Candidates fight for seats in local Statehouse races

Democrat wants to expend more effort for a better future\nDemocratic candidate for the Indiana House of Representatives Matt Pierce has an experienced background which he said he hopes will help in his long-range goal of improving the quality of the state of Indiana.\nPierce said he is running for the position because he believes Indiana needs to expend more efforts on working toward a better future.\n"I think the General Assembly should be asking itself what kind of state it wants to be in 10 years and what it could do to be there," Pierce said.\nTo accomplish this goal, Pierce said he believes attention and resources should be removed from the excessive amount of crisis management at the state house and for the state to begin to question what it is doing for the future of Indiana. \nPierce said he is also mainly concerned with what the state can do to support higher education and the local schools, better preserve and protect the environment, improve economic development and maintain new jobs and small business and make health care more accessible and affordable to everyone. \nIf elected, Pierce said he believes his experience working with the House of Representatives will be a great asset to the position.\n"The decision for the house majority leader to retire is a great loss of influence at the State House for the community because he had 16 years of seniority and leadership as the majority leader. He had a lot of influence over the processes of the House," Pierce said. "While a freshman cannot replace that influence, I believe my background will give me a lot of advantages over a lot of other freshman representatives."\nBorn in Northern Indiana, Pierce grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania, but later returned to Indiana in 1980 to attend IU, where he was vice president of IUSA in the 1982-1983 school year. Pierce received his B. A. in Political Science and Telecommunications, then went to law school to complete his education. \nAfter law school, Pierce headed to the House of Representatives, where he spent ten years there, then for the final two years as the elected principle clerk. From 1995 to 1998, Pierce served on the Bloomington City Council, then as the Chief of Staff until October 2002 for U.S. Representative Baron Hill.\nDrug prohibition a major campaign issue for Libertarian\nDr. Clark Brittain (Lib.) said he seeks to fill the District 61 Indiana House of Representatives seat to be vacated by long term Democrat and House Majority Leader, Mark Kruzan of Bloomington. \nBrittain said once he is in office, he hopes to tackle drug prohibition issues.\n"As a physician I see the devastation that the war on drugs has caused, which is much worse than the drug use itself. I seek to change that," Brittain said.\nBrittain said he stands firmly by the Libertarian party platform of being fiscally conservative and socially tolerant. He said many Indiana politicians understand that drug laws need to be changed, but they are unable to speak with a united voice in Indianapolis. \nBrittain also said he is for the legalization of medicinal marijuana and believes other drugs should be more readily available to prescribe to addicts in a scheduled manner to help them overcome their addictions. He said that it is scientifically verifiable that maintenance therapy helps conquer addictions, but the idea doesn't appeal to our emotions. \nBrittain said he does not smoke marijuana or use drugs himself, even avoiding caffeine, but said he believes the wishes of others should be respected. \nBrittain, 54, is a Bloomington physician, owns a Ob/Gyn clinic in Bloomington and is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine.