By Crystal Garcia
TERRE HAUTE — What started as a run to get on the ballot for governor could turn into more for one Wabash Valley senator’s district.
Though Sen. John M. Waterman, R-Shelburn, didn’t get all the signatures he needed to run for governor, the experience and the contacts he made could bring progress to his district.
He tried to gain nearly 33,000 signatures in order to run for governor. Instead, the former Sullivan County sheriff earned about 2,200 signatures. That number is about half the signatures Republican candidate Gov. Mitch Daniels and Democratic candidate Jill Long Thompson needed to get on the ballot because they represent existing parties, said John Price, chairman of Waterman’s would-be Taxpayers Party. “It’s been a really good experience,” Waterman said about trying to get on the ballot. “… We had a real small window of opportunity, we knew that. Usually it takes six months to a year to get a campaign put together like that and we had less than three weeks.”
Waterman and volunteers needed about 33,000 signatures, but didn’t start collecting them until less than three weeks before the June 30 deadline.
Waterman said the Taxpayers Party will dissolve because it was only set up for one year.
Waterman now plans to move his focus toward winning re-election in 2010 and making advances in the next session with property tax issues, he said.
“… I think he’ll win 10 to 1 over anybody who might challenge him in a Republican primary,” Price said. “He’s very popular.”
Waterman said he doesn’t have any regrets about not getting on the ballot.
“It was a positive experience,” he said, adding his mother taught him “if a window of opportunity opens up, you walk through it. You don’t calculate wins or losses.”
Some of the people he met along the way could prove to be good contacts to make advances in his district in such areas as creating more jobs, he said.
Price believes they needed about three months to have gotten all the signatures, he said, noting signatures were still coming in as of Tuesday, including an envelope of signatures from Iraq that came in Monday. Most of the signatures Waterman did receive were from people in his area, Price said, which shows the people who know him best believe he should run for governor.
“We found out there was a good basis for doing it,” Price said. “There are a lot of people wanting to have a third choice besides either Mitch Daniels or Jill Long Thompson.”
Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.
