In a last minute effort to gain the approval of voters in the Muncie community, gubernatorial democratic candidate John Gregg and his running mate Vi Simpson, made their last stop at the Fickle Peach Bar to rally voters.
The Fickle Peach was the last of seven stops Tuesday for the democratic candidates who were able to meet-and-greet with Muncie community members who support their campaign.
Simpson, who arrived before Gregg, kicked off the campaign by encouraging voters to spread the word.
“Competition is all we can do,” Simpson said. “What’s left is for us to pass the torch to you.”
Gregg discussed his plans for after the election, starting with his plan to employ workers in Indiana.
“Senator Simpson and I have a plan to create 97,000 jobs for roads and bridges costing 3.5 billion dollars with money we’ve got,” Gregg said. “We don’t spend the surplus, we don’t even have assets.”
The next plan Gregg discussed is implementing a new budget for the state.
“I’d push through a budget, but my problem is how we are going to push it into Congress, how we’re going to create jobs,” Gregg said. “We’ve talked about infrastructure jobs, to build some bridges which would use Ball State architects.“We’ve got a plan to expand exports, we’ve got a plan also to help companies that want to reshore and come back to Indiana.”
Gregg announced that he is down three points to Republican Mike Pence in the polls, a close trail this late in the election.
Pence made a statement about what his vision of the ideal family, which he said consists of a mom and a dad in a traditional marriage. Gregg said the statement was an insult to him and his family.
“He came out with his family impact emphasis,” Gregg said. “I’m a single dad, me and my boys are family and that’s an insult to me to imply that I’m not.”
Gregg said the election is now in the hands of the remaining Republican voters.
“We’ve got Lugar Republicans in Indiana so I challenge people to look beyond that party label,” Gregg said. “We’ve got Republicans that are not Tea Party Republicans like Congressman Pence, they are people who believe in cooperation, collaboration.”
“They want their officials to get along and we’ve been reaching out to them the entire two years because of his extreme agenda,” Gregg said. “That’s why we are so close in the polls.”
Gregg also attacked Pence’s lack of effort to fix the Department of Children’s Services, which he said is a growing problem in Indiana.
“We’ve got a broken state agency that is an embarrassment, it’s called Department of Children’s Services,” Gregg said. That’s a department that is broken, children are hurting and suffering every day in the state of Indiana, and I’m going to get a group of prosecutors, law enforcement officials, investigators, current employees, social workers and they’re going to be working night and day until the day I’m sworn in.”
Sue Errington, democratic candidate for Mayor Dennis Tyler’s empty state seat, said Gregg and Simpson’s stop in Muncie has benefitted her campaign.
“That’s what this kind of tour is supposed to do, to get the people who support you to come out and get excited and volunteer to make phone calls, knock on doors,” Errington said. “Up until now it’s really been about educating the voters about their campaign and what they stand for.”
Gregg and Simpson will be traveling to 72 cities around Indiana to campaign for the last time before the election.
“We’re just trying to get our message out, asking people to look beyond the party labels, asking them to vote for themselves and their future and we’re slowly making progress,” Gregg said.
