INDIANAPOLIS – When three candidates for governor agreed to a trio of debates, all signed onto a list of issues to be discussed. Education, jobs and the economy will take center stage, along with health, social matters and “other issues as warranted.”
Jesse Kharbanda hopes that last category includes the environment.
The leader of the Hoosier Environmental Council fears that questions about clean water, air and soil have yet to rise to the importance of roads, pre-kindergarten and LGBT rights — three of the big issues that have emerged in the campaign so far.
“Toxins fall on people of all parties or no party, it simply affects people wherever they are on the political spectrum,” Kharbanda said. “So there is a real deep civic responsibility for the future governor to put a prominent spotlight on the environment.”
Kharbanda was at Wednesday night’s forum where the three candidates - Democrat John Gregg, Republican Eric Holcomb and Libertarian Rex Bell - were questioned on their priorities for the first time this season. The forum was sponsored by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute.
Low wages, stagnant incomes and a thinning population overshadowed the evening. The environment didn’t come up – although there was some talk about rural communities worried about a declining quality of life.
Questions were drawn from IU researchers who’ve spent more than a year asking local leaders to identify their needs. There was discussion of boosting two of the state’s biggest economic drivers – agriculture and manufacturing.
But nothing on issues such as the rise of factory farming or the coal ash waste pits that dot the state.
Kharbanda worries about an unstated bias to the current debate - that environmental protection is a luxury issues.
“That’s a false notion,” he said, arguing that the future of the state economy is closely tied to its environmental health.
Kharbanda’s organization gives some credit to Gregg, the former House speaker whose past employers include an Indiana coal company. His website lays out details of his environmental priorities, including tougher protections for drinking water and limits on logging on state-owned lands.
Gregg also acknowledges in that plan and media interviews that the state’s environment is “one of the worst in the nation,” as it contends with pollutants that cause respiratory problems, as well as industrial toxic waste.
Earlier this week, he traveled to East Chicago where more than 1,000 residents are being forced from public housing because of high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil.
“The environment is one of the core issues John speaks about it wherever he goes,” said Gregg’s campaign spokesman, Jeff Harris.
Holcomb, never elected to office and only appointed to his current post of lieutenant governor in March, has yet to issue any detailed plan on the environment – or, really, any critical issues.
The main reason is that he was thrust into the governor’s race in late July, after current Gov. Mike Pence quit his re-election bid to join Donald Trump’s presidential ticket.
“We’re just barely four weeks into this,” said Holcomb spokesman Pete Seat.
Policy statements on issues including the environment will be forthcoming, said Seat.
The situation in East Chicago may force a conversation. As Gregg visited with displaced residents, the state Health Department dispatched workers to test for high lead levels in East Chicago children, worried about the toxic and long-lasting effects.
Gregg’s and Holcomb’s campaigns both say they would welcome the chance to talk more about environmental issues before the Nov. 8 election.
Kharbanda says Hoosiers should take them up on the challenge.
He’d like to see citizens pepper the candidates with environmental questions on the campaign trail, record their answers with smart phones and distribute the responses via social media.
“It’s up to the citizens to be brave,” he said.