Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Former Democratic Lawmaker: Ritz Should Bow Out Of Governor's Race

Dave Crooks / Facebook

The private worries of many Indiana Democrats about the 2016 governor’s race are beginning to become public.

For weeks, party insiders have worried on social media and in whispers to confidants that the party doesn’t have a good enough candidate to win the state’s top office next year.

Now, former state lawmaker and congressional candidate Dave Crooks says the latest entrant into the race should bow out.

Crooks says he thinks Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz is too liberal to win next year’s gubernatorial contest.

Crooks is backing 2012 nominee John Gregg. Both are from Southern Indiana and they served together in the Indiana House when Gregg was Speaker.

Some Democrats are worried the party’s best possible candidates aren’t running at all, and the three who currently are don’t inspire enough voters to topple Mike Pence.

Gregg ran a lackluster campaign three years ago and has flip-flopped his stance on one of the party’s key issues, gay marriage. Ritz risks becoming pigeonholed as a “one-issue candidate” who’s running because of a feud with Pence on education issues. And State Sen. Karen Tallian (D-Portage) has taken heat for being too liberal, including her push to legalize marijuana in Indiana.

Related Content