NYT: In a GOP Stronghold, 3 Districts in Indiana Are Now Battlegrounds

Second District

Representative Chris Chocola, a Republican, and the Democrat, Joe Donnelly, a lawyer and businessman, are in a race that was never supposed to be so close, though the district has elected Democrats in the past.

The economy and immigration loom as large as Iraq in this blue-collar district. Many auto-parts plants have closed or been cut back. Workers are nervous, and some say that Mr. Chocola does not understand their predicament because he is independently wealthy.

Plant workers blame Washington for higher gasoline prices, which hurt demand for automobiles; for spending money on Iraq that could be spent at home; and for failing, as they see it, to stop illegal immigrants from taking jobs in nonunion shops.

Mr. Chocola soundly defeated Mr. Donnelly in 2004, but polls now show Mr. Donnelly ahead. Mr. Donnelly appears to be benefiting from spending by independent groups and national Democrats. (Republicans recently stopped broadcasting advertising for Mr. Chocola, cautioning they have not given up on him but declining to say if the advertisements will resume.)

“Billions of dollars go to China, they’re taking away our jobs, and they call it free trade,” said Richard Rittenhouse Jr., leaning against a friend’s pickup after their shift at the AM General Hummer H2 plant in Elkhart.

Illegal immigrants, whose numbers are relatively small in Indiana, but are concentrated in some areas, are “working hard and cheap” in nonunion plants Mr. Rittenhouse said, while union jobs are trimmed.

He and his friend, Steve Patton, said they were also frustrated by high property taxes, the leasing of a state toll road to a foreign entity and changes in the local daylight saving time.

Mr. Chocola said he was not worried.

“This district is always competitive,” he said, after addressing students at Penn High School in Mishawaka. “Nothing unusual.”

Mr. Donnelly, who criticizes Mr. Chocola for supporting the president on Iraq and foreign trade, sounds equally confident.

“We’re going to change the country,” he said in a South Bend pub.