Joe Hornaday
State Sen. Marlin Stutzman (R - District 13) continues his campaign for United States Senate and the seat that was once Sen. Evan Bayh’s.
Along the way, Stutzman made a recent stop in Greensburg and spoke to a group at Republican Party headquarters. Following in the example set by Gov. Mitch Daniels, Stutzman has been traveling around the state, visiting communities and talking to citizens in January of 2009. According to Stutzman, that is when he had decided to run for U.S. Senate.
“(Traveling) has been such a great learning experience for us,” Stutzman said.
When the Stutzman campaign was launched, Sen. Evan Bayh’s seat was not an “open seat.” But since Bayh made the announcement that he would not seek re-election, the Stutzman has not stopped working, and the candidate said he hopes that the hard work will pay off.
Stutzman is a small business owner and fourth generation family farmer. He explained that he was holding his three-week old son when he watched the events of Sept. 11, 2001 play out on the television screen. Wanting to secure the future for his children, he began his political career later in 2002. In his first campaign, he beat a 10 year Democrat incumbent.
Stutzman served in the House for three terms before moving on to become a State Senator. When the Republican Party began looking for challengers to contend with Sen. Evan Bayh, one of the party’s main points was that the country was $12 trillion in debt. To put that number into perspective, Stutzman said that a trillion was equal to the amount of seconds in 30,000 years. In 1980, the United States had about $1 trillion in debt, and in the last 30 years, that number has increased by about $11 trillion, Stutzman said. Continuing to add onto that debt at the federal level was unfathomable for Stutzman.
“Like it says in Proverbs, the borrower is the server to the lender,” Stutzman noted.
Frustrated by the spending and disconnect in Washington D.C., Stutzman threw his name into the ring to combat the policies he believed detrimental. Those included the policies of President Obama and Congress, bailouts, automotive takeovers, cap-and-trade legislation and healthcare. For Stutzman, federal spending meant taking the money out of the hands of the next generation without a plan to pay it back.
“Who was looking out for Hoosier families?” Stutzman asked.
The best way to win, Stutzman explained, would be to bring someone up from the grassroots level and to avoid electing another career politician.
“The answers are out here,” Stutzman said. “They’re not in Washington.”
When Sen. Bayh promised to vacate his seat in the U.S. Senate, the position was up for grabs. But Stutzman said his campaign was there from the very beginning.
“We were running for the U.S. Senate before it was cool,” he said.
If elected to the U.S. Senate, Stutzman vowed to “work hard and represent the people of Indiana.”
