by Maureen Nelson Faul

Last night was the final primary debate held for the Republican candidates wanting to run for a US Senate seat for Indiana next Tuesday. Most political junkies are aware of some of each of the campaigns’ differences, while most of the state’s voters likely are not aware at all. The debate was held in the studio at the Indianapolis public broadcast station WFYI, sponsored by the Indiana Debate Commission, and moderated by Indy Politics publisher Abdul-Hakim Shabazz. All three candidates were present, and onset left to right; Luke Messer, Todd Rokita, and Mike Braun.

As a fairly informed voter, generally speaking, I’m watching for clear differences between the three candidates. Abdul opened the debate with a solid, straight-forward outline for the hour. There were a couple of moments of levity throughout the event, but the men on the set all have a lot on the line. Messer and Rokita have invested and given up their congressional seats and Braun, the self-proclaimed outsider choosing not to don a suit or tie, has spent loads of cash, brought up several times by his opponents trying to “buy a Senate seat” spending a whopping six million dollars. The stakes are high, as each wants the chance to unseat the first-term sitting Democrat Joe Donnelly.

An unavoidable impression early in the debate was the frequency of mentioning President Trump … honestly, I gave up counting of how many times each of them said, Trump. Each candidate wanted the viewers to know they are a Trump ally and the “true conservative” (that is a whole other discussion for later). None of the three fully answered the question to cite any specific policy differences they had from President Trump.

The question of the tone of this campaign actually gave more opportunity to attack and took time away from discussing federal debt, national security and many important ideas.
Messer, Rokita, and Braun all took hard swipes at the other right out of the gate, even in the introduction statements. Braun gave the most personal background, but what I wanted to hear was more specific policy ideas each had and less of the repeated campaign points. It was frustrating to sift through the repeated accusations that Braun is not a true Republican, Messer doesn’t live in Indiana and is a ‘Never Trumper’, or Rokita has yard sign issues.

After watching the debate, I am still undecided, but thankful for the opportunity to see and hear from the candidates in a long format, not a 30-second campaign ad.
In the next seven days, hopefully, voters will invest some time researching the candidates’ websites and vote their values.

Maureen is a long-time Republican and worked for former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.  She is a lifelong Hoosier, born in Bloomington, raised in Washington Township in Marion County and has a B.A. from Indiana  University.

As I get ready for Monday night’s Republican U.S. Senate Primary debate, I think we need to clear the air just one more time.   As you know, I have been accused by one of the candidates who originally declined to participate in the debate and later changed their mind, that I am a liberal and an untrustworthy conservative.  I’m not going to get into a back and forth with the candidate. I gave them an opportunity to come on my weekend radio show this past Saturday so we could clear the air, but they never got back to me.  What I am going to do however is make a confession. It’s only fair to say this as we go into Monday night’s debate. Yes, I am a liberal, in the classic sense of the term.

According to the Mises Institute, classical liberalism is defined as “a term used to designate the ideology advocating private property, an unhampered market economy, the rule of law, constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and of the press, and international peace based on free trade.”   And that is pretty much me.

I believe free markets and capitalism can do more to lift people out of poverty than any government program ever could.  I believe people should be allowed to engage in free-spirited debate and practice their religious beliefs without fear of government retribution.  And I believe when countries engage in free trade, they are less likely to go to war with their business partners.

Of course, all this doesn’t take place in a wild, wild west environment.  We need the rule of law to make sure people behave.  The government should act more like a baseball umpire; call the balls and strikes, and occasionally throw players out of the game, but otherwise, let them play and may the best team win.   Government is not here to ensure your success in this world.

If I may steal a section of Wikipedia (I did double check the source), as a classic liberal, I also believe the government should do most the following…

• Protect individual rights and to provide services that cannot be provided in a free market
• A common national defense to provide protection against foreign invaders
• Make laws to provide protection for citizens from wrongs committed against them by other citizens, which included protection of private property, enforcement of contracts and common law
• Building and maintaining public institutions
• Public works that included a stable currency, standard weights and measures and building and upkeep of roads, canals, harbors, railways, communications and postal services.

I would also throw in a few other items, such as educational opportunities via universal school choice and vouchers.  And when it comes to reproductive choice issues, I believe those decisions are much better made by individuals rather than the government.

So, if the belief by certain campaigns is that I am a liberal, they are absolutely right. As someone who believes in free markets, free trade, school choice, etc. I am the biggest liberal in the universe, in the classic sense of the word.

And as we all know, classic never goes out of style.

Here is the video stream for the upcoming U.S. Senate Republican primary debate.

In this edition of Indiana Issues, we discuss the upcoming Republican U.S. Senate debate, the tone of the campaign as well as Mr. Joe Hosgett’s State of the City address. Our panel includes Republican Joey Fox, Democrat Lara Beck, Libertarian Brad Klopfenstein and Eric Berman of WIBC

The following is a message for  Indiana Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Todd Rokita, regarding the upcoming April 30 U.S. Senate debate.

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Dear Todd,

Hi, Todd.  It’s Abdul.  You know, the guy you’ve known for 14 years who covered you when you were Secretary of State and as Congressman from the 4th Congressional District.  Of course, you remember.

Well, I’m writing this because apparently there’s been an issue between us that needs to be resolved regarding the upcoming April 30 debate, hosted by the very non-partisan the Indiana Debate Commission and moderated by yours truly.

Originally you declined their invitation to participate in the debate.   Honestly, I’m not sure why because the reasons kept changing. First, it was you didn’t want to participate in a debate hosted by the “liberal media” and “liberal college professors.”  Then the reason given for not participating was that, my friends at WISH-TV notwithstanding, that these debates should either be done by trusted conservatives or Republican organizations.  And then that changed because of “political ties” to one of the other campaigns, I lost track after a while.   Regardless, I am glad you are participating because I genuinely believe Hoosiers deserve to see all three of the candidates on stage so they can measure them up and make an informed decision.

However, despite your decision to participate, I can tell there is still some tension there as evidenced by your campaign’s most recent headline, “Todd Rokita to Debate Messer, Braun, Shabazz in IDC Debate.”    While I’m flattered your staff thinks I would be a great U.S. Senate candidate and worthy opponent,  I can assure you I am not on the ballot.  The Lovely Mrs. Shabazz vetoed that a long time ago.  You, Luke and Mike are on the ballot and that’s who the debate should be between.  Getting into a debate with the moderator during the debate doesn’t serve anyone well and takes up valuable time from the candidates.  So to avoid that how about we do this?

How about you come on next Saturday’s radio show on WIBC, and you and I can chat (for an hour)  and in a very open and very public forum have a Festivus-style airing of grievances. So whatever issue you have with me you can get it out of your system and come April 30, the focus can be on the candidates, not the moderator.  My only condition is the only people in the studio will be you and me, your staff can sit in the lobby or I can set them up in another studio to listen. Since the issue is between you and me, the two people in the room should be you and me.  If you’re up for that, let me know by Thursday.  This way, when we all show up on April 30, any issue you have with me won’t be an issue anymore because whatever that issue was won’t be an issue anymore, n’est-ce pas?

You know how to get ahold of me.  I eagerly await your response.

Give my best to Kathy and the boys,

Abdul

In the first episode of Indiana Issues, we take a look at the U.S. Senate primary, the upcoming special session of the legislature and the latest from Washington D.C.

Our panel includes Democrat Kip Tew, Republican Kyle Walker, Libertarian Mark Rutherford and former Indy Star reporter Mary Beth Schneider.

(Indiana Issues was recorded at Edge Media Studios in downtown Indianapolis.)

It’s official; the May primary election season is here and in full swing. And unfortunately, you are about to be inundated with television ads, campaign mailers and phone calls to convince you that you must vote for one candidate in order to save the Republic or you must vote against another candidate in order to save the Republic. I feel your pain.

So with that basic premise, I’ve decided to scribble down a few “rules” things that candidates should try to follow. With a little bit of luck, it will make their lives a lot easier and spare them some embarrassing moments, but more importantly, it will make the voters lives easier and spare them the grief of having to watch those embarrassing moments.

Drum roll, please.

1. Don’t tell me how you oppose the Trump agenda. Because to be honest, I think some of you are so blinded by your hatred of Donald Trump that he could propose universal health care, free college tuition and birth control, and massive regulations and raise taxes on the wealthy, and you would still oppose him because his name was Trump.

2. Don’t tell me how you support the Trump agenda. Because to be frank, I don’t think many of you fully understand it. If you did, you wouldn’t support tariffs that at the end of the day end up hurting Indiana pork and soybean producers because the Chinese will retaliate and impose their own tariffs on American products.

3. Don’t tell me about your religion. I can respect you being a person of faith, but what does that have to do whether cutting taxes will help create jobs in a universe of 3.5 percent unemployment?

4. When you say you’re “pro-family,” what exactly does that mean? Families come in all shapes, sizes, and colors so do you have a preference? And to be honest, I always thought the best pro-family policies were the ones that let families keep their own money and make their own decisions (including whether to create a family) with as little government intervention as possible.

5. I really don’t care that your family has been here since Indiana was part of the Northwest Territory if anything that means you never left. And if you’ve never left, you have no idea what life is like in outside world which frightens me even more.

6. Don’t tell me we need to “cut the fat” and end “wasteful spending” give me details, particularly cuts that will impact your constituents. It’s easy to point out everyone else’s wasteful spending, but what pet projects are in your district are willing to go without?

7. I know the other candidate is bad, now tell me why you’re good. Yes, the other guy is a RINO (Republican in name only) or DINO (Democrat in name only) and they don’t represent true conservative/progressive values. We’ve established that. Now let’s talk about you.

8. Don’t insult my intelligence. I am willing to be money I’m a lot smarter than you, and if you don’t believe me, let’s sit down for a one on one interview so I can clearly demonstrate it to you.

9. Stay in your lane. If you’re running for township trustee, talk to me about how you plan to stop wasting my money doing a job at an unnecessary level of government. Don’t tell me how you support building a border wall 2,000 miles away from your township boundary lines.

10. Act like an adult and don’t talk to the voters like they are children. They are a lot smarter than you think they are, they usually don’t have a lot to pick from on the ballot.

There are a lot of other things I could add; don’t blame the media for your screw-ups, don’t try to say you’re an outsider even though you’ve been on the government dole since the late 1990s. And if government is such a horrible, evil thing, don’t go on ad nauseum telling me why you want the job.

But I decided to limit it only to ten items. I could have included a lot more. Unfortunately, there is not that much space in the cloud for all the rules I would need to write to bring some sense of sanity to the insanity that is coming this primary season.

In politics, a day is like a lifetime, so making predictions can be a little tricky.  However, with that said, I think we can all agree that by looking at recent elections across the country that, it’s fair to say that something is coming, it just depends on how prepared Indiana Republicans and Democrats are ready to deal with it.

In this past week’s special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, which Donald Trump won by 20 points and the Republican who previously held the seat ran unopposed in the last couple of elections, Democrat Conor Lamb beat Republican Rick Saccone by less than 700 votes.   A narrow victory, yes.  But it’s also one expert say should have never have occurred.   According to The Hill, since Donald Trump got elected President, there were 100 special elections, Democrats flipped seats in 18 of them, the biggest being Doug Jones in Alabama.  Republicans took three spots they did not have before.

But can that happen here in Indiana, where Trump won by 20 points over Hillary Clinton?  The answer, it depends on who you ask.

“The money raised by Democratic candidates in the 3rd and 9th shows some momentum for Democrats in Indiana, “ said Andy Downs of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. “ Victories by the Democrats likely will require new alliances; bringing some moderate to conservative voters back or over to the Democratic side; and activating many new voters, volunteers, and workers.”

A new Cook political report shows that Republicans could be vulnerable in several  Congressional Districts based on the results of the Pennsylvania special elections.   PA 18 was ranked as the 124th most partisan district in the nation.  According to that same report, there are 6th Indiana congressional districts that are less partisan,  the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 9th. This has added fuel for the Democrats that based on the current political climate; they may have a chance at recapturing a seat or two.

Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer was quick to dismiss any notion of a blue wave hitting the political shores of Indiana.  “The ‘blue wave’ is a media-driven myth. While it might rise a few tides in already Democrat-controlled coastal states, any ripples will be met with a firewall in Indiana. The reason? We field better candidates with superior ideas, and we consistently deliver positive results that improve the lives of Hoosiers. Democrat hopes to the contrary are pure fantasy. They should stop watching MSNBC.”

Downs noted that despite that talk of a wave,  Indiana Democrats still have a lot of work to do.   “While the races in Alabama and Pennsylvania have shown that Democrats could be in for good years, I think it is important to remember the size of the efforts that had to be put into those races.  It probably is not realistic to think that the Democrats can put that sort of effort into every race that looks competitive in 2018.  This brings up the question of whether or not the Democrats in the 3rd and 9th can move up enough in the viability rankings to receive the support.”

One thing both sides seem to agree on, is the U.S. Senate race will be the dominant factor driving November, and both sides took shots at each other.

“The “GOP’s nastiest Senate primary” is still little more than a laughable series of boasts, as career politician Congressman Rokita preens about non-existent outsider credentials, Rep. Braun crows about his business record while profiting off Chinese parts, and noted Virginian Congressman Messer touts his ties to Indiana,  said Mike Feldman of the Indiana Democratic Party.  “With less than two months to go until the primary, all three men continue to prove that they’re deeply flawed candidates better at throwing mud at each other then they are discussing issues that actually matter to voters. No one knows who the winner will be in May, but we know what he’ll look like: bruised, broke, out-of-touch and unacceptable to the majority of Hoosiers.”

“Every indication suggests that Hoosiers are not happy with Senator Donnelly, a do-nothing Senator who’s spent over a decade in Washington without passing a single bill, “ said Michael Joyce, RNC Spokesman.  “Donnelly has obstructed every major legislative priority of the Trump-Pence agenda, and recent polling shows that Hoosiers approve of the tax cuts and President Trump’s economy. Every state and election is unique, but Indiana clearly wants a new Senator who will do more than simply obstruct and resist at the request of Chuck Schumer.”

“As the Democrats continue to prioritize their spending throughout the campaign season, how quickly will they pull support and throw it behind other candidates?  This question will be incredibly important to Democratic candidates in Indiana, “ Downs said.

Todd Rokita goes on WIBC’s Hammer and Nigel Show to explain his decision to concede the stage to opponents Mike Braun and Luke Messer and skip the April 30th U.S. Senate debate sponsored by the non-partisan Indiana Debate Commission.

Click Here to Listen

Indiana Barrister author and attorney Abdul-Hakim Shabazz will moderate the televised Republican U.S. Senate debate on April 30, hosted by the Indiana Debate Commission.

The announcement was made Friday.

Congressman Luke Messer and former State Representative Mike Braun will participate in the debate.  Congressman Todd Rokita’s campaign declined.

The news release from the debate commission is below…

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Republican U.S. Senate candidates Mike Braun and Luke Messer have agreed to debate April 30 in a televised statewide event organized by the independent Indiana Debate Commission.

Braun, an auto parts distributor and former state representative, and Messer, a U.S. representative, will debate in a studio at public television station WFYI in Indianapolis from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT. The debate will be made available to television stations and other news organizations throughout the state, including by live video streaming online.

U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, a third candidate who will be on the May 8 primary ballot, has declined the IDC’s invitation to debate. His campaign manager, Bryan Reed, cited scheduling conflicts and specified that Rokita will participate only in primary debates “organized and moderated by conservative Republicans.”

Rokita becomes the first candidate in the commission’s 10-year history to decline to participate in one of its debates.

“We are very pleased that two candidates have agreed to this debate, but we are equally disappointed that one has opted to decline,” said IDC President Gerry Lanosga.

“A contested primary should be heavily vetted by Hoosier voters and not by partisans, party officials or special interest groups,” Lanosga said. “A neutral option, such as one offered by the Indiana Debate Commission, makes the most sense.”

The moderator, in a format to be determined, will be Abdul Hakim-Shabazz, an Indiana politics blogger, radio host and attorney.

Voters will have the opportunity to submit questions that will be considered for the debate. Questions may be submitted through the IDC’s website at www.indianadebatecommission.com starting on a date to be announced later. The commission also will conduct televised debates during the general election campaign season this fall.

Media contact: media@indianadebatecommission.com