Published: October 04, 2006 11:05 pm         

Mark Bennett: Hostettler, Ellsworth still have work to do to convince undecided voters

VINCENNES — If undecided Hoosiers watching Wednesday night’s John Hostettler-Brad Ellsworth debate were waiting for a “you’re no Jack Kennedy” zinger to help them choose between the two congressional candidates, they probably went to bed unsure.

The small live audience inside the WVUT studios included two young undecided voters from Terre Haute, and they left the same way.

With a month left before the Nov. 7 election, Ellsworth — the Vanderburgh County sheriff and Democrat challenger — and Hostettler — the six-term Republican incumbent in the 8th District — may still have to convince those yet to make up their minds.

Did they distinguish themselves on Wednesday?

“No, I felt like they kept saying the same things,” said Michelle Jordan, an 18-year-old Indiana State University freshman from Terre Haute. She trekked to Vincennes for Wednesday’s debate, organized by the League of Women Voters, without having chosen. When pressed if she was closer to a decision, Jordan favored Ellsworth.

“I just liked his attitude a little bit better,” Jordan said.

But one seat over sat Katherine Rompf, an 18-year-old senior from Terre Haute North Vigo High School. Like Jordan, Rompf did not think the two men persuaded her to pick. But, if forced, she is leaning toward Hostettler.

“I’m thinking maybe because he was more experienced,” she explained, “but it would be good to have someone new.”

When Ellsworth agreed with Hostettler on topics, such as bringing troops home from the Iraq war as soon as possible, Hostettler made a point to note that to viewers. At the outset, he accused Ellsworth of trying to “sound like John Hostettler.”

The best chances to separate the two men came when moderator Lynn Rump asked them to list their top three priorities. Ellsworth said listening to the people in the district and meeting them in person often was his main objective, as well as working across party lines to sell Indiana to potential employers. Hostettler insisted his conversations with 8th District voters tells him that illegal immigration is their primary concern, followed by continued work with the Crane Naval Weapons complex and the completion of a new Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Evansville.

Sean Feeney, a sophomore at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and president of that engineering school’s new College Democrats chapter, thought those priorities may help voters choose.

“They definitely made an effort,” he said.

One of their most glaring contrasts came when Rump asked them if they’d favor an increase in the minimum wage from its current $5.15 per hour, where it has remained since 1997.

Hostettler stated his firm opposition, and insisted that most minimum-wage workers aren’t actually poor, but instead are made up of the young. He backed his statement by saying that economists can link such increases to inflation. Ellsworth disagreed with the assertion that such earners are mostly high-schoolers and college students, and mentioned the idea of a married couple, both earning minimum wage, living below the poverty level. “There’s a lot of wasteful spending going on, and we can afford to raise the minimum wage,” he said.

As they stood on the set, waiting for the debate to begin, both men were left in awkward silence for nearly 5 minutes as the audience sat quietly. Before it began, they made little eye contact. Ellsworth, in a dark suit and striped tie, listened while Hostettler, also in a dark suit and solid tie, opened his remarks by claiming that the sheriff’s only certain vote as a potential congressman would be to back the Democrats’ only likely speaker of the House candidate, liberal Nancy Pelosi.

Ellsworth, who later pointed out the number of times Hostettler had voted in agreement with Pelosi, opened his remarks by saying that Washington politicians had stopped listening to the people in their district.

An hour later, they ended in much the same way.

And as Rump looked at Ellsworth and Hostettler, she told the TV audience before signing off, “You have certainly given the voters of Eighth District something to think about.”