Indiana Republican Larry Bucshon, a heart surgeon, has made official his his 2010 bid to challenge two-term Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth.

Bucshon declared his candidacy Monday in Newburgh, a community just east of Evansville, the largest city in a conservative-leaning district that also takes in Terre Haute.

Bucshon criticized the fiscal policies pursued by the Obama administration and the Democratic-run Congress, though he also said that Republicans need to acknowledge “we were partially to blame for the increased government spending over the past decade.”