Bayh to head Democratic centrist group

It would be hard to disagree that Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., is a rising star in the Democratic party.\nTuesday, he was appointed chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group. The council of "New Democrats" has helped launch the national careers of many former chairmen, including then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri.\nFormed after the the Democrats suffered severe political setbacks in the 1980s, the council has been an incubator of national politicians and policies. \n"It gives him a higher profile to advance his priority issues," said Mark Kornblau, Bayh's Washington press secretary. "He'll work on bipartisan support on his education plans and a tax cut."\nBayh has met with President George W. Bush and enlisted the support of moderate Democrats and Republicans to set forward policy alternatives to Bush's plan. Bayh, Kornblau said, opposes vouchers and would like to see a "trigger mechanism" in any broad-based tax cut in the event the surplus dries up.\n"He supports about 90 percent of the president's agenda," Kornblau said. "But, he'd like something that everyone can agree on."\nAl From, central executive officer of the leadership council, said the council will be key to the Democrats' success in a new political landscape. Republicans control all three branches of government now.\nAnd that's not all, From said.\n"The next Democrat to occupy the White House will be one of us," he said. "And there's nothing like having the White House. We plan on being an incubator of national candidates."\nBayh is assuming a position vacated by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who ran on former Vice President Al Gore's ticket in 2000. Bayh made the short list of Gore's potential running mates, and speculation surrounds a possible presidential run in 2004.\n"I think in the back of his mind, he's toying with a presidential run down the road," said Raymond Scheele, a political science professor at Ball State. "He's still a young guy. And he's already got bona fide credentials. But, you don't always get to choose the timing."\nBut the election is still a long way off.\n"Nobody's hat is in the ring yet," said Douglass Davidoff, director of communications for the Indiana Democratic Party. "Right now, all the focus is on winning back the House and Senate. No decisions have been made yet, and the winds are blowing in all different directions. Some would like to see Gore run again."\nBut Davidoff said Bayh would be a good candidate, capable of winning the moderate suburbanites who flocked to Bush in droves in November.\n"He truly is the father of moderate, mainstream, centrist Democrats," he said. "As his father (former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh) always says, his prospects are as bright as the north star."\nDavidoff said Bayh could also take his home state's 11 electoral votes in 2004. A Democrat hasn't won Indiana in a presidential election since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide victory against the radically right-wing Barry Goldwater.\n"Absolutely, he would carry Indiana," Davidoff said, noting that Bayh has been elected Indiana secretary of state, governor and U.S. senator. "He's shown that he can carry the state -- in four elections."\nWhile many pundits discouraged Gore from choosing Bayh on the grounds that he couldn't have put a traditionally Republican state in his column, Scheele disagrees.\n"He could win this state on any ticket," he said. "He's one of the most popular politicians here"