ELKHART — The five Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate drew rousing applause Saturday for their views on government spending and other issues at a forum sponsored by tea party activists.
What they weren't asked to discuss was job creation.
Elkhart County in northern Indiana has been hard hit by the recession — in large part because of its devastating effect on the RV industry.
Unemployment in the county peaked at nearly 19 percent in March 2009, and was still the highest among Indiana's 92 counties a year later at 15.2 percent. President Barack Obama visited Elkhart in February 2009 and nearby Wakarusa that August.
The candidates — former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, former Rep. John Hostettler, state Sen. Marlin Stutzman of Howe, financial adviser Don Bates Jr. of Winchester and Fishers businessman Richard Behney — all took part in the two-hour round table at River of Life Community Church.
They're on the May 4 primary ballot, with the winner likely to face Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth in November for the seat being vacated by Democrat Evan Bayh.
They did little to distinguish themselves on the issues Saturday, all blaming Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress for runaway government spending and bigger government.
Bates drew whoops and hollers for an idea he said would help change the spending culture in Washington.
"I'm asking senators and congressmen to take a 5 percent pay cut," Bates said. "I believe it sends a message to Main Street. We have to start building trust between Main Street and Washington."
Coats, who served in the Senate from 1988 to 1998, said the level of spending was unsustainable.
"We are headed toward bankruptcy as a country," he said. "It's a bubble that's going to burst."
Hostettler said he voted against deficit budgets as a congressman from 1995 to early 2007.
He said the people didn't need somebody who says he would vote the right way on spending, "but someone who has voted the right way."
Several people said afterward that all the candidates were worthy of election but they hadn't decided who to vote for.
Greg Eby, 55, of Elkhart, said he was a "Johnny come lately" tea party participant who favored limited government and strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. He said he saw nothing that made any of the Senate candidates stand out.
"I'm still in a quandary of trying to narrow down my choice," he said.
Mayrea Reusser of Elkhart, who said she was in her mid-50s, said before the forum that she hoped the candidates would discuss job creation in detail.
She said she and her husband own a small auto parts refurbishing business that over the last several years that has gone from 20 employees to five. She said it was cheaper to buy new auto parts from China instead of buying parts recycled here.
"We have lost a lot of jobs overseas," she said.
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