Home General News Opposing Democratic Attorney General Candidates Target Republican Incumbent Hill

Opposing Democratic Attorney General Candidates Target Republican Incumbent Hill

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Opposing Democratic Attorney General Candidates Target Republican Incumbent Hill

Doug Ross

NORTHWEST INDIANA TIMES

Karen Tallian and Jonathan Weinzapfel are opponents seeking the Democratic nomination for Indiana attorney general, but their target is clearly incumbent Curtis Hill, a Republican.

“Curtis Hill has to go. He just has to go,” state Sen. Tallian, of Ogden Dunes, said Saturday.

“I cannot recall one time, one opinion, where I agreed with Curtis Hill,” she said.

“His actions are a stain on the national character,” said Weinzapfel, a former Evansville mayor.

Both candidates spoke during an online debate Saturday sponsored by the Young Democrats organizations in Lake and Porter counties.

Both Weinzapfel and Tallian agreed that their first action would be to pull Indiana out of the federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Weinzapfel noted the irony of Indiana’s involvement in the case.

Even as Hill pursues this action, Gov. Eric Holcomb is seeking federal permission for a 10-year extension to Indiana’s participation in the Medicaid expansion program. Vice President Mike Pence expanded Medicaid in the state under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, popularly referred to as Obamacare, when Pence was governor.

If the federal law is overturned, not only would the Medicaid recipients be affected, but also the 2.5 million Hoosiers with preexisting conditions,” Weinzapfel said. The ACA forbids insurance companies from denying coverage on the basis of preexisting conditions.

“Yes, I would be an activist attorney general on climate change issues,” Tallian said.

Electing Joe Biden president would go a long way toward ending what the Trump administration is seeking, Weinzapfel said.

Hill is spending Indiana taxpayers’ money on “frivolous lawsuits” that push a right-wing agenda on issues involving women, LGBTQ rights “and a whole lot of things I just can’t abide,” Tallian said.

Both candidates favor reform on cannabis use.

“Indiana hasn’t kept up,” Weinzapfel said. “Even Kentucky is building rational policy.”

Tallian has been outspoken on the issue.

“I was the first person to come out in the Statehouse nine or 10 years ago when everyone else was afraid to touch it,” she said.

When she began pushing for decriminalization, there were 15,000 arrests a year for simple possession. Now there are 22,000, she said.

“We’re going in the wrong direction,” Tallian said.

FOOTNOTE: May 4: Voter registration deadline.

This article was posted by the CCO without opinion, bias, or editing.

 

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