U.S. Senate candidate Brad Ellsworth came to Ball State on Tuesday to speak with students about the issues most important to his campaign, answer questions and discuss the importance of voting on Election Day.
"We're going to turn this country over to you, and it's going to happen before you know it, and you have to be ready to take it over," Ellsworth said. "It's our responsibility to leave it in better shape than we found it."
Ellsworth said he wants to be a senator to continue the work of the current Senate.
"I don't want to be the best political person in the world," he said. "I just hope I can improve on what the people before me did."
Ellsworth was elected sheriff of Vanderburgh County in southwest Indiana in 1982. In 2006, he became the congressman for District 8 after defeating six-term Republican incumbent John Hostettler. He announced his candidacy for Senate on Feb. 19 and was selected by the Democratic Party on May 15.
During his visit, Ellsworth took time to address the audience's questions. Many of the issues that concerned those present dealt with the health care reform bill, gay marriage and the recall of "don't ask, don't tell."
"We're spending billions of dollars kicking people out of the service because we find out they are gay or lesbians," Ellsworth said. "We're putting policies in place that are telling people to lie to their superior officers. When somebody says they will go fight for our country, I think they should have to right to go."
One viewpoint Ellsworth had in opposition with some students present was the issue of gay marriage. Ellsworth said he respects other's viewpoints, but he believes marriage should stay between a man and a woman. He said he thinks this will remain a state issue.
"For [Ellsworth] to say that [this issue] won't hit the federal level, it's important for us to know where we need to focus our attention at the state level," said Chris Griffith, campus director for University Democrats. "It that is some thing that we really feel is important."
Ellsworth also expressed his views on the current job market. He said it is important for the government to negotiate and enforce good trade agreements, deregulate business, separate large businesses from small businesses and offer a more permanent tax structure to give businesses more stability.
"The first thing we have to do is stabilize the economy. If have to put people back to work, health care is part of the economy and we have to fix that," he said. "The federal government has to create an atmosphere that allows private companies to grow."
Nolan Born, University Democrats president, was at the event and said he enjoyed hearing Ellsworth's opinion on health care and "don't ask, don't tell" as well as his thoughts on student involvement.
"Students need to step up, because if they step up, their voice will be heard," Born said. "There is a reason why politicians don't pay attention to students, because they believe students won't vote. We prove them wrong by voting."
Some student Republicans attended the speech as well.
"If you're not going to vote for someone, you should know why you're not going to vote for them," said Gordon Heck, who works with College Republicans. "He voted for the health care bill, but we need to be free to not have health care if we want to."
Holly Gillham, College Republicans public relations chairwoman, said there was another reason for Republicans to be at the event.
"Our purpose here is to provide students with another choice."
Overall, University Democrats, which planned the event, were pleased with Ellsworth's visit.
"There were a decent amount of students, but I would have liked to see more," Griffith said. "I think it's great that Ball State can be that vessel for community members to get involved as well. Our mission is to connect people with politics and we're getting that done person by person."
Republican candidate Dan Coats came to Ball State last month to address many of the same issues Ellsworth talked about, such as the job market.
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