INDIANAPOLIS – Informed and reliable sources are telling Howey Politics Indiana that former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats will announce Wednesday he will challenge U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh.

 The source, a former aide, said that Coats knows he has about two weeks to gather the 4,500 signatures – 500 per Congressional district – in two weeks.

Dan Coats

 Coats was up for re-election in 1998 when he decided to retire, citing the pressures of constant fund-raising. Bayh went on that year to defeat former Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke to reclaim his father’s Senate seat.

 Coats was almost named President George W. Bush’s Defense Secretary instead of Donald Rumsfeld, and later was named ambassador to Germany.

 Coats would join the Republican field that includes State Sen. Marlin Stutzman, plumber and Tea Party activist Richard Behney, former Congressman John Hostettler and Winchester financier Don. Bates Jr.

 Coats entered Congress by winning Dan Quayle’s House seat in 1980, then was appointed by Gov. Robert D. Orr to fill Quayle’s Senate seat when he ascended to the vice presidency in 1989.