It was election day here in New Albany, and we saw the Republicans sweep the state house.  They now have a super majority, leaving no need for compromise or bipartisanship.  Indiana voters seemed to endorse the bipartisan nature of Joe Donnelly, when they voted to send him to the U.S. Senate over Richard Mourdock.

In the race for Indiana Representative for District 72, Ed Clere defeated Sharon Grabowski with 54 percent of the vote.  Grabowski, a former teacher was fighting to help our students and teachers in Indiana.  They have taken a pretty severe hit over the past four years and it  is only looking to continue with Republican control throughout the state.

In order for our students to excel we need to make sure the system is in place to help them.  To remove funding from schools, to fire teachers, to increase the work load on our teachers isn’t the right direction.  Hoosiers voted to replace Tony Bennett, but in order to put our schools on the right course we need to replace those with control of the legislature.

Another area where Indiana voters are likely to continue to suffer is with right to work.  Sharon Grabowski was a strong advocate to repeal the right to work laws.  With right to work, Hoosiers now have the right to work for low wages and low benefits.  We have to ask ourselves what sorts of jobs do we want in Indiana?  Do we want a state where employees have few rights?  When we bring low wage jobs and low benefit jobs to Indiana, we will end up increasing the number of working poor.  Adults in families earning less than 200 percent of poverty level work, on average, 2,408 hours a year, which is the equivalent of 1.25 full-time jobs per family.  How will bringing in more low wage jobs help them?

We need someone in the statehouse who will work for the working families of New Albany, not for big business.