Indiana
Political debates are strange contests, but occasionally make choices clear • Indiana Capital Chronicle
 
																								
												
												
											 
Americans expect more from political debates than we often get. This year is quite an exception.
I watched the first Indiana gubernatorial debate with great interest on Oct. 2. The hour-long event featuring Jennifer McCormick (D) and Mike Braun (R) was only a few minutes in when I could tell this was likely going to be a good night for Democrats. Only a few minutes later, I found myself disappointed because I knew this important moment was not going to be seen by as many Hoosier voters as it should have been.
Both presidential debates delivered, at a minimum, a clear contrast between the participants that should drive decision making for voters. President Joe Biden’s awful debate performance in late June led to a rallying cry from many in his own party for him to drop out of the race. The performance illustrated his greatest vulnerability; that he was just too old for the job.
Importantly though, polling data after that bad night didn’t move all that much. One could conclude it didn’t matter as much to voters as it did to the political class. More likely though, it confirmed pessimism about Biden’s ability to inspire movement in his already sagging position.
His eventual and historic withdrawal from the race, and the rallying around Kamala Harris drastically changed everything.
Debates can do that, though they rarely do. Usually, the contests are exercises in bias confirmation. Dr. Conor Dawling, professor of political science at the University of Buffalo wrote, “Debates can help solidify, or reinforce, choices for folks who are already fairly to very certain which candidate they intend to support.” Yes, this is what we normally get out of them.
However, this year’s battles have delivered more than that several times now.
Gubernatorial contest
The McCormick/Braun debate last week is one of them. Any objective viewer should have been able to see several things. McCormick had a better grasp of the details of the job. She was better prepared for the predictable questions, and she was confident in her delivery from start to finish.
Braun gave, at best, a lackluster performance that raised more questions than it answered. I first wrote that the Republicans were running a campaign about nothing in its quest for the governor’s office last October. This is the third time I will remind Hoosiers of that sad truth.
I have seen gubernatorial campaigns, and the governing strategies that followed, which seemed to be designed around a “don’t make any mistakes” sort of game plan. Former Gov. Evan Bayh was committed to the strategy, and it served him well. Former Gov. Mike Pence was also committed to it, though he did make a few large, damaging mistakes during his one term in office.
Braun’s biggest mistake last week, on admittedly a much smaller scale, was comparable to Biden’s June failure. He appeared unprepared for the predictable questions, and his lack of sharpness made him appear old, a critique that he has largely avoided so far. His non-answers to one specific item made it abundantly clear to me that he would not be defending recent comments made by his running mate, Republican lieutenant governor nominee, Micah Beckwith.
Vice presidential contest
Which leads me to the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate between Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz. This battle was mostly weird, to use one of Walz’s favorite descriptors, in that they were incredibly polite to each other. Walz was nervous and misspoke in a few cringe-worthy ways. Vance was slick and comfortable in the delivery of what amounted to a fact-checkers dream. Again, to the objective viewer, I would have to say that Vance appeared to “win,” if truth-telling didn’t matter.
But a funny thing happened in the post-debate polling. While many viewers saw it my way,
Walz’s favorability went up more than Vance’s did. Huh? The conclusion was that his every man persona was enhanced by his lack of comfort in that environment. So, did he win by losing, or was this a true exercise in a contest that had no prize to give?
I have never thought that the best arguer was a designation or talent that always equates to the best leader. If that were the case, I know some litigators who would thump every single person mentioned in this column like that giant bass drum the Purdue marching band drags around.
However, I am a believer that conversations are the best way to get to know a person. This belief drives my teaching philosophy to my speech students. I want them to connect with their audiences and make sure those audiences know them better, not just their topic, when they’re through.
With that goal in mind, the debates this year have been fantastic.
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																															Indiana
Indiana University reverses course, allows student newspaper to resume print
 
														 
	In a reversal, Indiana University Bloomington Chancellor David Reingold will allow the Indiana Daily Student to resume print editions this semester.
	In a letter to the IDS editors, Reingold said he will allow the paper to use its budget through the end of the fiscal year as the editors see fit. He also called for a “reset” with the paper and asked to “affirm what unites us.”
	IDS co-editors-in-chief Andrew Miller and Mia Hilkowitz described it as a win for student media but cautioned the campus community against considering the matter resolved.
	“We do want to make sure that we ourselves and our community and our faculty and our alumni and everybody keep the administration here to their word,” Miller said to WFIU/WTIU News. “Thus far, it’s been kind of hard to trust their word, quite honestly.”
	“The last time IU had a committee to look at student media, they didn’t fully follow their recommendations,” Hilkowitz said, referring to a recently announced task force on press freedom and the existing student media plan.
	“We would want more confirmation that that’s going to be binding. Also, I’m going to stand by the fact that I think our staff and the faculty and students of the media school deserve an apology.”
	The university’s decision to end print editions coincided with it firing the director of student media Jim Rodenbush, who refused to remove news from a planned Homecoming edition at the university’s direction.
	Earlier Thursday,Rodenbush filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Indiana claiming IU violated his First Amendment rights.
	Since then, the perception that IU censored its student paper has cost the school at least $1 million in donations and provoked the ire of faculty.
	Reingold said the perception that he attempted to censor editorial content was “not grounded in fact.”
	“Indiana University has never attempted to censor editorial content, period,” he wrote. “The IDS is, and remains, editorially independent.”
	He did not address the directive given to Rodenbush to remove news from the Homecoming print issue.
	The chancellor admitted the “campus has not handled recent matters as well as we should have. Communication was uneven and timing imperfect.”
	He stopped short of an apology, saying that the decision to end print editions was a long-term financial plan to staunch the paper’s nearly $300,000 annual deficit.
	The student media plan calls for limiting print to a few special editions per semester, but it also calls for preserving the IDS print product as a “critical learning experience for student media workers.”
	Ethan Sandweiss is a multimedia journalist for WFIU and WTIU.
Indiana
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to speak in NW Indiana Thursday
 
														 
CHICAGO (WLS) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will visit northwest Indiana Thursday.
She’s expected to bring updates on the immigration enforcement that’s happening across the area.
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Secretary Kristi Noem will give an update on recent immigration enforcement deemed “Operation Midway Blitz,” which Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino has called “wildly successful” in an interview with ABC News earlier this week.
She will be joined by Indiana governor Mike Braun in Gary along with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, among others.
SEE ALSO: Court pauses order requiring CBP Chief Bovino to meet with judge daily on immigration operations
Her visit has been met with some criticism, though, from other local northwest Indiana leaders.
Gary’s Mayor Eddie Melton said his office was not involved with planning the event and is not participating.
Hammond’s Mayor Thomas McDermott also posting on Facebook, criticizing how the press conference was announced.
Counter-protests are expected later Thursday morning.
RELATED | Chicago federal intervention: Tracking surge in immigration enforcement operations | Live updates
Bovino says nearly 3,000 people have been arrested in the Chicago area, as part of “Midway Blitz.”
The expanded immigration enforcement started in September.
Wednesday night, Governor Pritzker sent a letter to Secretary Noem, requesting a pause in ICE enforcement this weekend in and around homes, schools, hospitals, parks and place of worship, so children can safely celebrate Halloween.
The governor referenced an incident in his letter this past weekend in Old Irving Park – in which he says, federal agents reportedly interrupted a children’s Halloween parade and deployed tear gas without warning – on residents peacefully celebrating the holiday.
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Indiana
Indiana BMV reports another text-related scam impacting Hoosiers
 
														 
INDIANAPOLIS — Officials with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles are warning Indiana residents of a new scam that is being sent to Hoosiers via text.
According to a news release from the Indiana BMV, the scam asks the user for overdue payments over text, including traffic violations or unpaid tolls. The text reportedly “strongly” mimics the BMV’s mobile website and improperly cites Indiana code.
Officials said the messages should be considered fraudulent. The BMV is urging people who receive the message to delete it immediately and not click on any links.
This is not the first time that the Indiana BMV has been the subject of scam texts. According to previous reports, a scam was sent out to some Indiana residents from the “Indiana Department of Vehicles” regarding outstanding traffic tickets in early June.
“We want to make it clear that these messages are not from the Indiana BMV,” the release said. “The BMV does not send SMS text messages about outstanding penalties. In fact, the fees outlined in the messages are not ones that the agency actually collects.”
For a list of known BMV-related scams, click here.
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