Jeff Larson and Manuel Maldonado are seeking the Republican nomination for state representative in District 10. The winner will face long-term incumbent Democrat Chuck Moseley, who is unopposed.
Both Larson and Maldonado have experience running for state office, Larson for state senator and Maldonado for state representative. Larson has served as a Porter County Council member, including as vice president, and as a township trustee.
“I got my motivation to get into politics from my grandfather, who served many terms on the Chesterton Town Council,” Larson said. “He always told me to get involved in my community so I’ve kind of taken that to heart.”
Maldonado is a pastor with experience in community issues. He’s concerned about homelessness, mental health and addiction.
“My main reason for running is because I want to be able to be a catalyst for the 10th District when it comes to small business, making it more of a business-friendly environment,” he said.
Larson is concerned about suicide and drug use. “As a teacher, I had several students that committed suicide in my tenure, and I think of that security for our community awareness of the possible drug use that’s coming from outside our community,” he said.
Education is also a priority for him. “I was a teacher, so I really feel strongly about compensating teachers, that we do it fairly where we initiate the base wage and how do we arrive at that and then how do we compensate those that have given their entire life to service,” Larson said. “I think there’s a huge injustice on how we do that, so I’d like to fix that.”
Maldonado lists affordable healthcare as one of his priorities. That should come without too much government involvement, he said. “I believe that government is there to assist, not to control.”
“I feel like we’ve kind of run into a stagnant situation, kind of a brick wall, with the political parties,” Larson said. “I’ve never been a hardline party guy, but the problem with what we’ve got going on now is that our community is lacking in getting things accomplished because the controlling party downstate doesn’t really do business with the other side. You can see that on a national level, and you can see it now locally, that we’re having a lot of trouble working together.”
“I think that I’m kind of a middle-of-the-road guy, so I thought I could take my perspective down there and since I had to choose a party, I ended up as a Republican. I am a little more conservative probably than my opponent,” he said.
“I’m a constitutional candidate, as in the Constitution as written, not as what people want to interpret,” Maldonado said. “I’m all about the Constitution. I’m all about parents’ rights. I’m about parents having a huge voice in the school system, in the school boards, in the school curriculum.”
“I want to make sure that our school system is the best,” Maldonado said. “Here in Portage Township, we are not one of the best; we are actually one of the worst. We have a very poor grade in the Portage High School, It’s not as good as it can be. There’s room for improvement. There’s opportunity there. I’m excited if that opportunity is presented to do everything I can to make sure we improve the education here in the 10th district and support our teachers, make sure our teachers and administrators are supported and they have what they need.”
Larson said he is concerned about making sure veterans’ needs are met. “We have a lot of veterans that serve in this community, a lot of individuals that are overlooked or need services. In my past, I have hired several that have struggled with PTSD. We just don’t care for them enough,” he said.
Maldonado said he was initially a Moseley supporter. “He’s been doing it for a long time now. I know he’s up there in age, which that’s fine, but you know at the same time we don’t agree with everything when it comes to where he stands on certain issues.”
“Chuck’s trying to be somewhat middle of the road,” Larson said. “I think that the issue with Chuck is I don’t know if he’s built the relationships down there that have really helped move us forward here. I know he’s looked out for labor and done some things like that, but there’s just not been a huge initiative to get a lot of things we need accomplished up here done.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
