League of Women Voters hosts candidate forum

Sep. 30—MIDDLEBURY — Several state and local candidates currently on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election were invited to speak on their platforms during a Meet the Candidates Forum at the Middlebury Public Library Thursday evening.

During the forum, which was a collaboration between the library and the League of Women Voters of Elkhart County, candidates were given the chance to speak briefly to attendees about their backgrounds and political platforms. The forum was then followed by a reception with light refreshments, where attendees were able to mingle with the candidates and ask additional questions.

Included among the candidates to attend Thursday's forum were Paul Steury, D-Goshen, and William Henry, L-Goshen, both of whom are currently seeking the U.S. Representative District 2 seat — the seat most recently held by the late Jackie Walorski, who was killed in an Aug. 3 crash near Nappanee.

Also seeking the District 2 seat is Rudy Yakym III, R-Granger, who did not attend the forum.

Steury, who was raised on an 80-acre pig farm south of Decatur, said it was that upbringing that really taught him how to work, and how to work hard.

Steury also mentioned that he was raised in the Church of the Brethren, abiding by what he called the two most important things on earth — the Golden Rule and Jesus' First Commandment.

"I was raised Church of the Brethren, and I would truly love to take with me into government — do unto others as you want them to do unto you, and, love your neighbor as yourself," Steury said. "People who know me, I'm extremely gregarious, and outgoing, and I love to talk to people. But also people know that I'm very respectful, and I want people to be nice to each other, and reach across the isle, and have communication, and have dialogue. And so, I promise you, as your congressperson, I will go to D.C. and I will work hard at trying to make compromises, and negotiations, and make sure that we make the best decisions possible for the United States, as well as District 2."

Steury noted that he is a longtime educator, and as such has been endorsed by the National Education Association, as well as the American Federation of Teachers. He also noted that he has worked in a variety of industries over the years, which he feels is important for anyone wishing to begin a career in Congress.

"I worked for the Aluminum Trailer Company for a while as a purchaser," Steury said. "I also have worked in grounds-keeping, landscaping, construction, roofing, social service, a little bit of everything, because I feel a congressperson needs to be a Renaissance person, a person that's willing to go out and learn. And, because of that, AFLCIO has endorsed me, and so has Local 150 Operators Union, and Local 153 Electrical Workers Union.

"I'm also an environmental educator, so I have my masters in outdoor resources management with an emphasis in environmental education, and I worked at Mary Lee Environmental Learning Center for 15 years as a professor there," Steury added. "My job there was to teach undergraduate students — future teachers — about how to deal with kids in the woods and get to know their sense of place."

Steury said he believes that his best resource in Congress will be as an issue investigator, noting that he loves to investigate environmental issues.

"And then the last thing is, I'd really like to have healthcare for all, and especially for those who really need it," he noted of his platform. "For the past two years I've worked at the Elkhart Academy, and there we actually had three overdoses on fentanyl, two gunshot wounds, five incarcerated, two students that actually had siblings that attempted suicide. I want not just healthcare for physical reasons — which is very important for the lower class — but also I want to make sure there's mental healthcare for all. So, my slogan is Paul For All, because I'd like to represent every single person in District 2, which is 730,000-plus. So, thank you very much."

HENRY'S PLATFORM

During his time at the podium, Henry noted that he is a U.S. Army veteran, and has been a veteran advocate and activist in the state for many years.

"I came back from deployment in Afghanistan and Kuwait, and I earned the Bronze Star in Afghanistan for my journalism work, telling the story of our troops overseas and what we were doing," Henry said. "I came home and I started working in activism and volunteer work with the American Legion, and I started advocating at the Statehouse. I got all of the major organizations back together, and we created an alliance to bring the issues that were first and foremost to the state legislature and say, 'These are what veterans need.'

"So, all of the organizations, who had all of these memberships really came together, and we came to the state legislature and we really got things done over a few years," he said. "We worked with the Pence Administration and the Holcomb Administration, and a number of the agencies — Veterans Affairs, and the War Memorials Commission, and other commissions throughout the state — we were very successful at that."

During his work, Henry said he was presented with evidence of wrongdoing and fraud, waste and abuse that happened in the state with the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is what really bolstered his desire to get into politics.

As such, he ran with fellow Libertarian Donald Rainwater in 2020 as a lieutenant governor candidate, earning nearly 12% of the vote statewide according to the Secretary of State's report.

"That was tremendous for a third-party duo to finish like that, and we really stood up against the mandates and some of these other things that was really government overreach, and a lot of people agreed with us on that, and that's why we received such great response from the public," Henry said. "I really want to take that veracity to Washington, D.C. I want to be the truth teller. I want to show what people are doing in D.C., and show what these agencies are spending.

"We really need to dig into the finances, we need to get a balanced budget going, and we need to stabilize and reduce these agency budgets, especially right now with the inflation," he added. "With the inflation there is more tax dollars being collected during this time, so we have an opportunity right now to balance this budget at least what it was this last time, and we're coming into the fiscal year, which is Oct. 1. We really need to cease funding for ineffective programs and subsidies, and prevent and prosecute government fraud, waste and abuse at all levels."

Henry also drove home his desire to work with and help take care of veterans in Indiana, noting that he wants to revamp the Veterans Community Care program, and give veterans more access — immediate, prompt and emergency access — to their local community care for these service-related and service-connected disabilities.

"We've got to define what personal sovereignty is," he said. "We've had a lot of mix-up with a lot of different things on what actually medical freedom is, and personal sovereignty, and we really need to resolve that so we as people can have medical freedom on our own, and make these decisions on our own.

"So, with those things, I really want to serve you, I want to represent you in Washington, D.C., and I want to represent the people properly, the way they should be. So, thank you so much for your time tonight."

STATE REP. DISTRICT 49

Also among the candidates attending Thursday's forum was Amanda Qualls, D-Goshen, who is currently running against incumbent Joanna King, R-Middlebury, for the State Representative — District 49 seat. King did not attend the forum.

"I never intended to be here in front of you — did not intend to run for this sort of office, ever," Qualls said in beginning her introduction. "What I did intend to run for was school board. I'm a current school board member with Goshen Community Schools, and the reason that I wanted to run for school board is because public schools and schooling has been transformative for my life."

Qualls noted that her paternal grandparents never made it to high school, and that resulted in a lot of hardships throughout their lives. Her parents would graduate from high school, she explained, and that resulted in much better lives for them.

"And then I have been blessed to graduate high school and go on to get a degree from a university, and then also a graduate degree — I hold a degree in library science," Qualls said. "Education has been transformational for me, and I wanted to be a part of making sure that education would continue to be something that our kids could count on, especially here in Indiana and here in this community."

As a product of Goshen Schools, Qualls said she felt running for a Goshen school board seat would be the ideal place to begin that journey, so in 2016 she ran for school board for the first time. And while she would be unsuccessful, she said she knew she wanted to keep trying, and in 2018 had the opportunity to join the board via appointment after one of the sitting board members left their seat.

She then had to immediately run to retain her seat, and was successful at doing so, she explained.

"That was an incredible experience," Qualls said. "It was a hard time to be joining the school board. As I'm sure you all know, the last few years have been a little bit challenging. But after just a very short while on the school board, it became clear to me that if I wanted to have a huge impact on our students and education here in Indiana, I was going to have to do that in Indianapolis, because once things get to the school board level, there's only so much we can do.

"We can't change our funding formulas, we can't change what testing we're required to do. We can't change any of that on the school board," she added. "Seeing how legislation impacted our students and our communities, I knew I wanted to do more."

Following an unsuccessful run for the District 49 seat in 2020, Qualls noted that one of the biggest factors that encouraged her to run for the seat again this year was the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.

"I knew that I had to run, and I could not let this seat go unopposed without a voice in the other direction," Qualls said. "No matter your own personal feelings on abortion, I strongly believe that access to abortion, and access to all medical decisions, are foundational to our family fabric, to our fabric as a nation.

"We must leave the most consequential decisions of when, how and if we become parents to our families," she added. "So, I'm here, and I'm running again, because I believe in our students, I believe in access to abortion, I believe in freedom, I believe in privacy and I believe in democracy."

ADDITIONAL CANDIDATES

Other candidates to attend Thursday's forum included: Jeffrey Maurer, Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State; Linda Rogers, Republican candidate for State Senate District 11; Christopher Dickenson, Republican candidate for Concord Township Assessor; Kevin Peters, Democratic candidate for Concord Township Trustee; and Beth Kallimani, Democratic candidate for Middlebury Town Council.

John Kline can be reached at john.kline@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240315. Follow John on Twitter @jkline_TGN.