Candidates for governor talk to reporters, editors

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Less than a day after their second debate in Jasper, Ind., Indiana’s gubernatorial candidates met with reporters and editors from newspapers across the state.

Each candidate spoke for about 40 minutes and fielded questions from the press, many of which centered around education and the economy.

Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed science and math classes for every grade as well as called for streamlining public education at the local level.

Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson said graduation rates should be increased through vocational schooling and graduation plans starting in middle school.

Long Thompson also called for a reformation of the No Child Left Behind Act and said tests like ISTEP should be used by teachers to analyze their effectiveness, not rewards and punishments.

While the two major party candidates talked policy, Libertarian Andy Horning spoke to the journalists about their role in the election.

“Are you guys supposed to be the gatekeepers who decide who gets through and who doesn’t, or are you supposed to really be the Fourth Estate?” Horning said. “This is a powerful part of our government.”

Horning said he was running against entrenched powers that run the government, including the media, which he said don’t allow for third-party candidates to get their messages out.

Horning said his platform is the Constitution, and he hopes to take back some power from the “big ugly monster” of the federal government.

Daniels spoke about the economy, but said Indiana is in much better shape than most of its neighbors.

“We cannot lose either our confidence or our sense of perspective,” Daniels said. “Most places in the state and most businesses in the state are doing well despite our national economy.”

Daniels said Indiana led America in bringing in new businesses and has a record-high credit rating.

Long Thompson presented a three-tier plan to improve the economy short-term, including moving to a tax credit for businesses that create jobs, pooling people’s health care and reforming the public education policy.

Long Thompson also said the state needs to get research from universities into the marketplace.

“We’ve got to be creating jobs for the future, and that’s really not happening right now,” she said. “But with the right changes and the right policy I can, and that is why I am running for governor.”

Thompson criticized Daniels’ leasing of the Indiana Toll Road in Northern Indiana.
She said she would have raised tolls herself and reinvested the money in the state.
“They are taking the money and making a huge profit,” she said of the foreign company that bought the road. “I would have given all that back to Indiana. That would have secured a steady flow of income for infrastructure forever, instead of 3.8 billion up front.”

Daniels said Long Thompson was simply playing for cheap political points.
“You got a better idea?” Daniels asked. “We’ve waited three years and we haven’t heard one. You want to triple the gas tax? Come out and say so.”