Welch for State Rep. 60th District

Democratic incumbent Peggy Welch is the best choice to represent the 60th District in the Statehouse. Welch has a good record and has sponsored many beneficial bills in the House, ranging from medical issues to child safety and molestation prevention, as well as a host of other important topics. She first was elected to the Statehouse in 1998, and re-elected in 2000. \nWelch's competition, Republican David Sabbagh and Libertarian Jim Billingsley, both have their positives. Sabbagh favors incentives to help retain Indiana college graduates and have them work in state for a term in return for financial assistance. He also wants to provide free textbooks for all state K-12 students. However, Sabbagh is willing to support any of the five recommended I-69 routes, including the new land routes that come through Bloomington and/or Monroe County. Many people in this area would not like to see a highway come through town. Sabbagh also favors tax abatements for new equipment and the hiring of more employees, which would be a boon to this area.\nBillingsley, according to the candidate survey posted by the Vote Smart Initiative (www.vote-smart.org) would favor slightly decreasing funding for both K-12 and higher education. He would also support the slight decreasing of environmental funding and a large decrease in healthcare funding. These issues are important to our constituency, and his lack of support for them would obviously disqualify him for positive candidacy in our eyes.\nThe choice between Sabbagh and Welch was close; Welch does not seem to make education a key issue, but she has fought for other good legislation and for the wishes the 60th District in the past. Sabbagh impressed with his education stances, but coming down to the wire, we saw no reason to take a good incumbent out of office. In this race, we support two more years for Peggy Welch in District 60 in the Indiana House of Representatives.