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Commission preps for debate

The host site for the first of three gubernatorial debates was chosen not just for its central Indiana location, but for its political make-up as well.
The 1,200-seat Zionsville Performing Arts Center — where a crowd and candidates gathered Wednesday evening — is located in affluent, fast-growing Boone County, where Republican voters flourish.
Back in 2008, when the Indiana Debate Commission staged the first of its widely televised gubernatorial debates, it picked three host cities in three different parts of the state (Bloomington, Jasper and Merrillville) but all were in traditionally Democrat-leaning territories.
It was an accidental coincidence and not intentional. But the heat generated by some critics taught commission members a lesson.
“We learned geographic diversity isn’t enough,” said Keith Robinson, a former Associated Press bureau chief who played a key role in creating the non-partisan, independent commission back in 2007.
This time around, both geography and partisan identity came into play when deciding on where candidates in both the governor’s race and U.S. Senate race will face off over the next two weeks.
The mix of debate sites include areas that lean left, right, and wobble in between: South Bend and Fort Wayne for the next two gubernatorial debates; and Indianapolis and New Albany for the Senate debates.
The commission was created by a coalition of media and citizens groups, whose members were dedicated to the idea of producing political debates that are open, unbiased and transparent, Robinson said. The commission’s motto, emblazoned on signs that hung on stage during Wednesday’s debate, is “Putting Voters First.”
It’s a pledge the commission takes seriously. Tickets to Wednesday’s debate among Republican Mike Pence, Democrat John Gregg, and Libertarian Rupert Boneham were free. But they were doled out to the public just a handful at a time, so that campaigns didn’t snatch them up in bulk.
On the entrance doors to Wednesday’s debate site were posted warnings: “No sporting of political campaign material of any kind permitted.”
The ban on campaign-related clothing and other paraphernalia was intended to keep the debate’s live audience of about 1,500 people in check. Audience members were also asked to refrain from applause — or boos and other sounds of disapproval.
“We really want to protect the sanctity of the debate site,” said debate moderator Dennis Ryerson, retired Indianapolis Star editor and commission member.
There was visible protection on site, including Indiana State Police bomb-sniffing dogs, who scoured the auditorium, the media room, and the candidate’s “green rooms” before they arrived.
Wednesday’s event wasn’t Ryerson’s first debate rodeo: He moderated the 2000 presidential primary debates in Iowa, when he was editor of the Des Moines Register. He’s used to corralling candidates when they take verbal swipes at each other or run past the time clock.
“You can’t guarantee everything is going to go as planned,” Ryerson said. “But you can eliminate as many obstacles as possible.”

Maureen Hayden is the Indiana Statehouse bureau chief for CNHI, the parent company of the Tribune-Star. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.

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October 11, 2012

Gregg attacks; Pence defends attendance

Candidates trade jabs in first debate; Boneham calls for ‘tri-partisanship’

Matt Werner CNHI News Service

ZIONSVILLE — The first gubernatorial debate among Republican Mike Pence, Democrat John Gregg and Libertarian Rupert Boneham started out cordially Wednesday night with common agreement on the need to boost jobs, strengthen education and cut taxes.  

But it didn’t take long for differences and verbal jabs to emerge — mostly from Gregg directed toward Pence, the presumptive front-runner.    

During the televised debate, in front of a live audience of 1,200 along with representatives from about 50 media outlets, Pence and Gregg disagreed on the cost of the sweeping federal healthcare program known as Obamacare, the impact of Indiana’s new right-to-work law, Pence’s attendance record in his six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and Gregg’s budget-balancing abilities when he was Speaker of the Indiana House a decade ago.

Gregg delivered the sharpest words when he painted himself as a moderate, bipartisan leader while calling Pence an “elite attack dog” of the Republican far-right.

“There is candidate Mike Pence and there is Congressman Mike Pence,” Gregg said, after accusing Pence of misrepresenting himself, his Congressional voting record and his likeness to current Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Tapping into a famous debate moment from the 1988 vice presidential debate when Democrat Lloyd Bentsen admonished Republican Dan Quayle as “no Jack Kennedy,” Gregg said Pence was no Mitch Daniels. “Mitch Daniels shows up to work every day,” Gregg said.

Pence, whose early vow to run a “positive campaign” has meant little on-the-record criticism or even recognition of either of his opponents, pushed back. He said Gregg wasn’t sounding like the straight-talking politician he’s painted himself to be.

“You know I have a 95 percent attendance rate in Congress,” Pence said before accusing Gregg of slip-sliding his way out of an earlier question about state budget deficits that occurred when Democrats were in charge of the House and the governor’s office.

While both Pence and Gregg evoked bipartisanship as an ideal model to follow in the Statehouse, Boneham — bearing a beard like the one he wore while as a cast member on the network television show “Survivor” — called for “tri-partisanship” in the Statehouse.

Boneham won applause from an audience that had been admonished not to applaud when he described himself as the anti-candidate.

“I stand up here not as the career politician,” Boneham said. “I am not out to line my own pockets. I’m not out to gain fame and fortune.”

Boneham also prompted an unexpected exchange among the candidates when he said one of the most pressing problems facing Indiana was the high number of people caught in the criminal justice system and the lifelong punishment they face for committing a felony.

Pence responded by saying he wanted Indiana to be the “worst place in the nation to commit a serious crime,” before adding, “I want Indiana to be the best place in the nation — after you’ve done your time — to get a second chance.”

All three candidates wrapped up the debate, saying they’d be the best leader for the state. Gregg, who has been lagging behind in the polls, also put out an appeal to independent voters and people he called “Lugar Republicans,” referring to supporters of U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, who lost his GOP primary bid in May to Tea Party favorite, Richard Mourdock.

The three gubernatorial candidates will meet again next Wednesday at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. The debate, in front of a live audience, will be televised at 7 p.m.

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