Race for redrawn Dist. 1 takes turn
Griffin and Dernulc fighting for seat
Indiana State Sen. Michael Griffin has learned several things while campaigning to keep his seat in the newly redistricted District 1, not the least of which is deflecting cattiness in what’s turned into one of the nastier races this cycle.
A mailer that dropped Tuesday
and was sent by Griffin’s opponent, the campaign of Lake County Republican Chairman Daniel Dernulc, for example, uses a picture Griffin posted to social media Aug. 25 in which Griffin is sweaty and disheveled after canvassing a neighborhood.
The mailer’s other side shows Dernulc smiling in a clean T-shirt next to a set of boxing gloves.
“My rival has enjoyed using this picture, which shows (a) real hot day of walking in Senate district One, meeting my future bosses, and the people I hope to continue serving,” Griffin posted to social media Tuesday night.
“Thankful for my local dry cleaner I am,”
Griffin said in the post while channeling his inner
Yoda.
Although Griffin appeared to brush off the mailer, he’s “profoundly disappointed” with the tenor of Dernulc’s campaign, he told the Post-Tribune, particularly because the Senate Majority Campaign Committee — the state Republican campaign caucus — has spent $212,030 on Dernulc for campaign mailings and $115,500 on digital advertising in the district, according to campaign finance filings.
Dernulc, Griffin said, has made his campaign more about disparaging him and suggesting his votes mean “things that they utterly do not rather than make a positive case for his own candidacy.”
The Post-Tribune asked Dernulc and Griffin to respond to the same questions; Dernulc was also asked to explain some of the claims he made in his mailers, such as how Griffin could’ve raised taxes and released prisoners as a senator in the minority party with only eight weeks on the job.
Dernulc didn’t respond.
Inflation
The state, Griffin admits, is limited in what it can do to alleviate inflation, but there are steps it can take to bring some relief. He said he wrote a letter to Gov. Eric Holcomb urging him to suspend the gas tax for the summer, taking the money from the revenue surplus the state enjoys; when Holcomb instead offered a $250 rebate for Hoosiers, Griffin voted for the $200 rebate that ultimately came before the General Assembly. Griffin said he also voted to lower the state income tax rate, eliminate the utility receipts tax and the retail sales tax on diapers as forms of relief.
If elected to a full term, Griffin would consider reviewing and modifying the way sales tax is calculated to a real calculation of the 7% added to gas purchases rather than using a statewide average retail price and then calculating rateper-gallon as it is now.
Dernulc said in one of his mailers that he voted against Lake County’s local income tax increase and supports the state’s efforts to send taxpayers $200 apiece from the state’s surplus; as well, he’ll vote against wasteful spending and tax increases if elected. Also, in his role as District 4 Lake County Councilman, Dernulc recently allocated $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to five communities and TradeWinds in Merrillville.
Crime
Griffin, who the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police endorsed, voted against eliminating the gun-carry permit and said he will work for Ways and Means Committee to extend the safety grants for the 291 schools in the state “to make sure that our teachers and our students have a safe and optimal environment in which teachers can teach and students can learn.”
Dernulc said in one of his mailers that he’s voted to increase the Lake County Sheriff’s Police Department’s pay and to provide better training and equipment for it in his councilman capacity. In a different mailer, Dernulc accuses Griffin of voting “to make it easier for violent criminals to be released from jail”; what Griffin voted against was a law exclusive to Marion County that put heavy restrictions on faith organizations and not-for-profits but excluded bail bondsmen.
Abortion
Griffin said he voted against Indiana’s reproductive health ban because he believes abortion is a decision that should rest with “a woman, her health provider and her faith.”
“A matter this private and rooted in conscience should not be dictated by government. I stand by this,” he said.
Griffin’s additionally concerned that while Indiana’s current law — which has been stayed by the Indiana Supreme Court and will be heard next year — provides for exceptions for life of the mother, “the existing language lacks sufficient clarity to make most health care providers confident that they can act under its provisions, which places mothers at risk.” Therefore, depending on the court’s decision, the General Assembly should act to clarify when health providers can medically intervene when the mother’s life is involved, he said.
Dernulc previously told the Post-Tribune that he “was pleased” by the United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade because he’s anti-abortion and wouldn’t comment on what type of abortion legislation he would support.
Education
Griffin said the state, as part of property-tax reform, assumed responsibility for most of the educational funding for public schools. He thinks the current funding approach should be refurbished, and if he’s elected, will use his 32 years of professional public finance experience during the long budget session to move toward a “stable, reliable funding level for the fixed costs for all schools.”
As for the bills that attempted to give parents direct say over teachers’ lesson plans and allow children to opt out of certain lessons, Griffin said he opposed it and credited “teachers from all over the state — and many, many from Northwest Indiana — as the real heroes in successfully fighting that bill.”
Dernulc said in a mailer that he will “ensure parents will remain in control and are heard at school board meetings”; “fully fund the schools”; “support our teachers”; and “focus on the basics and delivering a quality education” without explaining how he’ll do any of those things.
He also accused Griffin of “silencing parents” for voting against legislation mandating public comment periods for parents at school board meetings, but Griffin, who has a school-aged child, said that bill “didn’t go far enough” because it doesn’t require public comments be heard from those who attend meetings electronically, such as over Zoom, and that it should to increase accessibility.
Medicaid
If Republicans win a majority on the national level, their 12-point plan singles out Social Security and Medicare as two items it wants to profoundly change. Griffin said he hopes those changes don’t come to pass.
“As you know, Indiana relies on waivers granted under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which allows the state’s Medicaid allocations to resource the Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0 also known as HIP 2.0,” Griffin said about the state’s Medicaid expansion plan which has helped nearly 700,000 get coverage and nearly cut the state’s uninsured rate in half, from 14% in 2013 to 7.5% in 2021.
Dernulc didn’t respond.
2020 election
Griffin said that if he loses, he would seek a recount only if the margins are close enough that it could make a difference. Otherwise, he “believes in democracy.”
“I believe that I am bound by my oath to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Indiana, an oath I have uttered in all of my public experience,” Griffin said. “In all the elections in which I have stood for office as a candidate — whether local or statewide — I have always accepted the electoral outcome according to the laws governing elections.”
A year after Jan. 6 riot, Dernulc told the Post-Tribune that people need to be civil and work together in order to move the country forward.
“Although a lot of us might have our concerns about the election — there’s been a lot of talk of it having been stolen — show me the facts, show me the proof and we will go from there,” Dernulc said.
Dernulc said he thinks people were upset about the outcome of the election when they converged on the Capitol that day. A lot of those people felt there was fraud in the election.
“I believe it was an issue. Was it enough to put the results aside? I don’t know. I have not seen proof,” Dernulc told the Post-Tribune this year.