INDIANAPOLIS – There were a few things missing when candidates in the hotly contested governor’s race took the stage Tuesday evening.
No name-calling. No finger-pointing. And no fiery retorts flung at rivals under the pressure of time.
Instead, Democrat John Gregg, Republican Eric Holcomb and Libertarian Rex Bell laid out their visions for Indiana as they each appeared individually during a 90-minute forum hosted by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute.
The forum's moderator, retired state Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard, said the questions he picked for the low-key event focused on a theme: “What is it that Indiana needs to do to thrive in next 10 years?”
Gregg, a former legislator running for the second time for governor, offered the most detail.
He spoke of taking the “handcuffs off” local governments by giving them flexibility to raise and spend revenue. He promised to fund universal access to pre-kindergarten for all Hoosier 4-year-olds without raising taxes.
And, taking a poke at current Gov. Mike Pence’s defense of a controversial “religious freedom” law, he vowed to support efforts to expand the state’s civil rights law to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination.
At the prompting of Shepard, Gregg spoke about disparities among urban, suburban and rural communities, employing some characteristic humor that makes fun of his roots in small-town, southern Indiana.
He described how he surprised an audience of suburbanites in affluent Carmel by saying at least 14 percent of Indiana lacks internet access, mostly in small towns.
“They looked at me like I was from Mars,” he said. “I’m not from Mars. I’m from outside of Vincennes.”
Holcomb, meanwhile, avoided specifics as he moves into just his second month of campaigning for the office.
Appointed lieutenant governor in March, Holcomb only entered the governor's race four months later, when Pence dropped his re-election to become GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s running mate.
In his conversation on stage with Shepard, Holcomb would only say that he’s “leaning in” to the idea of expanding state-funded pre-kindergarten – which Pence opposed when he cut short efforts to seek federal funding for pre-K.
When pressed by Shepard for a plan to fund Indiana’s aging infrastructure – a pressing issue in the Legislature – Holcomb deferred.
“I would rule out nothing, other than inactivity,” he said.
He also avoided stepping into other controversies that arose during Pence’s tenure, and instead praised, in general, the efforts of the current governor and his predecessor in the office, Mitch Daniels.
For Bell, the Libertarian, answers seemed easy and almost uniform - less government in almost all things.
“We are of the idea that people should run their lives for the most part,” said Bell, a Hagerstown carpenter who’s been running his campaign on the cheap.
For Bell, that has translated into opposition to state funding for a range of things, from walking trails to early childhood education.
“What Libertarians offer is chance to pull government back to where it ought to be,” he said.
The forum, which took place in front of a small audience but was live-streamed on the internet, offered a glimpse of issues likely to arise when the three men meet to debate.
The candidates have agreed to three televised debates hosted by the Indiana Debate Commission. The first is scheduled for Sept. 27.