It seems as though Joe Donnelly’s big campaign secret has surfaced: he’s a … Democrat.  The Congressman in Indiana-02 has tried mightily to hide that fact from voters this cycle, spending more time running against Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama than some Republicans in other districts.  Now that the secret is out, Donnelly has fallen back to an alternate strategy, one perhaps even less convincing than the Name That Party plan:

U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly has voted for Nancy Pelosi to be speaker of the House during both of his terms in Congress.

But Donnelly, D-Granger, also has distanced himself from the Democratic speaker in two of his campaign ads this year. One ad highlights his differences with party leaders on immigration policy — he says he doesn’t work for “the Washington crowd” — and another calls cap-and-trade legislation “Nancy Pelosi’s energy tax on Hoosier families.”

So will Donnelly vote for Pelosi to be speaker for another two-year term if he’s re-elected in November?

Donnelly wouldn’t even commit to a course of action:

“Well, I don’t know who the choices are going to be. I’ll take a look at that at the time,” he said at the South Bend Fire Department Central Station during a breakfast to benefit the Community Oriented Policing Leadership Council.

“I don’t know if she’ll run for re-election (as speaker), I don’t know if there will be somebody else,” he said, “so I don’t want to make any pre-judgments on that issue.”

Is Donnelly practicing for a Judiciary Committee hearing on an appointment to the bench?  He’s running for office; he’s supposed to offer his positions on issues and questions of leadership.

Besides, this isn’t exactly brain surgery.  If Pelosi doesn’t run, then the question is moot.  If someone else doesn’t run, the question is moot.  The question presupposes a Pelosi run and a challenge from someone else in the caucus, and also presumes a Democratic majority, which at the moment may also make this entire question moot.  If those are the conditions, will Donnelly vote for Pelosi or a challenger?  The fact that he won’t answer the question speaks volumes about his real loyalties, regardless of the spin Donnelly puts in his ads.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen polling in IN-02, but if Donnelly is still dancing around this issue, Jackie Walorski can certainly take advantage of it.  Why?  The South Bend Tribune’s last sentence tells the story:

Pelosi’s press secretary, Drew Hammill, told The Tribune she will be a candidate for speaker again.

Only if IN-02 and other swing districts in the country send their Donnellys back to Congress.