Guest blogger Jillian Weiss will be posting, from time to time, a link to the U.S. Legislator of the Day.

This link will allow you to email a legislator who is undecided on ENDA, and tell him or her of your support for HR 3017, an inclusive ENDA that protects both sexual orientation and gender identity from job discrimination.

So without further ado, here is TODAY’S LEGISLATOR OF THE DAY: * * * drum roll please * * *

Rep. Brad Ellsworth of Indiana

Rep. Ellsworth is a Blue Dog Democrat, but he voted for ENDA in 07. He’s undecided on this year’s ENDA bill, HR 3017. Please let him know why an inclusive ENDA, protecting both sexual orientation and gender identity, is important to you and yours.

Email: http://bit.ly/P1KTB

Tel: 202-225-4636

I’m not going to give you a script, because otherwise these letters will be disregarded as astroturf. You just tell ’em in your own words why HR 3017 (ENDA) is important to you and yours, if it is.

Who is Rep. Brad Ellsworth?
According to Wikipedia, John Bradley Ellsworth, born September 11, 1958, is the Democratic congressman for Indiana’s 8th congressional district. The district is located in the southwestern portion of the state, and includes Evansville and Terre Haute. In 2006, he defeated the Republican incumbent by 61% to 39% and in 2008 defeated the Republican candidate 65% to 35%. He opposes abortion, gun control and illegal immigration, and is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of socially conservative Democrats. He has become close friends with Heath Shuler, a fellow conservative freshman Democrat from North Carolina.

Ellsworth (and Shuler) recently voted against the Hate Crimes bill that included sexual orientation and gender identity.

From this, one might conclude that Ellsworth would not vote for HR 3017, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, and in supposing so, one would be quite, quite wrong.

Rep. Ellsworth voted for ENDA in 2007, whereas his friend Rep. Shuler voted against. So he’s not quite so bluish as some of the other Blue Dogs.

According to Wikipedia, he has a BA in Sociology and an MA in Criminology. He started his career in the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department. Over the next 23 years, he held every merit rank, and was twice decorated for heroism in the line of duty. While serving in the Department, Brad Ellsworth instituted the first Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation. He later attended and graduated from the FBI National Academy.

He ran for Sheriff in 1998 and won by a large margin. He was unopposed running for a second term. In 2005 he announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for Indiana’s 8th Congressional District, which was held by six-term incumbent John Hostettler.

The rest is history.