Election Watch
By Maureen Hayden

Jonathan Siebeking was in kindergarten the last time Indiana played a key role in Democratic presidential politics. That was back in 1984, when then-Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado — promising a new generation of leadership — was in a heated primary battle with former Vice President Walter Mondale.

But Evansville wasn’t on either candidate’s campaign tours; for that kind of moment in history, you have to reach back to the year Siebeking was a 1-year-old — all the way to the Democratic primary of 1980, when Sen. Ted Kennedy waged an insurgent campaign against the sitting president, Jimmy Carter. Kennedy stumped for votes at a Whirlpool Corp. union meeting; Carter rallied his supporters at a Burdette Park event.

This time around, the 28-year-old Siebeking will have an up-close view of presidential primary history in the making — at least in this corner of the state. After years of neglect by Democratic presidential candidates, Indiana is back in play and Evansville — as the state’s third largest city and a Democratic stronghold — is being wooed from now until the May 6 primary by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. As political director of the Vanderburgh County Democratic Party, Siebeking has an insider’s look at a battle that may just determine the next president of the United States.

One of Siebeking’s initial encounters with the historic moment came in mid-March, when the Clinton campaign contacted his office for help with logistics setting up her first appearance at Harrison High School. A call and visit soon followed from an Obama campaign staffer. “These people are like rock stars,” Siebeking says. “They travel with their own roadies. They have their own entourage.”

It’s interesting for the Reitz High School graduate, but not intoxicating. His preference has long been for local and state government, where, as he says, “the things that really affect people’s everyday lives, like roads and sewer projects, happen.”

Siebeking witnessed the role government plays in those “everyday” things during his three years in Indiana state government, including nearly two years spent as a special assistant in the governor’s office, first to the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon and then to his successor, Gov. Joe Kernan. Siebeking learned much from both men. “I’m not a very patient person, but they taught me the importance of being patient,” says Siebeking. “They taught me that real change in government takes time.”

They also taught him the gift of humility, he says, recalling his first cocktail party at the home of then-Gov. O’Bannon and his wife Judy, just weeks after Siebeking joined the governor’s staff. As Indiana’s First Lady was addressing her guests, a nervous Siebeking accidentally spilled his drink all over his date and an antique table, capturing the attention of the governor, who offered to help clean up the mess. “That was my introduction to the governor’s office,’’ Siebeking says. “Everybody knew me after that.”

Siebeking’s introduction to politics came as a child, listening to topical conversations around the dinner table with his parents, Mike and Roxann Siebeking, and his sister, Kathy Siebeking Titzer. His first experience with the electoral system came in November 1988 when he was in the fourth grade — his mom took him out of school so he could go with her to watch her vote in the presidential election. His entry into politics came as a junior at Indiana University, where he was an English major with a minor in history. A professor invited him to attend a symposium on the state of the American political system. He left enamored and soon landed an internship in the Indiana Senate, working for the Democrats. “I slept on the floor of a friend’s apartment in Indy for four months,” Siebeking says. “It was one of the best times in my life.”

In November 2001, less than a month before graduating from college, he drove to the Indiana State House for a glimpse of the towering capitol. Standing there, he saw Robin Winston, the former head of the Indiana Democratic Party, heading up the steps. Siebeking bounded toward him and introduced himself. It was the beginning of a months-long campaign by Siebeking to return to state government.

Winston would play a significant role jump-starting Siebeking’s career, advising him to remember that “the harder you work, the luckier you are,” and enlisting him to run the long-shot campaign of Indiana State Clerk candidate Jon Bond in the summer of 2002. Bond lost in a landslide, but Siebeking’s memories of the campaign are fond, recalling, for example, the fun of marching in four different Fourth of July parades with the candidate on the same day. “I was 23, running a statewide campaign,” Siebeking says. “It was exciting.”

It was also his entry back into state government. After the election, he was hired as communications director for the Indiana Economic Development Council, where he worked closely with then Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan. Six months later, at the urging of Kernan — who, in a letter of recommendation, praised Siebeking’s ability to “maintain a level head in a chaotic environment” — he was named special assistant to the governor for boards and commissions. His job was to advise the governor on appointments to Indiana’s 315 state boards and commissions.

“I was with working with people trained at Harvard and Yale,” Siebeking says. “They were people who could have been working in any corporate setting, but they loved public service.” They also loved the personable O’Bannon and when he died — five days after suffering a massive stroke — they were grief-stricken. For Siebeking, one of O’Bannon’s greatest qualities was his deep affection for his Southern Indiana roots.

In July 2006, Siebeking received a call from Larry Aiken, then chairman of the local Democratic party, offering him the chance to return home to work Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel’s re-election campaign. Aiken liked what Siebeking’s colleagues had to say about him, including what one former boss calls his “great sense of humor, a quality which will serve him and others well in the often stressful atmosphere of a political campaign.”

Between now and the May 6 primary, Siebeking’s duties will likely continue to involve offering logistical support to both national candidates. He’s officially neutral on which candidate he favors, but he offers wholehearted endorsement to what he describes as a massive influx of young voters involved in both campaigns. “The amount of young people who are calling our office every day is amazing,” Siebeking says. “I love the American political process. Whatever the problems we have, it’s still the best system in the world.”