Indiana governor candidates, minus Mike Braun, tussle with moderator at final debate

The frontrunner of Indiana's Republican governor's race was absent from the fourth and final debate of the primary season, but that was far from focus Tuesday night.

The other five candidates in the race, on stage together at Hine Hall on IUPUI's campus in Indianapolis, hardly mentioned Sen. Mike Braun. They spent far more energy poking at one another, and at times, unifying in their frustration with the debate itself.

It was feisty, it was tense and it contained a few more tangents and yes-or-no questions than the candidates seemed to appreciate.

"It seems like you're really trying to set us up and cause division in our party, and we don't appreciate it," Indianapolis mom Jamie Reitenour said to moderator Jon Schwantes, after he asked the candidates whether they would have welcomed President Donald Trump's endorsement, which Braun received. The crowd wooped and applauded.

Also on stage were Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, former commerce Secretary Brad Chambers, former Attorney General Curtis Hill and Fort Wayne entrepreneur Eric Doden. Braun, meanwhile, was in Capitol Hill for a vote on a $95 billion federal aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Recap: Fact checking the previous gubernatorial debates

Braun had planned to be at the debate, hosted by the Indiana Debate Commission, but pulled out last-minute when the vote was scheduled. The last similar scheduling snafu was in March, when Braun was in town for a campaign fundraiser and missed an overnight spending bill vote. His opponents, namely the Crouch and Chambers campaigns, pounced on the incongruency prior to Tuesday's debate.

"Mike Braun skipped a key budget vote to attend a campaign fundraiser, but now suddenly realizes he needs to do his job in order to skip the last debate?" Crouch's campaign manager Liz Dessauer said in a statement earlier Tuesday.

"I was looking forward to sharing my vision with Hoosiers at tonight’s debate but Chuck Schumer has called the Senate into session," Braun responded in a late-afternoon statement. "Tonight, I am in D.C. voting ‘no’ on a bill to send $95 billion of your money overseas instead of securing our open southern border, which puts Hoosier families in danger every day."

The foreign aid bill has significant bipartisan support, save for a handful of conservative Republicans, like Braun.

More: As early voting starts, Republican candidates for governor race to win voter approval

Tussles with the moderator

Tension started brewing with the first yes-or-no hand-raising question asked of the candidates. Schwantes, who also hosts public affairs TV program "Indiana lawmakers," asked the candidates if they would have voted for the CHIPS and Science Act that Indiana Sen. Todd Young spearheaded. Chambers and Doden indicated they would have; Hill and Reitenour said they wouldn't have; Crouch wasn't sure what to do with her hand, ultimately conceding she'd have voted no.

"Talking about hypothetical questions, not sure that's what we're here to discuss," she said.

The meat of the tension surfaced around yes-or-no questions about election integrity.

Schwantes asked whether the candidates believed the 2020 election was stolen ― a question IndyStar has also asked each of the candidates in a series of Q&As, leading to many indirect answers. Similarly, on stage, Hill interjected and said that question doesn't have a yes or no answer.

"That's funny, because I asked it as a yes or no," Schwantes retorted.

Asked a different way, Hill acknowledged that President Joe Biden is the elected president of the United States. Reitenour interjected and said she felt it was an unfair question because the election "wasn't properly adjudicated."

Dozens of claims of fraudulent voting during the 2020 election were investigated and dismissed. Trump has continuously touted unfounded conspiracy theories about the election in which he lost to Biden, even as he faces felony charges over his alleged efforts to overturn the election results.

Outrage unleashed when Schwantes asked if the candidates would recognize the results of the upcoming November election for president. The candidates looked around with bewildered expressions, and then Reitenour got into a back and forth with Schwantes about the fairness of the question, ultimately preventing the question from getting answered.

The candidates' campaign staff were not shy on social media, calling the debate format at times a "train wreck."

The Indiana Debate Commission fielded almost 200 questions from more than 120 people from across Indiana, and those shaped the questions Schwantes asked, commission president Cindi Andrews said. Andrews is also the senior news director at IndyStar, which had no involvement with Tuesday's debate.

"I think having five candidates on a stage is very challenging, and I think the candidates themselves challenged the moderator quite a bit. I also think that the moderator, rightfully, let some conversations go longer than planned because there was substantive discussion happening," she said. "Did things go off the rails a little bit on occasion? You know, perhaps."

At the end, Schwantes added a touch of humor in acknowledging the source of tension.

"One thing you all made clear tonight is you don't like my yes-or-no, raise your hand questions, so I'm going to ask the last one, and I'm going to direct it at myself," he said, as the crowd laughed. "Who appreciated the fact that these candidates were willing to engage in a vigorous discussion of the issues of importance to Hoosiers? I'll raise my hand."

Braun wasn't missed

The moderator mentioned Braun more than the candidates did. In fact, this was another point of contention, when Schwantes briefly summarized what he surmised Braun would say in response to fleeting attacks from Chambers and Hill about Braun voting for some tax increases.

"For not speaking for Mike Braun, you're doing a pretty good job of it," Hill said.

With Braun gone, there was more time to focus on one another instead. Chambers went at Crouch for her record as lieutenant governor, saying she "didn't do a thing" while in charge of Indiana's housing agency and the agency for rural affairs. Crouch responded saying she heads up four agencies that have added 2,700 housing units and spurred $2 billion in investments in main streets.

And predictably, candidates guffawed at Crouch's "axe the tax" proposal, which proposes eliminating the state income tax.

"Not a hoosier that I’ve met believes that this is doable," Chambers said. Others said Hoosiers seem to be talking most about skyrocketing property taxes.

To that end, Chambers proposed making the assessment process uniform across the state, rather than varying from county to county. Doden proposed freezing property taxes for seniors and limiting growth for others' property tax bills to 5% a year.

A full video of the debate can be viewed at indystar.com. Election Day is May 7.

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter@kayla_dwyer17.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Final Indiana governor debate lacked Mike Braun but had plenty of spice