A N I N D I A N A D A I LY S T U D E N T S P E C I A L P U B L I C A T I O N • I D S N E W S . C O M / V O T E R G U I D E • M O N D AY, N O V . 5 , 2 0 1 2
The 2012
VOTER GUIDE Still deciding who you want to elect in the national, statewide and local races? On the eve of the election, there’s still time to get informed and cast your ballot. Peer inside for a polling places map and brief profiles of all the candidates on your Monroe County ballot.
INSIDE THE GUIDE Where to vote, page B2 State and local candidate profiles, page B3 For extensive coverage of the 2012 election, visit idsnews.com/voterguide
ILLUSTRATIONS BY BEN WADE | IDS
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MCT CAMPUS
M E E T T H E P R E S I D E N T I A L C A N D I D AT E S
Mitt Romney, Republican Running mate Paul Ryan
Barack Obama, Democrat
Gary Johnson, Libertarian
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Running mate Joe Biden
R
omney, 65, was governor of Massachusetts from 2003-07, presiding over a legislature dominated by Democrats. The unemployment rate in the state fell from 5.6 percent to 4.7 percent during his tenure. Before serving in government, Romney was a business leader and CEO of consulting firm Bain & Company and founded and led Bain Capital, a private investment firm specializing in launching and salvaging businesses. Romney was chief executive of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Romney’s “Plan for a Stronger Middle Class” includes achieving energy independence, increasing skills, jobs training and access to education, building trade and strengthening free enterprise, cutting the deficit, championing small business through reduced taxes and regulation and replacing the Affordable Care Act with “real health reform that controls cost and improves care,” according to mittromney.com. Romney supports increasing military resources and building missile defense. He plans to reform veterans affairs policies and supports protection of Israel and the building of a “democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security” with Israel. He supports building stronger ties with Iraqi leaders and preserving democratic ideals in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring. Romney’s plan includes preserving and strengthening Medicare and Social Security and would make a 20 percent cut in marginal tax rates, eliminate the Death Tax, repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax and eliminate taxes for taxpayers with AGI below $200,000 on interest, dividends and capital gains. He plans to cap federal spending at 20 percent of gross domestic product.
orn in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, President Obama is a Columbia University and Harvard Law School graduate. At Harvard, he was editor and president of the Harvard Law Review. The longtime Chicagoan began working as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago. He also taught at the University of Chicago Law School. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, a position he had through 2004. He served as a U.S. Senator from 2005-08. In 2008, he was elected President of the United States. Obama has geared his messages around the economy. He believes investment in education, research and technology is the key to growing American jobs. He wants to double American exports during the next five years by promoting goods made in the U.S. and lessening trade barriers. Reformation of the tax code is a means through which Obama plans to reduce the national deficit. He believes his plan combining spending cuts and revenue increase will reduce the deficit by $4 trillion during the next decade. A focus of the Obama plan will be ending the War in Afghanistan and using monies of war to instead help rebuild American infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, and also help reduce the deficit. In terms of energy, Obama wants to develop natural gas production to reduce dependency on foreign oil. In addition, the president wants to end government subsidies for oil companies and instead invest in clean energy sources. Obama wants to invest in education by cutting the growth of college tuition, continuing to invest in Pell Grants and recruit and prepare 100,000 math and science teachers to make the U.S. a leader in those fields.
— Claire Wiseman
— Matthew Glowicki
Running mate Jim Gray
ohnson, 59, was the Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995-03. He proudly touts his veto record, which is higher than all other governors combined. Before entering politics, Johnson started a construction company and founded the OUR America Initiative, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that promotes fiscal responsibility and civil liberties. Johnson’s platform includes balancing the budget, enacting entitlement reform, increasing transparency in the Federal Reserve, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, enacting a tax on expenditures, eliminating business taxes, eliminating federal intervention in business bailouts, abolishing the Department of Education, repealing the Patriot Act, decreasing the power of the Transportation Security Administration, supporting abortion rights and marriage equality, ending military activity in Afghanistan and legalizing marijuana. Johnson supports gun rights, opposes government-run health care and supports Medicare/Medicaid reform. He opposes government subsidies and incentives for specific energy resources and supports using a cost-benefit analysis for environmental regulation. —Claire Wiseman