Republican Mike Braun, Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater laid out their plans if they were to become governor in back-to-back debates Wednesday and Thursday.
The first debate hosted by FOX59/CBS4, which only included Braun and McCormick, focused on the state’s local issues: including property taxes, utility rates and Indiana’s education system. The two exchanged blows over each issue, but several stood out.
Braun undercut McCormick, the former Republican State Superintendent of Public Instruction, on teacher pay. While McCormick said she supported raising teachers’ minimum starting salaries to $60,000, Braun said that was “too modest.”
He didn’t give very many specifics on how he would achieve greater salaries but said it would involve running the education system more efficiently. Current minimums sit at $40,000, though several districts aren’t reaching that number.
Night two on WISH-TV had Rainwater and Braun criticize McCormick’s record as state superintendent and covered Indiana’s school voucher program, which McCormick said the state needs to seriously investigate. Both Braun and Rainwater said they supported the system, with Braun saying that it wasn’t a “zero-sum game” and that both public and private schools can benefit from the system. Voucher enrollment jumped more than 30% last school year, costing $439 million in taxpayer funds.
On abortion, the candidates argued about Indiana’s near-total abortion ban, which was one of the first passed in the nation after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Braun said that the current law is based on constituent input to the legislature, and that “we have a bill that works for Hoosiers.”
McCormick supports overturning Indiana’s ban and returning to the standards of Roe v. Wade. Broadly, this decision disallowed regulations on abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, allowed regulations related to maternal health in the second trimester and allowed regulations or prohibitions on abortion in the third trimester, with exceptions for the life or health of the mother.
Rainwater, who is personally pro-life, didn’t offer many specifics on his stance. He instead said that if there’s a constitutional issue, the judiciary would handle it, and if Hoosiers had issues, the legislature would handle it. An Owen County judge ruled against challenges to the ban last month.
All three candidates raised their hands on a question Thursday of wanting to reduce Indiana’s property taxes, though they did disagree on specifics.
McCormick’s plan focuses largely on reducing income taxes to loosen the load on local government — which could see spending cuts if property taxes are cut. Rainwater’s plan would freeze the tax rates at purchase and end them after seven years. Braun’s plan calls for a 60% homestead deduction and for frozen tax rates.
She also criticized several revisions of Braun’s digitally altered ad of McCormick showing her in front of a crowd holding signs saying “No gas stoves!” which was pulled from circulation and re-released with disclaimers. The ads were originally submitted without disclaimers. In the first debate, McCormick pressed Braun about the ads but received no apology.
Candidates broadly agreed that there needed to be some path forward to marijuana legalization — already done in three of four states on Indiana’s border. McCormick said that the state needed to start with legalized medical marijuana first, then pivot to recreational.
Braun said he thinks the state is open to medical at this point, and said he would listen to law enforcement on future changes. Rainwater said he wants to see immediate legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana and expunge all nonviolent offenses related to it.
The race is still well in Braun’s favor based on polling, with Emerson College Polling/The Hill finding Braun up more than 10% with 13% undecided. The Indiana Daily Student will update on new reputable polls as they arrive.
