Election 2006 - State representative District 60

Peggy Welch is the Democratic incumbent running for state representative.\nPeggy Welch is the state representative in the Indiana House of Representatives for District 60. She has held the position since 1998 and is currently running unopposed. She is not a native of Indiana. However, since being here, she has developed a passion for the region and has gone on to serve the district well. \nBorn in Fulton, Miss., Welch received a bachelor's degree in social studies and education from Mississippi College in 1977. She later attended Indiana University from 1992 to 1994 to earn prerequisites and received a nursing degree from Ivy Tech State College in 1995.\nIn the Indiana House, she serves on the House Public Health Committee, pushes hard for long-term health care options and strongly supports financial management of medical dollars. She strongly advocates creating jobs for the district. She has repeatedly supported bipartisan legislation to help local businesses expand and attract new business to the state. She supported legislation that has helped put Hoosier schools among the best in the nation and improve the state's SAT scores.\nThough Peggy Welch is not the state representative for IU specifically, one of her main issues should be to make sure IU is vibrant and growing. This is something Welch is very much committed to. As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, she has dealt with issues such as tuition hikes and the high number of students finding out of state jobs. \nIn an interview, she said the main thing she feels can help some of these issues is to aggressively support the life sciences initiative put forth by IU. This will help create more jobs for IU grads while keeping them in-state. \nShe also said the state needs to "step up to the plate" when it comes to funding state loans and helping the schools balance their books concerning money not given to the schools years ago. If the state does as she suggests, there will be more money to repair buildings on campus and keep tuition prices low. I wish her all the success in getting these initiatives passed, despite a legislature that often seems forget students.