By Nate Smith, Staff Writer
Democrat Gubernatorial nominee Jill Long Thompson visited the White Steamer Tuesday to eat and tell fellow Democrats what they can do to help her win in November.
Long Thompson, along with State Rep. Dennie Oxley, D-English, is seeking to replace Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman in the general election.
“I believe as well as Dennie does that Indiana has tremendous promise and its going to take the right leadership to make it happen,” Thompson said.
The White Steamer stop is part of a “Hoosier Hometown Tour,” aimed at small cities and towns. Long Thompson had strong words about Daniels and his policies.
She is a former member of Congress and an undersecretary for Rural Development at the Department of Agriculture. She said her experience would create a better tax plan for individuals and business.
“We have lost ground thanks to the Daniels administration,” Long Thompson said. “We have lost about 30,000 jobs since the first of the year.”
Long Thompson also wants to make health insurance a priority, requiring companies that sell insurance in the state to make insurance affordable to small businesses.
“You have a family-owned business, you can buy health insurance at the same rates the large corporations pay,” Long Thompson said. “We can make a few dents in those costs and make health insurance affordable.”
Oxley, the majority whip in the House, said they will win in November.
“We don’t need, anymore, a governor that goes around the state telling how rosy things are,” Oxley said. “When actually, we working Hoosiers, know things are much different.”
Some questions from the assorted Democrats included the lease of the Indiana Toll Road. Long Thompson said if elected, her administration would look at the contract that leased the toll road for $3.8 billion over 100 years.
Thompson said that after 15 to 20 years, the foreign consortium will earn back its costs and has the authority to raise its tolls.
“That means between 55 to 60 years, there will be pure profit for that Spanish-Austrailian consortium,” Long-Thompson said. “I think that’s un-American frankly.”
After the meeting, Long-Thompson said her campaign is going well after low name recognition at the start and a hard primary battle with Jim Schellinger.
“I think across the state, Hoosiers are concerned about the direction Governor Daniels is taking the state,” Long Thompson said. “It’s not that they dislike him, it’s just his policies are not working and are just struggling.”
According to the Associated Press, campaign reports released Tuesday show Long Thompson raised almost as much as Daniels in the most-recent reporting period, taking in about $1.6 million from April 1 through June 30. Daniels raised about $1.82 million.
But Daniels began the reporting period with nearly $5.3 million, compared with just $484,000 for Long Thompson. And despite prepaying for television commercials through August, Daniels reported having more than $2.8 million cash on hand. Long Thompson had about $1 million left.
“Our cash on hand is very competitive but more significantly, the polls have us running neck and neck,” Long Thompson said.
Daniels has been running TV ads nonstop since before the May primary, even though he didn’t have a Republican opponent. Long Thompson won a close primary contest over Schellinger for the Democratic nomination.
Long Thompson also gave her opinions on other issues including the time zone and Daylight Saving Time. She favors a statewide referendum on both issues. She is in support of I-69, but criticized today’s invitation-only groundbreaking ceremony in Evansville.
“I think its another example of Gov. Daniels’ exclusivity rather than inclusiveness,” Long Thompson said. “On any public decision, there are going to be people who agree and people who disagree but cutting people out is not the right approach to governance.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
