For 90 minutes Monday evening, three of the six Republican candidates vying to be Indiana’s next governor answered 14 questions on a number of topics.

    The candidate forum for Indiana governor at the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center attracted over 160 attendees, with hundreds more watching through Facebook Live streaming. Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union
  

Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, businessman Eric Doden and former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill took part in the candidate forum on the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center stage before approximately 163 people in-person while hundreds more watched on the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook page where it was livestreamed.
For each question, asked by a panel of local media, candidates were allotted up to two minutes to answer.
One of the first questions was about improving transportation infrastructure across the state, and specifically if they supported U.S. 30 being converted into an interstate grade highway, from U.S. 49 to the Ohio state line.
Doden responded, “I absolutely support U.S. 30 being an interstate highway. It’s going to be one of our top priorities. When you look at this northern part of the state, and what this would do to connect Chicago all the way to Ohio, it would be absolutely a dramatic change for our entire northern part of the state.”
Anything dealing with transportation and infrastructure needs to begin with the energy policy, Hill said. “It’s very important that America regain and retain America’s energy independence and that we do so here in this state and we support our fossil fuel industries.”

    Former Indiana attorney general Curtis Hill responds to one of Monday night’s governor candidate forum questions. Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union
  

As for U.S. 30 becoming a freeway, he said he needs to study the issue. “We need to determine whether or not it’s sufficient to make that happen. I’m not going to come in here and say that’s a first priority for me. It’s not been a priority. It’s something that we will review and determine.”
Crouch talked about how infrastructure drives economic development.
“I have lived that when you invest in infrastructure, as was done with Major Moves, where the funding was put into place to improve I-69 and to build I-69 in the southern part of the state, it was an economic engine for southwest Indiana,” she said.
U.S. 30, Crouch stated, needs to have the same kind of investment and intention put to it. “When you have the most manufacturing intensive corridor in the country, right here, it needs to be developed, it needs to be supported and it needs to be under support the companies that are there, located along it, and grow new companies and new investments and new jobs,” she said.
Asked what can be done to curb the fentanyl problem in Indiana specifically, all three agreed that it started with better security at the border between the United States and Mexico.
“Beyond that, it’s a matter of understanding what our abilities are from a law enforcement standpoint,” Hill said. “I’m a former prosecutor, and I can tell you this: The vast majority of crime in any particular community is handled by or conducted by a very small percentage of people. And once you identify that small percentage of people, if you deal with them decisively, crime goes down and public safety goes up. ... It’s a matter of prioritizing your resources.”

    Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch is one of six Republican running for the party’s nomination to be Indiana’s next governor. Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union
  

Crouch promised, “As governor, I will continue to send our National Guard down to the border to help and to assist in that effort. But, what we also have to look at is keeping the borders of Indiana safe because today every state is a border state including Indiana, and so we need to look at how do we keep our borders safe, creating an initiative with our local agencies, our state agencies, so that we can be sure illegals are not getting into our state.”
Doden, agreeing that the border needed to be secured, said, “That’s why, as governor, I’ve said that we will send our troops to the border to help our other governors. If they will not solve this at the federal level, we will have to work together and solve it at the state level.”
At the state level, where the state has more control, he said they need to get the sheriff’s departments, local law enforcement and Indiana State Police to work together and have the tools and training they need to work together to be successful in dealing with the drug dealers and any cartels coming here.
Asked about affordable housing for all Indiana residents, Crouch said there’s not a lot they can do about inflation, “but what I would do as governor is I will lead a door-buster initiative to look at how do we eliminate rules and regulations that add to the cost of building a home? Because the cost of building a new home - 25% of that cost is due to rules and regulations that the builder has to comply with.”
Doden said what communities really need is about a 1% growth rate, which is a healthy growth rate that communities should be trying to achieve. He cited a couple examples of how to do that, including renovating historic and factory housing.
Hill stated that when you talk about housing and what government’s role and responsibility is, “It’s quite simple. It’s stripping away the regulations that are in place.” He said you can’t shrink the size of government if every time there’s an issue that’s outstanding, “we turn to government and look for a solution.”
He said the solution for housing is stripping away the regulations and then letting the free market take over.
A question on childcare got a similar response from Hill.
“The first question there, is when did childcare become a government function?” he said. If you take government regulations out of the process, or reduce regulations, “it becomes a free-market issue.”
Crouch said government alone is not the answer to every problem, “we are the answer to every problem. And so we need to have partnerships where the private sector is partnering with government to be able to address some of these issues.”

    Eric Doden participates in the governor candidate forum hosted by the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union
  

About a year ago, the Department of Workforce Development did a study that found about 126,000 Hoosiers wanted to be in the workforce but they weren’t for one reason or another. Half of them were women and they weren’t in the workforce because of the expense and lack of accessibility of childcare. Crouch said if they want to get people who want to work into the workforce, including women, “we need to look at partnering more with the private sector.”
Doden said there’s five leaderships in a community - business, education, 501(c)3s, government and religious leaders. “These five groups, we work really hard to try to get them to work together on some of these tough issues.” On childcare, there’s no real easy answer because of the expense of it. Innovative businesses have seen the need to attract talent back to their businesses and are beginning to look at alternatives for childcare, he said.
After questions on education, supporting economic growth, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and healthcare, the last question asked of the candidates was, “why are you the best candidate for the job?”
Crouch said she’s running for governor because she cares deeply about Indiana. “I have the political courage and experience to deliver results,” she said, in part.
On his leadership style, Doden said he’s “highly relational and that I’m very driven to results.” He also stated he is the only candidate that has a bold vision for Indiana, which can be found on his website at dodenforindiana.com.
Hill said he’s running for governor because Hoosiers are hungry for proven conservative leadership and he’s proven himself as someone who gets the job done.
The full candidate forum can be found through the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s website and Facebook page.