With Bainbridge resident Dan Stockton's kickoff announcement last week, the Eighth District now has its first Republican candidate seeking current Representative Brad Ellsworth's congressional seat.
With a year and a half before polls open, Stockton's candidacy hinges on his belief that President Barack Obama's initiatives and policies will fail.
Stockton has never run for office before. He says qualifies him to be the Eighth District's representative because he's a quote "common man." This, he says, will define how he does the job.
"I fully intend to read everything I vote on. That may be a daunting task and maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew," Stockton said. "But it starts there. It starts with being informed."
Stockton's embarking on a campaign for Congress with a message that doesn't focus so much on his potential opponent, current Representative Brad Ellsworth. Instead the target is Congress in general and especially, the Obama Administration.
"And I can't say that I'm looking forward to seeing that fail. It would if it would turn the country around. But at the same time, I don't believe that it will," he said.
"So it's not that I'm looking and hoping for Obama to fail. I just believe that we will. I'm hoping that as a country, we can survive that."
Stockton says he's confident his positions will still ring true come November 2010, even though his Congressional platform was formulated less than five months into the Obama administration. He admits many of the programs Obama has launched haven't been around long enough to render a verdict on them.
"And I don't anticipate anything changing between now and then, except for the worse. I don't believe his policies will be successful," he said.
What Stockton deems recent "runaway deficit spending" by Congress will be as relevant then as he believes it is now.
"It's like buying a $1 bucket for a $100 apiece. I guess that's just what's driving me crazy," Stockton said. "No one stops to think about what tax, earmarks, entitlements and pork barrel spending really mean to the American people. I mean we're the ones paying taxes on all of that."
Stockton says if he eventually runs against Ellsworth, should he win the Republican nomination, he is likely to be beaten by a landslide if the race comes down to who can raise and spend the most money.
And he says Ellsworth's conservative reputation will be tough to overcome. In 2008, Republican Greg Goode lost all 18 counties in the Eighth District, with about half has many votes as Ellsworth.
