GOP Candidates Seek To Shake Up The System
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Jeff Petermann is up against incumbent Jackie Walorski for the nomination for the Dist. 2 U.S. Representative seat. The Republican winner then will face the Democratic nominee, either Douglas Carpenter or Lynn C. Coleman.
“I’m running against Jackie because she has said a whole lot of things and has not followed through on them. And, quite frankly, a lot of people aren’t aware of her voting record because they have taken what she’s said at face value. I’m not here to assess her character in any way, all I’m trying to do is push people back to look at how she’s voted and match it up with is she conservative or not,” Petermann said.
He said he’s “100 percent” invested in protecting the lives of the “pre-born” in “every single situation.”
“I’m a 100 percent, zero exception candidate,” Petermann stated. “Jackie voted for the Omnibus Bill that fully funded Planned Parenthood at current levels, and she took her name off the Pain-Capable Bill, which resulted in its demise.”
He continued, “I think that’s absolutely disgusting to say that you’re a conservative and then vote against life twice.”
Petermann said he’s also in the race to “shrink government in every way possible and to defend and enforce the Constitution.”
As for his background, he said he was the chair of the Libertarian Party in Elkhart County for nine months, but otherwise has been a lifelong Republican. He’s been a national blogger for LibertyConservatives.com for the last 1-1/2 years.
When no one threw their hat in the ring to challenge Walorski, Petermann said he felt she couldn’t go unchallenged because she was saying “so many different things and voting another way,” so he decided to run for the 2nd District.
He stated he’s also for getting government “out of all marriage.”
On national security issues like the terrorist group ISIS, Petermann said, “I don’t think, and I think Benjamin Franklin would agree with me, that you can ever trade our freedoms for security, our liberties for security, and that’s exactly what Jackie’s saying we need to do. Every chance she has had, she’s voted to increase the dollars and the scope of the NSA and the FBI. And quite frankly, a lot of those programs that she’s been talking about have never found or even had chatter about any type of a terrorist event. So, the more we give the government, government’s not known for letting things go later when thing’s are OK, and Jackie seems to think that we just need to continue to grow, grow government and spend our kids’ future away, and I just absolutely think it’s a travesty.”
At the state level, former two-term (2001-08) Attorney General Steve Carter is seeking a return to that position this election year. The Republican nominee for attorney general will be selected this summer by delegates to the Indiana Republican State Convention, according to nwitimes.com
“There are three issues I want to help protect Hoosiers on,” Carter said at Wednesday’s fish fry. “First of all, protect their privacy, that’s why we did the Do Not Call law when I was the attorney general. We need to work on that some more. We have new threats to our privacy – data breaches, we see that all the time. Kids live their lives online, they’re subject to that kind of scams.”
He said he wanted to protect Hoosiers’ right to religious expression in the public square.
“That’s why when I was attorney general I fought to keep the Ten Commandments posted in our public settings. I also fought to maintain legislative prayer. We were sued to stop legislative prayer before a session’s opened. Because we prevailed in that lawsuit, our cities, our counties and our state legislatures can still open sessions with prayer,” he stated.
He also wants to focus on public corruption, including making sure the voting process is honest.
“We pursued that in East Chicago. There was 46 vote convictions that the local prosecutor invited us in (on). The attorney general is not a prosecutor, but if the local prosecutor invites you in, you can work with them. We did that,” Carter said. “Why is that important to people in Kosciusko County? It’s because I don’t want a dishonest vote in another county – northern Lake County, maybe – to cancel out an honest vote here in Warsaw and Kosciusko County.”
He said consumers need to be educated about all the risks that are out regarding their privacy.
“There’s nothing that can be more effective in stopping scams than having a well-educated consumer. The attorney general’s office can help with that education,” he said.
Republican Dawn Wooten wants to become the next Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, currently occupied by Democrat Glenda Ritz. The Republican candidate for superintendent, like other state-level officers, will be voted on by the delegates at the Republican state convention June 11. The other Republican candidate for superintendent is Jennifer McCormick.
“I worked hard against Common Core in 2014. I spoke in the Senate in 2013. I was on the panel that helped rewrite the standards in 2014, and during that process I was the only conservative on either panel, English or math. I can tell you from that experience, we still have Common Core in this state. They just named it something else. So I am really motivated to get rid of that,” she said.
Wooten said she’s also running because she is a conservative Republican.
“I believe in fiscal responsibility,” she said. “Our budget can be cut to the point where we no longer need federal funding. That way we’re not tied to Common Core, which also, by the way, is in ESSA, they just call it College and Career Ready Standards, but it’s still Common Core.”
Once the state gets out from underneath federal money, she said, it then can be out from underneath Common Core and the state “can do whatever standards we want, we can use whatever textbooks we want.”
She agrees with getting rid of ISTEP testing because it’s a terrible test, she said. “Any teacher can tell you that,” she said.
Her fear is that the committee being put together to find a replacement test for ISTEP will go with the PARCC, “which is just another Common Core test,” she said. “I don’t want them to replace ISTEP with another Common Core test, then we’ve gotten nowhere. What I want them to use is something called Northwest Education Association. A large percentage of our schools already use it in addition to ISTEP. It’s better, it’s cheaper, it’s faster and we get instantaneous results.”
Wooten said if she’s the Republican candidate in the November general election, and beats Ritz, she will do better than Ritz because she has business experience. The superintendent’s job is primarily administrative, and Wooten said she has a degree in business management and spent 10 years in business. While Ritz is a “bright lady,” Wooten said Ritz didn’t have the experience necessary and “I think it kind of shocked her.”[[In-content Ad]]
Jeff Petermann is up against incumbent Jackie Walorski for the nomination for the Dist. 2 U.S. Representative seat. The Republican winner then will face the Democratic nominee, either Douglas Carpenter or Lynn C. Coleman.
“I’m running against Jackie because she has said a whole lot of things and has not followed through on them. And, quite frankly, a lot of people aren’t aware of her voting record because they have taken what she’s said at face value. I’m not here to assess her character in any way, all I’m trying to do is push people back to look at how she’s voted and match it up with is she conservative or not,” Petermann said.
He said he’s “100 percent” invested in protecting the lives of the “pre-born” in “every single situation.”
“I’m a 100 percent, zero exception candidate,” Petermann stated. “Jackie voted for the Omnibus Bill that fully funded Planned Parenthood at current levels, and she took her name off the Pain-Capable Bill, which resulted in its demise.”
He continued, “I think that’s absolutely disgusting to say that you’re a conservative and then vote against life twice.”
Petermann said he’s also in the race to “shrink government in every way possible and to defend and enforce the Constitution.”
As for his background, he said he was the chair of the Libertarian Party in Elkhart County for nine months, but otherwise has been a lifelong Republican. He’s been a national blogger for LibertyConservatives.com for the last 1-1/2 years.
When no one threw their hat in the ring to challenge Walorski, Petermann said he felt she couldn’t go unchallenged because she was saying “so many different things and voting another way,” so he decided to run for the 2nd District.
He stated he’s also for getting government “out of all marriage.”
On national security issues like the terrorist group ISIS, Petermann said, “I don’t think, and I think Benjamin Franklin would agree with me, that you can ever trade our freedoms for security, our liberties for security, and that’s exactly what Jackie’s saying we need to do. Every chance she has had, she’s voted to increase the dollars and the scope of the NSA and the FBI. And quite frankly, a lot of those programs that she’s been talking about have never found or even had chatter about any type of a terrorist event. So, the more we give the government, government’s not known for letting things go later when thing’s are OK, and Jackie seems to think that we just need to continue to grow, grow government and spend our kids’ future away, and I just absolutely think it’s a travesty.”
At the state level, former two-term (2001-08) Attorney General Steve Carter is seeking a return to that position this election year. The Republican nominee for attorney general will be selected this summer by delegates to the Indiana Republican State Convention, according to nwitimes.com
“There are three issues I want to help protect Hoosiers on,” Carter said at Wednesday’s fish fry. “First of all, protect their privacy, that’s why we did the Do Not Call law when I was the attorney general. We need to work on that some more. We have new threats to our privacy – data breaches, we see that all the time. Kids live their lives online, they’re subject to that kind of scams.”
He said he wanted to protect Hoosiers’ right to religious expression in the public square.
“That’s why when I was attorney general I fought to keep the Ten Commandments posted in our public settings. I also fought to maintain legislative prayer. We were sued to stop legislative prayer before a session’s opened. Because we prevailed in that lawsuit, our cities, our counties and our state legislatures can still open sessions with prayer,” he stated.
He also wants to focus on public corruption, including making sure the voting process is honest.
“We pursued that in East Chicago. There was 46 vote convictions that the local prosecutor invited us in (on). The attorney general is not a prosecutor, but if the local prosecutor invites you in, you can work with them. We did that,” Carter said. “Why is that important to people in Kosciusko County? It’s because I don’t want a dishonest vote in another county – northern Lake County, maybe – to cancel out an honest vote here in Warsaw and Kosciusko County.”
He said consumers need to be educated about all the risks that are out regarding their privacy.
“There’s nothing that can be more effective in stopping scams than having a well-educated consumer. The attorney general’s office can help with that education,” he said.
Republican Dawn Wooten wants to become the next Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, currently occupied by Democrat Glenda Ritz. The Republican candidate for superintendent, like other state-level officers, will be voted on by the delegates at the Republican state convention June 11. The other Republican candidate for superintendent is Jennifer McCormick.
“I worked hard against Common Core in 2014. I spoke in the Senate in 2013. I was on the panel that helped rewrite the standards in 2014, and during that process I was the only conservative on either panel, English or math. I can tell you from that experience, we still have Common Core in this state. They just named it something else. So I am really motivated to get rid of that,” she said.
Wooten said she’s also running because she is a conservative Republican.
“I believe in fiscal responsibility,” she said. “Our budget can be cut to the point where we no longer need federal funding. That way we’re not tied to Common Core, which also, by the way, is in ESSA, they just call it College and Career Ready Standards, but it’s still Common Core.”
Once the state gets out from underneath federal money, she said, it then can be out from underneath Common Core and the state “can do whatever standards we want, we can use whatever textbooks we want.”
She agrees with getting rid of ISTEP testing because it’s a terrible test, she said. “Any teacher can tell you that,” she said.
Her fear is that the committee being put together to find a replacement test for ISTEP will go with the PARCC, “which is just another Common Core test,” she said. “I don’t want them to replace ISTEP with another Common Core test, then we’ve gotten nowhere. What I want them to use is something called Northwest Education Association. A large percentage of our schools already use it in addition to ISTEP. It’s better, it’s cheaper, it’s faster and we get instantaneous results.”
Wooten said if she’s the Republican candidate in the November general election, and beats Ritz, she will do better than Ritz because she has business experience. The superintendent’s job is primarily administrative, and Wooten said she has a degree in business management and spent 10 years in business. While Ritz is a “bright lady,” Wooten said Ritz didn’t have the experience necessary and “I think it kind of shocked her.”[[In-content Ad]]
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