Randolph residents vying for seat

The next District 33 representative will be from Randolph County.
Republican precinct representatives from District 33 will choose from three candidates — Randolph County residents Greg Beumer, Noel Carpenter and Claudia Thornburg — to fill the seat in the Indiana House of Representatives that Bill Davis (R-Portland) vacated earlier this month. They will make their selection at a caucus at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the commissioners’ room at Randolph County Courthouse.
Carpenter filed as a candidate Friday after Thornburg and Beumer had both filed last week.
Milo Miller Jr., chairman of the Republican Party in Jay County, said last week that several Jay County residents expressed interest in the position. But none had filed by the 5 p.m. Friday deadline.
The district includes all of Jay and Randolph counties and part of Delaware County.
All three candidates have experience in government in Randolph County, and Beumer (1992) and Carpenter (2000) have both lost previous races for state representative.
Beumer, a Modoc resident, runs a consulting firm in Winchester. He has served as a Randolph County Commissioner, a member of the Union School Board and twice as the executive director of Randolph County Economic Development Corporation. He and his wife Kathy have four grown children.
Carpenter is a rural Winchester resident and graduate of Purdue University. He was the assessor in Randolph County for 20 years and also served one term as a commissioner. He and his wife Linda have five grown children.
Thornburg is also a rural Winchester resident who spent seven years as county clerk. She currently serves as a first deputy in the clerk’s office and chairman of the Republican Party in Randolph County. She and her husband Ed have two grown children.
In phone interviews Friday, Thornburg and Carpenter put education on the top of the list of key issues facing the state.
Carpenter, noting that two of his children work as teachers, said it is important that the state have the best possible teachers in the classroom.
“Education is important,” said Thornburg, expressing similar sentiments.
“My children are grown, but I have six grandchildren. Four of them are in school right now.”
Beumer said his top focus is “saving rural Indiana.”
He included improving schools as a priority in that effort, as well as helping create more vibrant economies in the downtown and industrial sectors of small towns.
The other candidates also addressed economic issues, with Thornburg saying she wants to help make sure those who are underprivileged are able to find jobs and make a living wage in order to take care of their families.
Carpenter’s thoughts about the economy centered on fiscal responsibility.
“Budgets are always a big deal,” he said. “A balanced budget is keeping our state on a strong financial basis. And I want to keep taxes as low as possible.”
Each candidate took a different view of another hot topic in Indiana news, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Thornburg is for the amendment because, she noted, the Bible says homosexuality is wrong.
Carpenter indicated that he believes people should be able to marry whomever they want, but that same-sex marriage should not be sanctioned by the state.
Beumer didn’t comment on the issue of homosexuality itself, but rather said he sees the proposed amendment as a constitutional issue.
“A constitution, whether it’s our federal constitution or state constitution, in my opinion, is a very precious document. Certainly it’s a fluid document, it’s a working document,” he said. “But to use that process as a way to do what some people would consider to provide a discrimination is not the answer to the problem in my opinion.”
Each candidate will have a chance to speak at Monday’s caucus.
Precinct committee representatives will then vote by secret ballot, with the winner to be sworn in as part of the Indiana General Assembly’s Organization Day on Tuesday.
Davis, who had served in the Indiana House for nine years, resigned as the District 33’s representative earlier this month in order to become the executive director of the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
There are about 13 months left on his term.

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