INDIANAPOLIS – Five of the six Republicans hoping to be Indiana’s next governor squabbled more with the moderator than they did over policy issues during their last pre-primary debate on Tuesday evening, just two weeks before the May election. The candidates met at IUPUI’s Hine Hall Auditorium for the 90-minute debate hosted by the Indiana Debate Commission.
Although U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, largely considered to be the frontrunner in the race, was absent from the debate and was sparsely mentioned by his competitors.
Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Eric Doden, former Attorney General Curtis Hill, and Jamie Reitenour were on the stage.
Braun pulled out of the debate on Monday, saying he needed to be in Washington, D.C. to vote.
Although Braun submitted a statement to the commission before the debate, it was not read before the audience because his statement didn’t follow guidelines.
Indiana Debate Commission president Cindy Andrews said, “I told him that he could submit a statement of two to three sentences about why he was unable to attend. What he sent … was about politics,” Andrews said. “So, we opted not to use that, but to simply rephrase.”
Braun’s competitors did little to point out his absence outside of a few small jabs at his record like his support for increased state gas taxes and supposed “lack” of action on illegal immigration.
The participating candidates answered questions posed primarily by the public. The commission invited Hoosiers to submit queries online and received more than 200 questions. Jon Schwantes, host of PBS’s “Indiana Lawmakers,” moderated the debate.
Read a synopsis of the debate and what the candidates had to say in the Casey Smith article in the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.