That’s just one sign that gas prices are fueling concern among consumers.

Another is how much attention politicians are paying to what we’re paying at the pump.

The latest?

Republican Mike Sodrel on Tuesday announced he will travel next week with four other Republican congressional candidates to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, more commonly known as ANWR.

“High gas prices affect every area of our economy,” Sodrel said in a news release. “I am tired of hearing Congress tell us what won’t work or what takes too long. The only solutions coming from this Congress are to file lawsuits, increase taxes, investigate or regulate. None of this will increase the supply or lower the price of gas.”

The group will stop in Anchorage and then travel to Prudhoe Bay and ANWR.

Sodrel is challenging incumbent Democrat Baron Hill of Seymour in this fall’s general election for the 9th District. Sodrel declined to debate Hill on the price of gas when they squared off two years ago. This is their fourth matchup.

Sodrel and the other candidates headed to Alaska will be briefed by energy industry experts and state and local officials from Anchorage and the Arctic Circle, Sodrel’s news release said. The candidates will also visit with the private landowners and native residents of the Arctic Circle.

An article in The Wall Street Journal said Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona “should take careful note (that)  Republicans in difficult House races are spending scarce campaign dollars to travel to Alaska to dramatize their stance on the drilling issue.” 

McCain — and Democratic presidential candidate Barck Obama — continues to oppose drilling in ANWR.

Hill is also talking about gas prices. His focus has been on controlling speculating in oil futures and forcing oil companies to drill on leases they already hold. He said economists have told himthat speculating in oil futures is causing gas prices to be 20 percent to 50 percent higher than supply and demand would merit.

 Libertarian Eric Schansberg, an economics professor at Indiana University Southeast who’s also challenging Hill’s re-election bid, said he found Hill’s stance on the issue “incredulous.”

“This is doubly frustrating since Baron refuses to debate me on gas prices — after repeatedly demanding a debate on this single topic in May 2006. The funny thing is that he dismissed ‘those fancy economists’ during our 2006 debate in Jasper on the minimum wage,” Schansberg said in a news release.

Schansberg said we’d paying less for gas “if the dollar had not been devalued since 2002. President Bush and his Congresses, including Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel, bear considerable responsibility for that, given their avid pursuit of government spending and debt.”

With gas prices at $4.19 a gallon in Seymour, look for gas to remain a hot topic on the minds of voters, and therefore candidates.

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What’s your take on that?

We’ll publish an editorial on Monday that resurrects an opinion piece I wrote earlier this year, contending that Indiana’s primary comes way too late in the presidential nomination process. It’s been 40 years since Hoosier voters mattered in that process.

But with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton slugging it out with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, our votes, opinions and voices finally mattered.

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Maybe so.

With a number of Jackson County’s 33 precincts running out of Democratic paper ballots — and many voters preferring not to cast their ballots on the touchscreen I-Votronic system — means election board officials must count paper ballots and then enter them into the electronic system to yield vote totals.

Of course, the I-Votronic wasn’t an option for voters at Jackson 5 North at Seymour High School when it ran out of Democratic ballots. That’s because its touchscreen machine broke down with 55 votes on it about midday. The inspector there, Joe Robertson, said those 55 ballots will be electroncially transferred out and counted.

Why did the precincts run out of Democratic ballots? That’s probably a combination of at least three things: more people voted, perhaps most attributed to Indiana’s presidential primary actually meaning something for the first time since 1968; ballots had to be ordered before anyone ever dreamed that our primary could mean something and stir more people to vote; and it’s pretty clear that a number of Jackson County Republicans crossed over and took Democratic ballots, for whatever reason.

Anyway, we still have staff at the courthouse, waiting for the final results. As soon as we have them, we’ll post them online.

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“Indiana is too close to call.”

That was Brit Hume on Fox News at around 7:30 p.m. That’s 90 minutes after polls were closed in most of the Hoosier state and 30 minutes after they were closed in the Gary and Evansville areas of western Indiana, where the clocks are set on Central time.

Generally, Indiana’s the first state called in a presidential race, and always for the Republican. Of course, that’s for the general election.

This spring, what’s too close to call today is whether New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will win the Democratic nod in the Hoosier state.

Clinton is leading Obama now with a pretty safae margin, but Fox News just reported that no precincts from Lake County are in yet. Who knows how that will pan out, where residents are encouraged to vote early and often, even if you’re dead.

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Nearly every precinct has ran out of Democratic ballots, Carolyn Hurt of the Voter Registration Office said just after 5 p.m. Polls close at 6 p.m.

From what I’m hearing, those crossover Republicans are likely voting heavily for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary and against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

But it’ll be interesting to see if the crossovers go deeper into the Democratic ballot and try to get Republican Mike Sodrel a weaker candidate for the fall election in Indiana’s 9th District congressional race. I’m also hearing that Republicans are crossing over in the New Albany-Jeffersonville area.

Incumbent Democrat Baron Hill is opposed by three primary challengers, Gretchen Clearwater of Bloomington, John Bottorff of Jasper and Lendall Terry of Versailles. With the power of incumbency and strong name recognition, you’d think Hill wouldn’t have much of a problem today, just as he had little problem with three opponents in the 2006 Democratic primary.

But it could be interesting to see how much mischief Republicans attempted to do beyond Rush Limbaugh’s call for Operation Chaos, where he’s encouraged the GOP faithful to vote for Clinton on the premise that she’s easier for Arizona Republican John McCain to beat this fall.

We’ll see what happens.

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We’ll report online about what’s going on with Tuesday’s primary and school board elections throughout the morning, day and evening into the night, if ncessary.

Carolyn Hurt, Jackson County Clerk Sarah’s Benter deput over the Voter Registration Office, said early today that poll sites and poll workers will be ready to open the doors at 6 a.m. Tuesday. It’s a long day, that could be even longer this time if turnout is higher.

Carolyn expects a good turnout of the county’s 29,000-plus eligible voters. That’s based on her observation that absentee ballots were up by about 50 percent going into the final few hours of absentee balloting.

Absentee boards in Brownstown and Seymour closed at noon today.

Reporters Zach Spicer, Jill Treadway, January Wetzel and Aubrey Woods will stop in at several polls Tuesday morning. We’ll report on the early morning turnout online and incorporate those findings into a story that will be published Tuesday in The Tribune.

Throughout the day will update the online Election Day posting as news warrants.

Then we’ll start posting results as they come in the clerk’s office, although we can’t assure that we’ll receive periodic results as we always used to.

Thanks to technology, we’ve seen delays in the periodic reporting, but also thanks to technology, final results are generally out much, much quicker than in the past.

We’ll not dwell on the election two years ago, however, when computer glitches delayed final tallies until the next morning.

At any rate, stay connected to TribTown. We’ll keep you updated and report on the results as soon as we can.

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With Hill, a Seymour Democrat, is one of the state party’s so-called superdelegates, I’d been expecting both wannabe nominees would make a campaign stop hear to court his support.

But Hill ended speculation with who he’d support with his announcement today.

Now the speculation is likely under way, or perhaps continuing, over how the endorsement of Obama helps and hurts Hill in his re-election bid this year. He faces three opponents in Tuesday’s primary election.

If he wins Tuesday, as expected, he’ll face Republican Mike Sodrel, a former 9th District representative, for the fourth time this fall. Also in the race this fall will be Libertarian Eric Schansberg.

So, don’t for Clinton to visit Seymour in the coming few days.

But what about Obama?

Do you think he’ll make a campaign swing through Jackson County?

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Hill seemed to find some irony as well when questioned Tuesday morning about the signs, expected to go up later in the day around the district.

“Every day’s a new day, but I didn’t expect this,” Hill said in a phone conversation from Washington, D.C.

The irony and amusement come from the history of Hill with billboards during election years. He’s been targeted by signs in the past, made a poster child for everything liberal and evil by conservative groups and individuals, including Citizens for Truth.

Now Greenpeace, hardly a bastion of conservative policies, is lining up against the Seymour Democrat. It contends that Hill’s weak on fighting global warming.

Greenpeace surely can’t be suggesting that Hill’s likely opponent in the general election this fall, Republican Mike Sodrel, would be a better candidate for fighting Al Gore’s war. That leads one to question whether the billboard campaign might be to favor Hill’s Democratic opponents in the May 6 primary election, John R. Bottorff of Jasper, Gretchen Clearwater of Bloomington and Lendall B. Terry of Versailles.

But Edyta Sitko of Greenpeace’s Bloomington office was quick to stress that the organization doesn’t endorse any political candidates.

Hill isn’t the only congressman being targeted by the billboards. Sitko said about 25 congressmen — Democrats and Republicans — are part of the billboard campaign.

Irony. You have to love it.

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In recent days, those e-mails have come more frequently. They’ve also become more partisan toward their candidate and against their opponent.

This weekend, I’ve received e-mails from both camps highlighting Obama’s comments about “bitter” middle Americans. Each was accompanied by a video posted on YouTube.

I offer links for them here.

Obama in Terre Haute: http://in.barackobama.com/page/content/invideo

 Clinton in Indianapolis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeV2KzGGC38

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Some pundits and politicians are telling us bumpkins here in the hinterlands that we should be insulted, that Obama — the Democratic Party’s top vote getter and delegate getter so far in this round of primary votes and caususes — is an elitist and that he is clearly out of touch with small town, mainstream America.

Sorry, but I think it’s a real stretch of credbility for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to claim that Obama is an elitist. Can anyone else hear the kettle calling the pot every time she says that? I sure do.

And let’s face it. There are — according to a variety of polls — a great number of Americans who are upset or even angry. Some probably are bitter. A great number of us are feeling like the economy is a real concern for our pocketbooks and our futures.

If Obama was just trying to tap into that concern, those fears, I’m not so sure he did a very good job of expressing it. Maybe it was a poor choice of words. But maybe not.

I’m still trying to decide, myself.

 What do you think? You can respond here, or answer the TribTown.com poll question.

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