TERRE HAUTE —
Indiana Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson, chosen to run as the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor with gubernatorial candidate John Gregg, said during a stop Wednesday in Terre Haute that bipartisan experience is a key factor in creating jobs and legislation to help Hoosiers statewide.
“I think that is the main contrast between the individual [gubernatorial] tickets, because John and I have both spent an entire career reaching across party lines,” Simpson said on the day after Gregg announced he had picked Simpson, a 28-year veteran of the Indiana Senate.
“I have been in the minority for all of the years that I have served in the Senate,” Simpson said. “What [being in the minority] taught me right out of the box was how to get things done.
“If you want to be an effective legislator, you need to be able to work with Republicans. You need to be able to bring diverse viewpoints together and reach compromise,” she said.
“Compromise in politics is not a bad word, contrary to what a lot of people think these days. It is how legislative bodies, whether they are city councils, or school boards or Congress, should work,” Simpson said.
“I am afraid what we see too often are people who think compromise is bad, who think reaching across party lines is a negative. I think we saw that with the [Richard] Mourdock-[Richard] Lugar [U.S. Senate] race,” Simpson said. “I think it is an asset that people of Indiana will appreciate and will understand how important it is.”
Gregg and Simpson spoke at the Laborers International Union of North America building at Fourth and Poplar streets in Terre Haute about creating jobs for Indiana. It’s a place that many laborers gathered earlier this year before heading to the Indiana Statehouse to oppose right-to-work legislation.
“Indiana was a right-to-work state from 1958 to 1965, and I think then Hoosiers realized they had been sold a bill of goods that was supposed to get all these jobs,” Gregg said.
With Indiana now a right-to-work state, Gregg said the jobs the state has attracted and will attract “are those $8- to $10-an-hour jobs. You don’t raise a family on that, you don’t go on vacation,” he said.
“Indiana, even though we are down to 7.9 percent unemployment, we have dropped from 37th to 46th in per capita income in the last 10 years,” Gregg said. “So these jobs you hear people bragging about in Indianapolis are $8- to $10-an-hour jobs. That is nothing to brag about.
“We can do better, and we will if we work together, quit worrying about whose idea it is, [if] we quit worrying about the next office, [and if] we worry about the next generation and we quit worrying about social issues,” Gregg said.
“This is a state that doesn’t even agree on time zones and class basketball, so we’ve got no business spending all this time fussing over social issues,” Gregg said. “The guy I am running against wanted to shut the federal government down over social issues. That is all he had dealt with his whole professional career in Congress.”
Last year, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence sponsored a federal budget rider in Congress that would have prevented any federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood.
At the time, Pence said it was “nonsense” to say Republicans would shut down government over the issue. “What was clear here is that this administration and liberals in Congress were willing to shut the government down to continue to fund abortion providers in this country. That’s the bottom line,” Pence said last year.
Pence on Monday announced Indiana Rep. Sue Ellspermann, R-Ferdinand, as his lieutenant governor for the GOP gubernatorial ticket.
Pence spokeswoman Christy Denault said Wednesday it is ironic Democrats are now saying jobs is the issue for Indiana.
“Mike Pence has spent the entire last year he has been campaigning about jobs. It is about jobs and the economy. He has been talking about balancing the budget, maintaining strong reserves ... and for tax relief to create jobs,” Denault said. “This election is about jobs and the economy. Mike Pence has been saying that and saying that.”
Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
Local & Bistate
Related Photos
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Their platform: State Senator Vi Simpson discusses her and running mate John Gregg's platform during a campaign stop at the Laborers Local 204 Wednesday.
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Mustache supporters: John Gregg supporters hold up signs as they applaud a statement made by the gubernatorial candidate Wednesday at the Laborers Local 204.
Discussion
Dems tout good side of compromise
Gubernatorial team makes first visit to Terre Haute
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