Dems Escape Trouble in Evan Bayh Race

Democrats nearly had another political disaster on their hands thanks to Evan Bayh, writes David Kurtz. They got lucky, however, when a no-name cafe owner failed to come up with enough signatures by today's deadline to represent Democrats in the primary. Now that Tamyra d'Ippolito is out of the picture—even though she claimed to have the signatures earlier in the day—party officials in Indiana will be able to place a more seasoned candidate on the ballot.

The development "would seem to end the d'Ippolito boomlet—fueled partly by conservatives looking to cause trouble for Democrats—before it even began, but we're still confirming the particulars," writes Kurtz at Talking Points Memo. The would-be candidate raised eyebrows when she accused the party "machine" of getting her bumped from Rachel Maddow's show. An NBC official responds to Ben Smith at Politico: "I think you can guess that Rachel doesn't really have a tight connection with the 'machine' politics of the Indiana Democratic Party." (More Evan Bayh stories.)