Long Thompson wins Tax Day debate

by Don Wheeler

At least, that's how my wife saw it. Her view interests me, not just for the obvious reasons, but because she had no prior exposure to either candidate. And believe me, she's no pushover.

As an aside...I must say I'm terribly annoyed that there was no television coverage outside of Ft. Wayne, and no rebroadcast plans for out of the area that I'm aware of. We watched online. The sound and picture quality reminded me of the weak UHF signals we got on broadcast TV when I was a kid - and that was a bit distracting.

So, what struck us?

For one thing, there was a consistent pattern through the event. When Ms. Long Thompson was asked a question - she answered it directly. Mr. Schellenger, on the other hand, seemed to have rehearsed several phrases for general use. I imagine it was tactic to enable him to stay on message. But at least once he never came close to answering the question posed.

The questioner asked his take on privatizing state functions (which he has clearly opposed). Mr. Shellinger urged us to read his fabulous "Pick Up Indiana" plan. Ms. Long Thompson, understandably a bit puzzled, asked Wasn't the question about privatizing State functions? - or something of the sort - and then answered the question.

Mr. Schellinger took many opportunities to remind us that he is a business man - not a politician (despite the appearance of the contrary). This caused him a bit of a problem when he criticized Gov. Daniels strategy (later on) of privatizing State assets and functions. The State is not like a business, Mr. Schellinger declared. Oops.

In one of the few heated moments, Ms. Long Thompson leveled pretty serious ethical charges at Mr. Schellinger. One had to with his relationship with Trident Air (registered as an LLC, rather than a PAC), the other having to do with lobbying for school projects (I couldn't find anything useful on this topic).

What struck me as odd (remembering that this event was a first look for a lot of voters), was that Mr. Schellinger merely dismissed her claims as "politics as usual" and (surprise, surprise) reminded us he was a businessman - not polititician, was the sixth of eight children and worked his way through college in a machine shop.

They both sort of blew it on this one. Long Thompson was pretty clear on her Trident Air charges, but left me rather confused about the lobbying complaint. Mr. Schellinger assured me he did nothing wrong, but gave me no information to confirm that.

Should he be the nominee, this issue is not going to go away, and he'll need to do a lot better to put it to rest. It's already all over the pro Daniels blogosphere.

This was a bit of a pattern. Mr. Schellinger has a very detailed program for change in the way the state operates - as does Ms. Long Thompson. Yet he only referred to it by name, and suggested people read it. He never shared any of the parts of it during the debate. Maybe I like it better than he does.

Ms. Long Thompson typically is willing to be more specific, but seemed less than usual last night. She too has a very detailed, comprehensive plan she touts. And there are differences between the two plans.

In general, Jill Long Thompson answered questions head on, with only occasional use of campaign talking points. Jim Schellinger was more of a bullfighter and relied on them heavily.

I'd encourage everyone to look at their plans, and see which they think is better. You may not get to see Jim and Jill head-to-head again.