If you tell Paul Helmke, Fort Wayne mayor and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, he's in a "David and Goliath" battle against Democrat Evan Bayh - he'll just smile.

"David won," Helmke will respond.

Touting the message of returning power to local governments, reducing taxes and maintaining a strong national security establishment, Helmke completed a 35-city tour of the state Friday at the Kosciusko County courthouse.

"I'd like someone in Washington who understands what life is like at the local level," he said. "We need to bring power back to the people. Put it back in the local level.

"We also need to get rid of the excessive amount of taxes, that just doesn't make any sense," he added.

Chief among those are eliminating the marriage penalty in the tax code and reducing or eliminating the capital gains tax. He'd also like to see a revamping of the Internal Revenue Service and the adoption of a flat tax, Helmke said.

"The Internal Revenue Service is completely out of control. We need to make it easy, simpler and cheaper for people to understand and meet the tax obligations," he said.

He does not favor a move to a consumption, or national sales, tax, however, Helmke said.

"A consumption tax would be too much of a change for people," he said.

Helmke said the reaction he received from the voters of Indiana was heartening. Despite the long odds he faces running against a popular two-term governor, he is confident that through a hard-working campaign, he can prevail in November.

"It (voter reaction) has been real positive. My challenge is to meet as many people as I can. People aren't going to vote for you if they don't know you," he said. "I have good name recognition in the northeastern part of the state, but we need to work on the rest of Indiana."

Helmke is also facing the problem of an arms-distance approach from his own party's national organization. This is also due to the fact that Bayh is a well-known and popular ex-governor.

"I'd like more (GOP support). At the national level, they had this race as a toss-up when it was Dan Coats," he said. "With me, it's a 'wait-and-see' approach."

Despite being labeled a long-shot, Helmke still likes his chances, he was quick to add.

Although he has received criticism from Republicans over supporting some of President Clinton's policies, i.e., gun control and several administration budget proposals, and for his warm welcome to the U.S. Conference of Mayors last January in Washington D.C., Helmke said he doesn't believe that will have a detrimental effect come the fall election.

"I'm not the one who spent the night in the Lincoln Bedroom - Evan Bayh was. I'm not the one who said the president exemplifies strong Hoosier values - Evan Bayh did," he said. "Yes, I was polite to the president when I was in Washington. That's the way you're supposed to be when you in a man's home."

That visit to the White House last January has spurred some harsh feelings with Helmke, he said.

"The president lied to me face-to-face. He looked me in the eye and said there was nothing to the Monica Lewinsky allegations. We all heard what he had to say a couple of weeks ago," Helmke said, the ever-present smile briefly leaving his face.

"I don't like being lied to. The American people don't like being lied to," he said. "It's going to be hard for him to come back from that."

Before boarding his bus to return to Fort Wayne, Helmke urged the voters of Kosciusko County to show him the same support in November that they showed him in May.

"Kosciusko County gave me the widest margin of victory in the primary election of all the counties in the state," he said. "It doesn't matter if my opponent has more money than I do. Dollars don't vote. People do." [[In-content Ad]]