U.S. Rep. Dan Burton left little doubt that he will seek a 15th term in 2010 as at least two Republicans are preparing primary challenges. “I am planning to run again. I’m very healthy,” said the 70-year-old Burton in an exclusive Howey Politics Indiana interview on Tuesday in Kokomo. Asked if he was 100 percent committed to running, Burton responded, “Yes. Unless something unforeseen happens, like a heart attack or something. But I don’t anticipate that.” Will Burton run in 2012 or beyond if he wins in 2010? “I’m not going to make any comment beyond the next election. One of the reasons I want to run again is President Obama is coming up with many revolutionary approaches to government and I think those of us who have been there awhile can be more effective than a new person coming in; knowing how to deal with him from a procedures standpoint. Also, I am a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.” Asked about meetings he’s had with potential challengers Brose McVey and Luke Messer, Burton said, “I’m very nice to everybody. Very respectful. I said, ‘It’s your right to run,’ and I would never tell anybody that they can’t run. I plan to run again, but if you do run I hope it will be a gentlemanly thing; no nastiness. But I intend to win.” As for Burton’s narrow 7 percent primary win over Dr. John McGoff in 2008, Burton explained, “It was very interesting. We did three polls in the last three weeks of the campaign. Every one of our polls in the last three weeks showed me up 25 to 30 percent. So we thought it was going to be a walkaway. But my friend Rush Limbaugh was telling everybody to go over and vote for Hillary and if you look at the turnout, that had a bad impact on us. We won by about 7 percent, which was OK, but it wasn’t anything like we anticipated. In my primary I usually get 2 to 3 to 1 Republicans voting over Democrats. There were 10,000 more Democratic votes in that primary than Republicans. So it showed there was a huge amount of new people voting and there were a lot of Republicans who were voting for Obama that hadn’t voted that way before.” - Brian A. Howey, HPI
