Indiana Voters: 'Frustrated,' 'Concerned'

LAPORTE, Ind., Oct. 30, 2006 — -- In Indiana's 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Chris Chocola is in a fierce contest with Democrat Joe Donnelly.

Listening to Chocola's constituents tells you why, as they throw around words like "floundering," "concerned" or "frustrated" to describe how they feel about the current direction of the nation and who is doing the directing.

After ABC News conducted a round of interviews in LaPorte and its environs, there was no question that the reason for all this soul-searching in an otherwise reliably Republican area comes down to one word: Iraq.

"I guess the concern I have about the war is we don't really have an exit strategy," said Lee Brady, president and CEO of the LaPorte Savings Bank. "'Staying the course' doesn't seem like a really good option," he said, using a phrase that has been banished from the White House lexicon because it struck many, in the words of New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, as "inflexible and stupid."

Brady is a registered Republican who likes the job Chocola has done in Washington and hopes he can survive the challenge, but said, "This year looks to me like it would be a very tough time to run as a Republican."

Down at city hall, Mayor Leigh Morris said erstwhile Republican supporters were feeling "skepticism, and maybe even a bit of disgust" about the doings on Capitol Hill. Morris is a Republican who believes the Mark Foley scandal involving young male congressional pages has hurt the GOP.

He also said the attempts to lure voters by emphasizing opposition to issues like same-sex marriage or abortion were counterproductive tactical distractions.

"I think it's to divert attention away from things that are probably more in the province of what the government should really be paying attention to," he said, mentioning health care as an example. "Overall we haven't seen the quality of congressional leadership in Washington that we once did."

Out near one of LaPorte's lakeside neighborhoods, Century 21 real estate Linda Knoll showed us a four-bedroom lakefront home for $495,000. She said her business was good, though there had been a lot of foreclosures as the economy in northern Indiana went from heavily industrial to heavily nothing.