Three Extraordinary Candidates

Last Saturday (June 26) the Delegates to the Indiana Democratic Party Convnention nominated three extraordinary candidates for statewide office. Sam Locke (for State Auditor), Pete Buttigieg (for State Treasurer) and Vop Osili (for Secretary of State) have all put an energy into their respective campaigns unlike any other candidates for those offices.

I must confess that I have never really been much interested in the Auditor or Treasurer Offices before. Being a good Democrat, of course, I always voted for Democratic candidate for those offices; but it was simply an automatic vote that didn't get much thought put into it. I didn't understand what these offices mean to the taxpayers of Indiana.

Sam and Pete, however, are different. Unlike past candidates who were usually picked at the last minute (more than likely their arms were twisted to get them to run), Sam and Pete both made clear their intentions to run last year. Since then, they have been crisscrossing the state telling their stories. They are committed to running 92-county campaigns. (Doesn't that sound familiar?)

Sam talks about the need for greater transparency in the office and the need to install 21^st Century technology in the office to make it easier for taxpayers to obtain information. He also pledges that he will blow the whistle on wasteful spending. As Auditor, Sam would be in a unique position to do that, because the Auditor signs all checks from the state; and thus he would know when money is being wasted.

For his part, Pete talks about making sure that the banks that do business with the State of Indiana treat their customers and the taxpayers fairly. He also talks about investing taxpayer money in safe stable accounts instead of risky junk bond accounts in which the incumbent treasurer invested. Pete rips into Treasurer Murdoch for filing a politically motivated lawsuit to prevent the federal government from bailing out Chrysler. Had Murdoch succeeded, thousands of Hoosiers would have lost their jobs. Finally, Pete announced last week that he will take no money from any bank or PAC of a bank that wants to do business with the State of Indiana. In this way, we can be sure that he does business with banks that will provided the best service to taxpayers, not banks to whom he owes a favor.

Then there is Vop Osili! Of the three candidates, Vop is the most open about where the inspiration for his 92-county campaign came from. In his speech accepting the nomination for Secretary of State he spoke about Howard Dean and his 50-state strategy. He spoke of the importance of organizing at the local level and coordinating with local candidates. Vop is really our kind of candidates.

Vop has already visited all 92 counties in Indiana, and his efforts paid off in a big way. In seconding Vop's nomination at the Convention, the chairman of the Randolf County Democratic Party spoke about how Vop visited that county three times even though it is the smallest county in the state. As a result his efforts, Vop who was in a contested race for the nomination, defeated his opponent by almost a 4 to 1 margins.

Vop's vision for the Secretary of State office is just as compelling as those of Sam and Pete. He has pledged that he will do everything in his power to overturn Indiana's highly restrictive voter ID law. He will make sure that every voter has a fair opportunity to vote; and by requiring that voting machines leave some kind of paper trail, the voters can be confident their votes will be counted the way the they intended.

As a small businessman, Vop understands the challenges of starting a new business and making it successful. Vop is committed to advocating for small businesses which provide the vast majority of jobs in Indiana. His vision draws on "Indiana’s rich history of proactive innovation," and will not only improve current services, but develop new services as well.

To conclude, I have never been so excited about the candidates for these three statewide offices. These three dynamic candidates, however, have really sparked our enthusiasm, and with them on top of the ticket, I am confident that on November 2, it will be great to be a Democrat in Indiana.