TERRE HAUTE — A desire to stop “unbridled spending” in Washington, D.C., is driving an Indianapolis businessman and political newcomer to seek the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Evan Bayh.
Richard Behney, a Hoosier tea party organizer and fiscal conservative, is one of five Republicans looking to replace Bayh in the Senate.
“It’s not a Republican or Democrat thing,” Behney said Monday during an interview at the Tribune-Star. “We see both parties spending wildly.”
Behney, 47, says he is a “conservative Republican” of the Goldwater and Reagan variety, believing in smaller, more limited government. He believes the country is currently on a disastrous road paved by “wild” spending. He also believes the growth of government is threatening individual liberties.
“We must stop the direction our country is headed in,” Behney said.
Behney, a husband and father of three who owns AttaBoy Plumbing in Indianapolis, is a newcomer to electoral politics. However, at a recent Warsaw tea party event, he finished second in a straw poll, according to the South Bend Tribune. Indiana state Sen. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe, finished first in the poll. Former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats finished last among the five Republican candidates, the Tribune reported.
Behney, a supporter of term limits, said he would seek no more than two terms in the Senate if elected – and very possibly just one. “I look to burn the candle hard in six years,” Behney said. “I’m not looking to go back.”
Part of the problem in Washington is that politicians now make careers of serving in public office, Behney said. In the past, elected officials would take time from their private professions or careers to temporarily serve in office, he said. “It’s no longer that. It’s a lottery ticket.”
Behney, a native of Ohio with experience in the Nashville music business, believes the November election will see a big swing toward candidates demanding a change in the status quo.
“Folks want someone outside the box,” he said. “I believe in November we’ll see something similar to what we saw in Massachusetts” where an underdog Republican captured the Senate seat long-held by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, who also served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as U.S. ambassador to Germany, is the best-known Republican candidate seeking the now-open Senate seat. U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Evansville, is seeking the Democratic Party nomination.
Other Republicans who have filed for the Senate Republican primary race include former Eighth District Rep. John Hostettler and Don Bates Jr., a Richmond-based financial adviser.
In addition to a desire to cut federal spending by about 1 percent per year well into the future, Behney also opposes the current House and Senate health care bills. The bills call for rationing health care and would allow government officials to determine which patients should receive some types of medical care based on the patient’s “value to society,” he said. If that happens, “we are certainly no longer a free republic.”
Behney also favors giving states the authority to set their own energy policies, contrary to proposed federal “cap and trade” regulations. The federal role in energy policy should be limited to “oversight,” particularly involving nuclear power, he said.
In foreign policy, Behney believes the U.S. Constitution was not followed in launching the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Constitution mandates that only Congress can declare war, and Behney is concerned that Congress did not declare war in either case, he said.
When asked about his chances of winning in Indiana’s May primary, Behney, who was in Terre Haute primarily meeting with the news media Tuesday, said he likes his chances.
“I like where I’m standing,” he said. “I’m standing with the people.”
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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