Arthur Foulkes
The Tribune-Star
CLINTON —
Republicans chose a candidate Monday to run for the Indiana Senate seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Tim Skinner.
GOP precinct committeemen and committeewomen from Indiana’s 38th District met at the old Clinton High School gymnasium in Clinton Monday evening to give their support to Bill Webster, 34, a first-time candidate from Parke County.
Webster, who was unopposed in the caucus, received votes from all 17 precinct committee members present, said Indiana Republican Party secretary Barbara McClellan, who supervised the caucus.
“I am pro-family. I am pro-life. I am pro-gun and I am pro-Constitution,” Webster, a heavy equipment mechanic from Rosedale, told the party officials before they cast their votes. “I will work hard to keep taxes low, as they should be. And I will work hard to keep government small, as it should be.”
This will be the first time the Republican Party has fielded a candidate against Skinner since 2002 when the former Vigo County councilman was first elected to the General Assembly. That year, Skinner, a teacher at West Vigo High School, defeated Jerry McMullen by about 6,000 votes out of 30,000 cast.
State governments need to “push back” against many policies currently brewing in Washington, Webster said in an interview before the caucus. Cap-and-trade legislation is one example, he said.
“I am very firm on state sovereignty,” Webster said.
Webster also said he approves of the Indiana property tax caps and favors allowing the voters to decide whether to make the caps part of the state constitution in November. “Let the people decide,” he said.
This is Webster’s first try at public office, although he had filed before the May 4 primary to run for the Parke County Council. He withdrew from that race to seek the Republican nomination for the state Senate, he said.
Webster, a 1994 graduate of Riverton Parke High School, is also a 17-year member of the Rosedale Fire Department and has been chief of the department for the past five years, he said.
Republicans and Democrats have until June 30 to nominate candidates for currently uncontested races in the upcoming November general election.
Having an opponent in the upcoming election “just steps up the game,” Skinner said after being reached at his home Monday night. A government, economics and geography teacher, Skinner, 60, often encourages his students to vote and to even consider running for office. It would be hypocritical not to accept a challenge for his own seat, he said. “That’s the foundation of our system.”
Indiana’s 38th Senate District includes the northern half of Vigo County as well as Vermillion, Parke and Warren counties.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
