Indiana's 8th congressional district

Infobox U.S. congressional district
state = Indiana
district number = 8


image caption = "Map of Indiana's Eighth Congressional District"'
representative = Brad Ellsworth
party = Democratic
english area = 7,041.64
metric area = 18,237.85
percent urban =
percent rural =
population = 675,564
population year = 2000
median income = 36,732
percent white = 94.2
percent black = 3.7
percent asian = 0.6
percent native american = 0.2
percent hispanic = 0.9
percent other race = 0.3
percent blue collar =
percent white collar =
percent gray collar =
cpvi = R+9

United States House of Representatives, Indiana District 8 is a district of the United States Congress in southwestern Indiana. Based in Evansville, it was widened when Indiana lost a seat after the 2000 Census to include much of the former 5th and 7th Districts. At that time, Bloomington (the home of former representative Frank McCloskey) was moved into the 9th District, while the 8th was extended northward to include much of the former 7th district in west-central Indiana, including Terre Haute. As a result of this expansion, the district is the largest in area in Indiana with all or part of 18 Indiana Counties.

Counties located in Indiana's 8th Congressional District

* 23 Fountain County exists in both the 4th Congressional District and 8th Congressional District.

Cities of 10,000 or more people

(2007 Estimate)
* Greencastle - Estimated around 10,100
* Princeton - Estimated around 10,700
* Washington - 11,700
* Vincennes - 21,500
* Terre Haute - 53,100
* Evansville - 131,500

5,000 - 10,000 people

(2007 Estimate)
* Fort Branch - 5,015
* Newburgh - 5,475
* North Terre Haute - 5,025
* Clinton - 5,128
* Sullivan - 5,000
* Boonville - 6,125
* Linton - 5,770
* Mt. Vernon - 7,478
* Brazil - 8,041

History

The district has been nicknamed the "Bloody Eighth" because of a series of hard-fought tight campaigns and political reversals. [cite news | title=And They're Off And Running! | publisher=U.S. News & World Reports | url=http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060116/16candidate.htm | date=January 16, 2006 | accessdate=2007-01-07] It ousted six incumbents from 1966 to 1982. The election in 1984 was so close that it was decided in Congress.

In 2000, a "New York Times" reporter said of the district: "With a populist streak and a conservative bent, this district does not cotton to country-club Republicans or to social-engineering liberals," and also said "More than 95 percent white and about 41 percent rural, the region shares much of the flavor of the Bible Belt." [Dirk Johnson, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E5D8113CF933A25753C1A9669C8B63 "The 2000 Campaign: An Indiana Race; Conservatives Face Off in Quirky Populist District"] , "New York Times", October 10, 2000]

Representative

It is currently represented by Brad Ellsworth, a moderately conservative Democrat. As a result of Ellsworth's landslide defeat of 12-year incumbent John Hostettler, it was the first district picked up by the Democrats on election night, 2006.cite web | title= Democrats pick up key House seat in Indiana | publisher=CNN.com | url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/07/election.house/index.html| accessdate=2007-01-07]

2006

Neighboring Districts

* 1st District
* 4th District
* 9th District

ee also

*Brad Ellsworth
*John Hostettler
*Frank McCloskey

References

External links

* [http://ellsworth.house.gov Congressman Brad Ellsworth] Official House site