VC Running for Office in Race Rove Calls “Important”

Paul Roales, an associate with Pearl Street Venture Funds, is the latest venture capitalist to run for elective office. He’s the Democratic Party nominee to represent Indiana’s 26th District in the state legislature. May not sound like too big a deal, but Karl Rove would disagree.

In a March column for the Wall Street Journal, Rove wrote:

Some of the most important contests this fall will be way down the ballot in communities like Portsmouth, Ohio and West Lafayette, Ind., and neighborhoods like Brushy Creek in Round Rock, Texas, and Murrysville Township in Westmoreland County, Pa. These are state legislative races that will determine who redraws congressional district lines after this year’s census, a process that could determine which party controls upwards of 20 seats and whether many other seats will be competitive.

That West Lafayette seat is where Roales is competing. He won the party primary by running unopposed, and will face off in November against incumbent Randy Truitt, who won his 2008 race by fewer than 50 votes.

If he wins, Roales plans to continue working at Pearl Street. Not only is the Indiana state legislature not a fulltime job — just three days a week for three months a year — but Pearl Street’s Indianapolis office is just blocks away from the state house…