Veteran incumbent, newcomer facing off in Senate Dist. 5 race
Creating new jobs and crafting a state budget post-COVID-19 pandemic are the top issues for the two candidates for Indiana Senate Dist. 5.
Democrat Luke Bohm, 25, of Valparaiso, a political newcomer, faces Republican Ed Charbonneau, 77, also of Valparaiso, who was appointed to the seat and then ran for it in 2008.
Bohm, a St. John native, lived on the East Coast before returning to the area and moving to Valparaiso two years ago. He owns a small business in St. John and earned a bachelor’s degree at Campbell University before getting a master’s degree in political science at Princeton University.
Charbonneau has lived in Valparaiso for 40 years and has worked as an executive manager and attorney for U.S. Steel, as well as serving as the executive director of the Northwest Indiana Forum and president/ CEO of Methodist Hospitals, and also has been involved with the Shared Ethics Advisory Commission.
Bohm said his biggest priority if elected to his first six-year term in the Senate would be stopping the regression of jobs and population in the state.
“We’re losing jobs at an exponential level
in our state and we need to look forward to the next five, 10, 15 years,” he said. “I would work with my partners across the aisle to try to bring clean energy jobs to our state.”
Over the next 20 years, Bohm said, the global market for clean energy jobs is expected to be $1 trillion.
“With Indiana being a manufacturing mecca 30 or 40 years ago, we can make that happen again,” he said.
A lot of clean energy companies are looking to come to North America from Europe and Asia, Bohm said. Bohm said he would work with his fellow senators to talk with the companies about their needs and craft incentives to bring them here.
The state, Bohm said, already has the land and infrastructure in place for large manufacturing, as well as what Bohm called “a great workforce.”
While other candidates and legislators are tackling public education, labor and lakefront erosion, Bohm is focusing on jobs.
“When we have representative government, there’s enough issues to go around,” he said.
Charbonneau has his eyes on the state’s biennial budget, which will be crafted next year, and how that might look because of an expected revenue drop because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is our budget writing session. As you might i magine, revenues are down everywhere in the state,” Chabonneau said.
Still, the legislature has been frugal and fiscally conservative, he said, building up a $2.3 billion rainy day found. While a lot of people said the state should be spending the money, elected officials said it would be needed for a cyclical economy.
“It started raining in March of this year,” Charbonneau said, referring to the start of the pandemic and the resulting stay at home order.
The state spent down about $900 million of the surplus as result of the pandemic, Charbonneau said, eliminating the need for the state to borrow funds to get by.
While many entities want more money as the next two-year budget unfolds, Charbonneau said, legislators will have to see where the state’s finances stand and will get a picture of predicted revenue in December.
He said there are an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the committee that looks at that forecast, and everyone agrees with what it projects.
“Hopefully, by then we’ll be well into a recovery,” he said.