Joining us now to sort this out is Dan Parker. He is chairman of the Democratic Party in Indiana and he‘s getting a lot of attention today. Mr. Parker, thank you very much for your time tonight. Really appreciate it.

DAN PARKER, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF INDIANA: Good evening, Rachel.

MADDOW: Did you have any inkling that Sen. Bayh was going to quit today?

PARKER: No, I did not. He did call me this weekend to let me know of his decision. We were actually planning on doing television ads this week, filming them, and we had the petition drive done and ready to file. But he came to his decision this weekend and let me know.

MADDOW: Is it, in fact, too late for any Democrat to meet the primary filing deadline at this point? Does it look like there won‘t be a primary?

PARKER: Well, Rachel, it‘s a two-step process. You need to have your petitions in to the county clerks to be certified tomorrow by noon. And then, you need to collect all of those and submit them to the Secretary of State‘s office by noon on Friday.

So it‘s a two-step process. It is a very difficult process to get done, because voters‘ addresses need to match on the voter registration rules and it takes a lot of time to get it done.

Mr. Coats, who got in the race 10 days ago, has been paying people for 10 days to collect his and he just got done today.

MADDOW: Wow. On the Republican side, do you think there would have been more interest by more and stronger Republican candidates for this race if Sen. Bayh had made this announcement earlier?

PARKER: Well, I think that the national Republican Party got Mr. Coats to get in the race, primarily because they were not happy with the Republicans that were running. The person who had the most amount of money at the end of the year was Mr. Stutzman. He had $4,000 in the bank.

MADDOW: Wow.

PARKER: But as you‘ve - as you‘ve kind of highlighted, Mr. Coats is kind of a disaster of a candidate, probably the worst candidate rollout I‘ve ever seen in my life. And he has not gone over well here in Indiana. The Indiana Republican Party is somewhat divided, particularly the tea party movement, who sees his lobbying for both Hugo Chavez and for Bank of America as a pure disaster for the Republican Party.

MADDOW: On the Democratic side, if there doesn‘t end up being a primary, and there‘s no reason to prejudge that, but it seems likely, on what grounds and by what means will Indiana Democrats choose a candidate to run for this seat?

PARKER: Well, Rachel, I‘ve been taught never to assume anything in politics. But assuming for a second that no candidate by tomorrow has enough signatures into the county clerks, there is a provision in state statute and by party rule that the Indiana Democratic Party‘s state central committee can gather sometime thereafter to fill the ballot vacancy for the fall.

So there will be a Democratic nominee for the United States Senate. And our attempts are going to be to field the strongest possible candidate that we can to make sure that Hoosiers are represented with someone that shares our values.

MADDOW: I imagine - I can tell, both by your job description and by your demeanor right here that you‘re going to be exceedingly diplomatic when I ask you this, but I‘ve got to ask you.

The Democratic short list that‘s being talked about so far includes Congressman Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill and Joe Donnelly, and then there‘s - forgive the pronunciation - I think it‘s Tamara D‘Ippolito who is the one Democrat who was seriously planning to challenge Sen. Bayh in the primary.

Are those four the main candidates that you‘re looking at? Is there somebody else who we should be considering to be on that list? Or should we exclude any of those folks?

PARKER: I don‘t think that we should exclude anyone. I‘m trying not to mention any names, because I want this to be an open process as we move forward. I have been contacted by numerous people that are interested in running.

But I think that it‘s a little too early to start talking about specific names, because we need to get past tomorrow‘s deadline first. And then we‘ll move forward with all parts of the party to talk about who the best possible person is to be the nominee.

We have a lot of great Democrats here in Indiana on our bench and I‘m very confident that we will field the candidate that can win this race. Because as you‘ve mentioned, the Republican candidates are an absolute disaster and would be in complete opposition to most of the good things that are going on to get this economy back on track.

MADDOW: So nailed it on you being very diplomatic on that one, which I want credit for. Just briefly, before we go, beltway common wisdom, in my experience, is usually wrong. Beltway common wisdom in this case is that Evan Bayh is really the only Democrat who can win a Senate race in Indiana. Can you make a bumper sticker case to the country that a Democrat will hold this seat?

PARKER: Well, Evan Bayh was a great governor, great U.S. senator for Indiana. And he‘s going to be very difficult to replace, but we will field a strong candidate. And I promise you this, Rachel, I feel confident that we will win this race.

MADDOW: Dan Parker, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, thank you so much for joining us tonight. I‘m sure it was a very busy time for you. I really appreciate it.

PARKER: Rachel, thank you.