Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, said in a commentary published Wednesday by the Washington Times that his teenage mother had considered terminating her pregnancy with him.Jackie Walorski bragged about Indiana’s state government instead of bashing President Obama during her remarks to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
Most of the 17 other congressional candidates who spoke Tuesday afternoon used their time to tear into the president. They accused him of driving up federal spending, the national debt and unemployment while trampling on Americans’ constitutional rights.
North Carolina congressional candidate David Rouzer said Obama “believes America is the problem.”
Walorski, the GOP candidate in Indiana’s 2nd District, did not mention Obama. Rather, she talked about Indiana state government accomplishments she attributed to “common sense, hard work and problem solving.”
The legislature “turned a billion-dollar (budget) deficit into a surplus. We understood that when you have a deficit, spending more money is not the solution,” said Walorski, a state lawmaker from Elkhart County from 2005 through 2010.
Unspecified reforms “made it easier to do business and create jobs in our great state. … We are among the nation’s leaders in job growth,” Walorski said.
“In the Hoosier State, we proved a very simple lesson: Working together is the best way to solve our problems, and Washington can do the same,” she said.
Walorski used the words “Hoosier” or “Hoosiers” six times during her remarks, which ran less than three minutes.
Walorski is running for an open House seat against Democrat Brendan Mullen of Granger and Libertarian Joseph Ruiz.
Mullen spokesman Andy Reynolds said in an email, “If Jackie were serious about tackling those problems, she would be back here, at home in Indiana talking to voters and engaging in an exchange of ideas, instead of flying off to Tampa to chase political spotlights that don’t create a single job in Indiana.”
Mullen has said he will not attend next week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Walorski is the only Indiana resident scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention. She also ran for Congress in 2010, losing to Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd. Donnelly is running for a Senate seat in the Nov. 5 general election.
