Candidates Attend GOP Fish Fry
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
There also were candidates for local and state races and the 3rd Congressional District.
The fish fry has been a Kosciusko County Republican Party tradition for over 30 years, according to Party Chairman Randall Girod. Precinct committeeman Ron Shoemaker said they serve 400 to 450 pounds of Alaskan Pollock and there’s usually 600 to 800 people at the event.
“It seems to be steady (over the years),” Shoemaker said. “When we have a national election, we have more people interested. These are dedicated Republicans.”
District 18 State Sen. Randy Head is considering running for the state attorney general position in 2016. He said he will be on the ballot for state senate. District 18 includes seven Kosciusko townships, mostly in the southern part of the county.
“We need to fight federal overreach and the attorney general is in position to do that,” Head said.
An example of that overreach, he said, is the “Waters of the U.S. Rule,” which says anything navigable is under federal jurisdiction including a half mile on either side of the waterway.
Head said he was drawn to run for state attorney general because he was a deputy prosecutor, trying over 20 murder trials and 100 jury trials. As a state senator, he said, “I turned a lot of bills in the state senate for prosecutors and the attorney general’s office.”
As the attorney general, Head said he would look out for crime victims, farmers and the Second Amendment.
“We need to assert our state sovereignty,” Head said. “As the attorney general, I will fight for that tooth and nail. Every time the federal government asserts its power, it takes power away from the state.”
He said the attorney general’s election could be a race next year as several others were interested in the position, including Steve Carter, who was at Wednesday’s fish fry.
“I have an exploratory committee in place and I am out talking to Republicans, seeing if there’s support for my effort. I was attorney general in the past from 2001 to 2009,” Carter said.
His chief deputy, Greg Zoeller, succeeded him. Zoeller is running for congress so the attorney general’s position will be open in 2017.
“The attorney general’s in a unique position dealing with consumer protection issues. That’s very important to me,” Carter said. “When I was in office, we passed the nation’s strongest Do Not Call law that protects people from telemarketers. The other advantage that has is that it helps senior citizens because when you get those numbers out of the automatic calling programs, that prevents some fraudsters from calling seniors. So telephone privacy is important to me. Privacy in general is important.”
Carter said he wants to address technological changes in society.
“I also have a history of working with the legislature. I worked to go after gas price-gougers after the attacks of 9/11,” he said. “I walked into my office one day and a staffer said, ‘Gosh, there’s $5 gasoline.’ We did an investigation, we got refunds to consumers.”
The attorney general handles the unclaimed property division, which Carter said now returns over $50 million a year to Indiana citizens. When he first took office, that number was less than $10 million.
Indiana 3rd District Congressman Marlin Stutzman is running to succeed retiring Sen. Dan Coats, leaving the 3rd District seat open.
One of the candidates for the 3rd District is Pam Galloway, a retired surgeon from Warsaw. She said she is running for office to “dismantle Obamacare, defend the Second Amendment and protect life, faith, family and country.”
“The message has been resonating very well throughout the district,” Galloway said.
Previously, she served in the Wisconsin State Senate where she helped former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with passing collective bargaining reform and sponsored the concealed carry bill.
Asked what makes her a better candidate than her opponents, Galloway said, “I’m a doctor so I bring a unique set of skills ... and I’m not a politician. I’m not going to Washington to make friends or make a career out of it.”
She said she would “do this for awhile and then go back into the private sector, though I don’t plan to go back into medicine.”
Liz Brown also is running for the 3rd District. She lives in Fort Wayne and was on that city’s council. She is the state senator for District 15.
“I think it’s time for conservative leadership in Washington,” Brown said.
She said Indiana needs to send people who care to Washington to solve the country’s problems. Obama and the Affordable Care Act has been a job killer over the past eight years, she said.
“We need to keep Washington out of the state and local government,” she said.
Jack Wilhite and Cindy Dobbins face Democrat Dave Baumgartner in the November election for the Warsaw city council at-large seats. Dobbins is currently on the council, and Wilhite hopes to land Elaine Call’s seat as Call is not running for re-election.
“I just wanted to give back to the community,” Wilhite said of why he’s running.
Living in the Warsaw community all his life, Wilhite said it’s a good place to live and raise kids and it’s safe. When he saw who else was running for the at-large seats, he said he figured he could do as good of a job as they.
Wilhite’s background is in the manufacturing industry, working at Biomet. No one currently on the city council has that background, he said.
He’s also been a Republican all his life. “My great-grandmother used to give silverware to her grandkids if they were Republican or not. That was a big thing back then,” Wilhite said.
Tony Ciriello recently became the county coroner after Mike Wilson resigned and a caucus was held to replace Wilson. The term expires at the end of 2016, but Ciriello said he plans to run for re-election next year.
He’s served as deputy coroner 22 years, but being the head coroner is a change as it brings new responsibilities for him, he said, adding, “But it’s nothing new I haven’t done before.”
The “heart-wrenching” aspect of being the coroner is going to knock on someone’s door to tell them their loved one is gone, he said.
The coroner has four deputies.
Ciriello resigned as Syracuse police chief before becoming coroner.
“I’m still involved in KYLA, Breakfast Optimists, Syracuse Rotary, Big Brothers Big Sisters – I’m an ambassador for them. I have a lot to keep me busy, but I have a commitment to community service that I will never give up. Being the coroner is an extension of that,” Ciriello said.
Joanna King, Middlebury, is running for the Indiana Senate District 12 seat, currently held by Carlin Yoder, which includes Turkey Creek Township in Kosciusko. She was elected to the Middlebury Community’s school board twice.
“There’s a group of people in my hometown in Middlebury who came to me and said, ‘We need you to run. We like what you’ve done here on our local level and we want you to run at the state level.’ So they asked me in February and it took me until July to say yes and here we are today,” King said.
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There also were candidates for local and state races and the 3rd Congressional District.
The fish fry has been a Kosciusko County Republican Party tradition for over 30 years, according to Party Chairman Randall Girod. Precinct committeeman Ron Shoemaker said they serve 400 to 450 pounds of Alaskan Pollock and there’s usually 600 to 800 people at the event.
“It seems to be steady (over the years),” Shoemaker said. “When we have a national election, we have more people interested. These are dedicated Republicans.”
District 18 State Sen. Randy Head is considering running for the state attorney general position in 2016. He said he will be on the ballot for state senate. District 18 includes seven Kosciusko townships, mostly in the southern part of the county.
“We need to fight federal overreach and the attorney general is in position to do that,” Head said.
An example of that overreach, he said, is the “Waters of the U.S. Rule,” which says anything navigable is under federal jurisdiction including a half mile on either side of the waterway.
Head said he was drawn to run for state attorney general because he was a deputy prosecutor, trying over 20 murder trials and 100 jury trials. As a state senator, he said, “I turned a lot of bills in the state senate for prosecutors and the attorney general’s office.”
As the attorney general, Head said he would look out for crime victims, farmers and the Second Amendment.
“We need to assert our state sovereignty,” Head said. “As the attorney general, I will fight for that tooth and nail. Every time the federal government asserts its power, it takes power away from the state.”
He said the attorney general’s election could be a race next year as several others were interested in the position, including Steve Carter, who was at Wednesday’s fish fry.
“I have an exploratory committee in place and I am out talking to Republicans, seeing if there’s support for my effort. I was attorney general in the past from 2001 to 2009,” Carter said.
His chief deputy, Greg Zoeller, succeeded him. Zoeller is running for congress so the attorney general’s position will be open in 2017.
“The attorney general’s in a unique position dealing with consumer protection issues. That’s very important to me,” Carter said. “When I was in office, we passed the nation’s strongest Do Not Call law that protects people from telemarketers. The other advantage that has is that it helps senior citizens because when you get those numbers out of the automatic calling programs, that prevents some fraudsters from calling seniors. So telephone privacy is important to me. Privacy in general is important.”
Carter said he wants to address technological changes in society.
“I also have a history of working with the legislature. I worked to go after gas price-gougers after the attacks of 9/11,” he said. “I walked into my office one day and a staffer said, ‘Gosh, there’s $5 gasoline.’ We did an investigation, we got refunds to consumers.”
The attorney general handles the unclaimed property division, which Carter said now returns over $50 million a year to Indiana citizens. When he first took office, that number was less than $10 million.
Indiana 3rd District Congressman Marlin Stutzman is running to succeed retiring Sen. Dan Coats, leaving the 3rd District seat open.
One of the candidates for the 3rd District is Pam Galloway, a retired surgeon from Warsaw. She said she is running for office to “dismantle Obamacare, defend the Second Amendment and protect life, faith, family and country.”
“The message has been resonating very well throughout the district,” Galloway said.
Previously, she served in the Wisconsin State Senate where she helped former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with passing collective bargaining reform and sponsored the concealed carry bill.
Asked what makes her a better candidate than her opponents, Galloway said, “I’m a doctor so I bring a unique set of skills ... and I’m not a politician. I’m not going to Washington to make friends or make a career out of it.”
She said she would “do this for awhile and then go back into the private sector, though I don’t plan to go back into medicine.”
Liz Brown also is running for the 3rd District. She lives in Fort Wayne and was on that city’s council. She is the state senator for District 15.
“I think it’s time for conservative leadership in Washington,” Brown said.
She said Indiana needs to send people who care to Washington to solve the country’s problems. Obama and the Affordable Care Act has been a job killer over the past eight years, she said.
“We need to keep Washington out of the state and local government,” she said.
Jack Wilhite and Cindy Dobbins face Democrat Dave Baumgartner in the November election for the Warsaw city council at-large seats. Dobbins is currently on the council, and Wilhite hopes to land Elaine Call’s seat as Call is not running for re-election.
“I just wanted to give back to the community,” Wilhite said of why he’s running.
Living in the Warsaw community all his life, Wilhite said it’s a good place to live and raise kids and it’s safe. When he saw who else was running for the at-large seats, he said he figured he could do as good of a job as they.
Wilhite’s background is in the manufacturing industry, working at Biomet. No one currently on the city council has that background, he said.
He’s also been a Republican all his life. “My great-grandmother used to give silverware to her grandkids if they were Republican or not. That was a big thing back then,” Wilhite said.
Tony Ciriello recently became the county coroner after Mike Wilson resigned and a caucus was held to replace Wilson. The term expires at the end of 2016, but Ciriello said he plans to run for re-election next year.
He’s served as deputy coroner 22 years, but being the head coroner is a change as it brings new responsibilities for him, he said, adding, “But it’s nothing new I haven’t done before.”
The “heart-wrenching” aspect of being the coroner is going to knock on someone’s door to tell them their loved one is gone, he said.
The coroner has four deputies.
Ciriello resigned as Syracuse police chief before becoming coroner.
“I’m still involved in KYLA, Breakfast Optimists, Syracuse Rotary, Big Brothers Big Sisters – I’m an ambassador for them. I have a lot to keep me busy, but I have a commitment to community service that I will never give up. Being the coroner is an extension of that,” Ciriello said.
Joanna King, Middlebury, is running for the Indiana Senate District 12 seat, currently held by Carlin Yoder, which includes Turkey Creek Township in Kosciusko. She was elected to the Middlebury Community’s school board twice.
“There’s a group of people in my hometown in Middlebury who came to me and said, ‘We need you to run. We like what you’ve done here on our local level and we want you to run at the state level.’ So they asked me in February and it took me until July to say yes and here we are today,” King said.
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