Election & Politics

The candidates vying to be Indiana’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction took the stage Wednesday night at Wabash College in Crawfordsville for an election forum.

Republican incumbent Tony Bennett believes in holding students, teachers and schools accountable. So he'll give his first term in office a "B." He says his only mistake has been allowing his opponents to paint him as a politician who wants to privatize schools.

Sharon Negele has served as Attica’s clerk-treasurer since 2003. She and her husband own Wolf’s Fine Chocolates. She nearly beat the House District 42 incumbent two years ago and is giving it another shot in the new district.

“I’m not a quitter and in some cases, I’ve been described as the bulldog," she says with a laugh. "I just won’t give up until I succeed.”

As an example of her persistence, Negele says she helped a neighboring town clean-up its finances even after the State Board of Accounts had given up trying.

GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock is trying to clarify comments he made during Tuesday’s second and final debate regarding abortion and rape. 

When asked his position on abortion rights, Mourdock said he only supports abortion in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.  He went on to say life is a gift from God.

“And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something that God intended to happen.”

In Indiana’s final U.S. Senate debate the candidates repeated their attacks on each other, while shifting their focus to issues of foreign policy and social security. 

Squaring off in Tuesday’s debate were Democrat Joe Donnelly and Republican Richard Mourdock, locked in a tight race with the balance of power in the U.S. Senate potentially in play. Libertarian Andrew Horning joined them to discuss foreign policy, Social Security and Medicare, and term limits for Congress. 

Republican Chuck Hockema grew up in Lafayette. He went through the Tippecanoe School Corporation and graduated from Purdue and then Brigham Young University Law School.

He says he has two major strengths that will serve him well as a state representative. The first is a background in business.

“We need substantive bills that are going to create that climate that everyone talks about for job growth," he says. "I have created jobs. I have created businesses here in Lafayette and West Lafayette. That’s definitely an area that’s going to be a big plus.”