Source: WISH-TV / other
INDIANAPOLIS — Eric Doden is one of six candidates on the Republican ticket looking to be the next governor of Indiana, and he says he has a “bold vision” to put the state’s economic engine into a whole new gear.
Part of the vision is investing time and resources into the state’s capital city.
“The foundation of this country is law and order,” Doden said on the All Indiana Politics podcast. “We all know throughout the rest of this state how important Indianapolis is. It’s 25-percent of the state’s GDP.”
Doden, a businessman from Fort Wayne, said he plans to take some of the strategies he’s helped implement in Fort Wayne to Indianapolis to help restore faith in Hoosiers that Indy is a place to visit and conduct business.
With that, he said Indy’s crime problem must be addressed, but he also said the state and local leaders have to work together to get the private sector involved in investing in the community.
“In Fort Wayne, I’m working on a $1.5 billion planned urban development for downtown Fort Wayne,” Doden said. “That’s the equivalent of an $8 billion strategy in Indianapolis. That’s the kind of thinking we have to have, but it has to be private sector driven.”
He also wants to take this strategy to a smaller scale as well by using state funds to help revitalize small towns throughout the state.
“There is this real opportunity for us to partner with local leaders who want to restore their community,” said Doden. “That’s what our ‘Indiana Main Street’ initiative is all about. It’s about taking 10-percent of our budget and saying we will work with these leaders in small towns.”
He says if elected governor Indiana would be one of the only states in the country with that kind of “bold vision” to help restore small towns that have fallen on hard times.
Election day in the primary for the governor’s race is in seven months. Doden is squaring off with Sen. Mike Braun, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Curtis Hill, Brad Chambers, and Jamie Reitenour in the GOP primary.
Jennifer McCormick and Bob Kern are the only two on the Democratic ticket. Donald Rainwater is the Libertarian candidate once again.
