Broadcast live from the auditorium on the campus. This event is the final formal debate of the primary season the final opportunity to hear from the republicans vying to succeed Governor Eric Holcomb who is barred by indianas constitution from seeking a third consecutive term. Of course the winner of the gubernatorial primary will advance to novembers general election. I am your moderator the host of public Media Indiana lawmakers program the states longest running Public Affairs show. This debate is made possible by the generosity of our major underwriters aarp indiana, the Broadcasters Association and the Indiana State Bar Association as well as Additional Support from the Indiana Coalition for open government, the Indiana League of women voters of indiana, the Hoosier State press Association Foundation and comcast. The debate the mission is dedicated to puttingng voters first. Accordingly, we invited members of the public to submit questions about the issues of greatest concern to them. More than 120 people submitted nearly 200 questions and that input on the basis of the questions that i will pose this evening. None of the questions has been shared with the candidates or their campaign staff. The order of the candidates introductions anda positions on stage were determined by drawing. Enough housekeeping. Now without further delay, lets meet at the participants. Brad a chambers of indianapolis founder and ceo of Buckingham Companies a Real Estate Investment firm and former head of the Economic Development corporation under governor holcomb. Suzanne of evansville, the 52nd Lieutenant Governor and former state auditor, state representative and county commissioner. Fort wayne Founding Partner of the developing company and private equity firm and former president of the indiana Economic Development corporation under governor mike pence. Curtis hill, former Indiana Attorney general and former four term county prosecutor and Jamie Ritenour of indianapolis a former compliance officer, Athletic Director and executive secretary who is now a stayathome mother of five. And you will notice there are five lectors on stage instead of six as we hoped, the senator thought of course was also seeking the republican nomination for governor was not able to attend this evening. He was called back to washington for an important vote on a foreign aid package, so he unfortunately couldnt join us this evening. The candidates have agreed to a set of rules that include the prohibition on props and prepared notes, this evenings debate will featureeb a mix of s or no questions answerable by a show of hands and a more traditional set of openended questions of variousus lengths. I will not hesitate to cut off candidates that fail to abide by the stated time limits and i will to get a step further i will try to nudge people back on path if they are addressing the question straight from the point of the question so i will do it with a smile on my face into kindness and my heart, but we will try to address the matters at hand that voters care about most. Now, we have dispensed with all of the housekeeping i think we need to do tonight. Lets geto to the questions. The first round of questions will be openended and i will give you a time limit for each. The candidate that receives the first question will have one minute to answer that question and the other will have a shorter period of time that i will specify and you can use that to agree, disagree or add any other thoughts that you would like. According too the drawing, the first question will go to mr. Chambers and he will have one minute to respond. In 2024 study by the Forbes Advisor ranked indiana the second best state in the nation of which to start a business citing the states low 100 registration fee, state funding for Small Business startups, survival rate, reasonable cost of living and High Percentage of working age residents. But specifically what you do to nudge us from number two to number one, and you have a minute. Thanks for being here tonight. Appreciateni the audience and ts opportunity to speak to voters. Entrepreneurship is extremely important. I started a companypa from nothing, from zero. I know the journey and how difficult the journey is to start a business and keep the going. S im a career job creator and problem solver, so im pleased to see indiana is ranked number two for small and mediumsize businesses and i started to do that as the secretary for the state of indiana working as an appointed position. We need to make sure more is available to innovators and entrepreneurs and lean into the technology sector. We formed a website called connect for High School Students and for College Students if they want to learn about entrepreneurship. We need to start with educating our high schools about the a opportunity to work for yourself in this state. We have terrific entrepreneurs. Eli lilly is one of them. We are out of time. The colonel would appreciate you ending on him. Lets go then to each of you. You will have 30 seconds to again offer a response to much of the m same question how can e take an already strong economic set of circumstances and take it to the next level. Where to be taken already strong state to the next level is very simple. We get government out of the way. Cut regulations to make sure we allow entrepreneurs to move forward and we need to provide tax incentives to make sure the economy is strong and robust but its a matter of making sure the government is limited in its capacitynm to stand in the way f businesses that is growing and developing. Very good. Same question to you. Is at the heart and soul of the indiana mainstream initiative. For 50 years weve ignored our small town and as weve begun to restore communities across the state with the help of local leaders in the private sector, this will lead to tremendous Small Business growth and opportunities. Weve already seen this in every community weve begun to be story into this is why we are excited about the mainstream initiative and restoring small towns. I played a key role in turning indiana around. I want to continue that by eliminating the state income tax. Not only will we put 2,000 back in the pockets butoo according o the federation of independent businesses, the income tax is the single most tax that could help if we eliminate a Small Business growth so that is what i wantt to do. I was asked a similar question in an interview, how do you keep the good times rolling out of my answer was ive been on the ground at two and a half years and the hoosiers are not telling me the good times are rolling. Over 100,000 jobs cannot be placed, Small Businesses looking for employees. Ng when i say that every senior that graduates in the state of indiana should be doing an apprenticeship before they graduate, we want to make sure our seniors next generation are taken care of. Thats not easy to do any state where the education is failing but indiana will bring that to hoosiers. Veryy good. On to another question and return to the order i think i may have inadvertently botched in the order in which you were before so how do we rebut . Because im a kind and generous person and look to you to keep on track, 15 seconds. Go a ahead. Im asking the processe by which. Will you call me or do i raise my hand . Its not the h classroom, but raising of the hand would be good. And certainly if somebody mentions you or calls you out on a policy i will make sure that you are given the time to talk to them. So, the order has been restored and we will continue now with the questionor to mr. Hill. Some businesses voiced concerns that the social policies and areas such as abortion and lgbtq rights might hurt our Convention Business and ability to attract and maintain talent needed to grow indianas economy. How do you respond to these concerns, and you have a minute to do that. We need to understande what kind of state we live in. We are a state that is about familiesut and we want to make sure our families are at the center of what we do here in the state. With development and Economic Growth its a wonderful opportunity but not at the cost of who we are as hoosiers. We were the first state to have a firm prolife position banning abortion and states, businesses know when they come into the state thats what to expect, so we dont change who we are to be attractive to the outside world. We need to maintain our standards and be the type of state that is welcoming to families, welcoming to businesses and doing the best that we can to move our agenda forward. And we will continue with additional responses for the remainder of the candidates here. Seconds apiece. We will go to mr. Bowden and any possible impact it might have on the Economic Development. I think ive made this clear im prolife. People are looking for leaders with conviction and im thinking its a human rights issue and also a religious issue but we are also doing things like zero cost adoption where you have an Adoption Fund that will help parents not only pay for adoption but the aftercare and these are policies if you look at the policies you should look at the website we have them all in writing and theyve all been approved by i people like you. These are policies everyone can agree with. We are a culturally conservative state but one of the things we have to do a better job of his telling of the authentic story of indiana. I head up the destination corporation while the neighboring states spend anywhere from 20 a poor job of talking about the reality that we are in a moral crisis in the country right now. We need to support our families. We all know that the reason we are where we are right now is because there is a crisis, the family is broken. The state of indiana is for life and we believe you reap what you sow. We want to be a state that encourages that in all ways. Its an education with our children, its in our Small Businesses. We are a state that stands for life and we are proud to be that. We need to keep families at the center of our everyday lives and i think we need to keep education at the center of our everyday lives and continue to build on quality of life for our kids and grandkids to build their lives in indiana and we need an Economic Opportunity for everybody to build their lives in indianana and continue to len into the conservative values of the state. Very good. Our q next question. As i mentioned in the introduction of a few moments ago, i pointed out that of course you are the head of the Economic Development corporation under the governor. What role what they play in your administration and how do you respond to critics that argue it interferes withe Free Enterprise and lacks transparency, fevers certain regions and is able to pick economic winners and losers . Ive been very clear on this that it shouldnt be spending billions of dollars of taxpayer money buying land in one county and then discover we have a water problem and its taking water and resources from a Smaller Community to central indiana. Its inappropriate behavior. Under our leadership it was a place that businesses could come from allin over the state to get help dealing with the bureaucracy of government and that is the role that it would play under my leadership. I do not to believe that it should be the lead economic corporation. It should be the indiana Development Corporation and that is the kind of focus we are going to have, but we still need to businesses need help all over the state. People calls all the signage say im having a difficult time getting a permit, getting this information, and that is the proper function and at the role that we would play under my leadership. As governor i will flip the script on Economic Development. We will empower the local and Regional Development organizations to have true collaboration but also limiting the state income tax puts money into the hoosiers pockets and helps Small Businesses grow and attracts workers to indiana. The indiana Economic Development corporation is and what hoosiers want in the state of indiana. They want to be able to know where their property tax money is going. Actually what they want is no property tax. They want to be able to know why we put a whale of a company in the middle of a desert like situation where its going to take 2 million to get the water ton it which again they do not want this. Indiana Economic Development corporation have the Regional Office in china with billiondollar companies comes billions of strengths. We have to be aware when they come into our state they are also bringing all of their lobbyists and ideology. We need to rebuild indiana. There are many vacant buildings in our state that we can occupy. We do not have to expand. We can rebuild that will save taxpayer money you over saul that agency certainly under Eric Holcombs administration and were in place when the project took shape. Weigh in on that. A lot of people have referred to you. Its a terrific contrast between career politics and small thinking and big thinking that is going to put more money in the pockets. Under my leadership, for a dollaror a year i stepped away from my business, for a dollar a year we grow the economy by 51 billion and those are high wageli jobs. Wages, those are unacceptable to me. We went in and solved that with a high wage jobs transforming from kokomo to Saint Joe Company toto allen county. To say that it doesnt have a role, we are competing against ohio and North Carolina and you are either going to win or we are not. But they will take the jobs if we dont want them to keep our kids and grandkids here to keep the kids that are graduating two years ago i was sitting in south korea with the company. We wouldnt have that investment with highve wage jobs. We either plan to win or we are not. The big problem here it is a shadow government. We are w talking about a qualifd agency. Wehat are taking public money ad putting it into an organization that hidesk the lack of transparency all these things talked about, thats fine if you play aboveboard. Under my administration we will bring them any to make sure they are providing the resources across the board and in balance with of the rest of the state, not picking winners and losers and the project is a prime example of the state gone wrong. I see we have some interested parties that want to weigh in on this. We are going to deviate from the script about 15 seconds for each of you that wants to address this. I would love to go first. I j was noticing he didnt mentn boone county because that is having all the water taken from them. I met a man that was from boone county and he came up to me and said this is not our indiana anymore. I would like to know if he can address the many hoosiers in the state they dont feel like its theirn state of indiana anymore because they are not about the billions of dollars. Did you want to weigh in . As a former commission you have o to have collaboration and there hasnt been that collaboration between the state and local government. Thats absolutely critical. Thats why i want to end power of the organizations to have that true partnership. So again i think we need to have a 92 county strategy in which every community has an opportunity to be successful and where we recognize the Small Business startups drive our economy. We all enjoy and appreciate the large investments that are made but the businesses drive the economy. Could you get more time i think i can. Im kind of concern to the conce Lieutenant Governor is suggesting there needs to be something done about the Economic Development corporation. Thats part of the administration. We have two people here on stage that are a part of the problem. Weo. Are going to stick with the order and give time t to respon. We can spend our whole time on this but let me see where we go hiwith this. Take it away. Im going to need more. The fact that he defines tens of thousands of high wage jobs is a problem tells you hes not the right leader forht indiana. We need to grow our economy and put more money and peoples pockets to fix education, to support our police ander firefighters. Lt number two on water there is an abundance of water in the state with politicians like suzanne didnt take the time or have the interest in studying it and knowing that its an asset that we can use strategically against competitors like ohio and michigan and illinois so we have an abundance of water. Its a transportation issue bringing outside investment to pay for that, not taxpayers. Two people have suggested that youre a career politician and mr. Hill suggested you should have been more vocal perhaps with yourit concerns no. When i voted for the largest tax cut in our States History, first broadband expansion for families that are being victimized by and ended up standing for people struggling withp Mental Illness and addiction. Im proud of m