Congressional candidates to have sole debate tonight

The congressional candidates for Indiana’s 9th district will meet on stage at 7 p.m. today at the Jasper Arts Center for the lone time before voters hit the polls on Election Day.

But why only one, when last election they had the standard three debates? Both Libertarian candidate Eric Schansberg and Republican candidate Mike Sodrel point fingers at Democratic incumbent Baron Hill.

“We wanted to have more debates,” said Ryan Reger, campaign manager for Mike Sodrel. “Baron Hill made excuses not to.”

Schansberg noted that in 2006, when Hill was the challenger, he was “clamoring” for debates but has dodged requests for debates this election.

“We were trying to set up four or five debates,” Schansberg said. “The hypocrisy on this is rather annoying, that he wanted debates as a challenger, but he doesn’t want to debate as an incumbent.”

Hill’s campaign did not return calls Monday seeking comment.
During tonight’s debate, each candidate will take questions alone on stage before responding to questions from the audience together.

All three plan to focus on the economy and the smaller things that fall under that category: high prices, energy, the deficit and jobs.

“If I have to point to an overarching issue, it would be the need to restore fiscal sanity to Washington,” Schansberg said. “No economist can tell you the limits of the debt.”
WISH-TV reported that as of Oct. 10, the polls showed Hill had a 12-point lead over Sodrel. Although the candidate who trails in the polls has a long history of starting personal attacks, Reger said that’s not Sodrel’s style.

“He’s not one to get up and attack a whole lot,” he said. “He might say something about his record and say how he voted on certain issues.”

Because this is the only chance the candidates will have to confront each other directly, they are planning on packing as much punch as possible.

Schansberg sees this as an opportunity to push some new ideas into the spotlight of voters who are tired of hearing the same responses from Hill and Sodrel.

“One of the disadvantages of me running in this race is that the other two are really well known,” he said. “But although they’re well known, they’re not necessarily well liked. Everybody knows them, and it’s not going to reveal much.”

With undecided voters making up 10 percent of the district, the debate has the potential to affect Hill’s lead on Sodrel.

“I’m fairly confident (Sodrel will win) because I’ve seen him in all the different forms, and he does very well on his feet,” Reger said. “He takes questions very well, even if it’s a question he’s not expecting. He’s always very well prepared.”