE TAKE: Bonus points for going to Syd's. But who eats a tenderloin sandwich on a wheat bun? THE KICKER
Anyone who orders a tenderloin on wheat is a cop. https://t.co/QE9uAJkXKs
— Peter Evans (@Real_PeterEvans) May 9, 2018