Familiar faces await 6th Congressional District voters

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Although U.S. Rep. Greg Pence is retiring from Congress, the names on the ballot to succeed him will be familiar to voters in his district.

Indiana’s 6th Congressional District stretches from southern Indianapolis and Johnson County to the Ohio state line. The race to succeed Pence features a trio of candidates who all have sought office within the past two years.

Republican Jefferson Shreve, the founder of Storage Express and a former Indianapolis City-County councilor, ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Indianapolis last year.

Democrat Cinde Wirth, a former teacher, ran against Pence two years ago.

Libertarian James Sceniak, a mental health worker, was his party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022.

All three talked to News 8 for “All INdiana Politics,” which airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV.

The deadline to register to vote is the end of the day Monday. You can register through the Secretary of State’s website or at any driver’s license office. Early voting begins on Tuesday and Election Day itself is on Nov. 5.

Jefferson Shreve

Shreve said his council experience would be an asset in Washington. He said he already has experience working across the aisle to pass legislation, something he said will be useful in what likely will be a closely divided 119th Congress. Shreve said the key to getting inflation and the cost of housing under control is to reduce government spending.

“Focus on the fiscal. And in turn, this will take some time, in turn, we’ll begin to move inflation into check,” he said. “Housing is part and parcel with that. You can’t have work force development, you can’t keep people in communities, or grow communities without housing.”

Shreve said the United States has to secure the southern border and turn away some asylum seekers. He said there is no way the nation’s education or health care systems can absorb the number of people seeking entry. He said he would be in favor of deporting some of those who are in the country unlawfully, though he added “there are shades of gray” to the issue and it would be neither feasible nor appropriate to send everyone back. Unlike a number of Republican candidates this cycle, Shreve said he supports continued military aid to both Ukraine and Israel. He said it’s in America’s interest for Ukraine to defeat Russia’s invasion. As for Israel, he said the United States must continue to support its top ally in the Middle East.

Cinde Wirth

Wirth said she favors expanding tax incentives for first-time homebuyers to solve the housing crisis. She said those programs were successful in the 1980s and 1990s. She said she blames inflation on companies raising prices and she would support legislation to crack down on price gouging. She also supports legislation to require living wages and paid family leave. In order to pay for those programs, and to help reduce the nation’s deficit, she said she supports increasing taxes on the wealthy.

“Putting a tax on the top 1% and people who are making salaries of over $400,000 and taxing them appropriately, I think, is one of the best ways to achieve that.”

Wirth said she would support border measures similar to those in the scuttled border bill from earlier this year, which included more funding for border agents and for immigration judges. On foreign policy, she said she supports continued military aid for Ukraine. She did not rule out further aid to Israel but added the United States should focus on trying to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.

James Sceniak

Sceniak also blamed government spending for both inflation and high housing costs. He said he supports ideas such as U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s Six-Penny Plan, which would require the government to cut 6 cents off of every dollar it spends.

Sceniak said the United States’ immigration woes are due in part to an unworkable immigration system. He said he supports tougher border enforcement but also a simplified legal immigration process.

“We’re going to vet them. We’re going to make sure that they’re here for the best interests of Americans,” he said. “But also, making sure that we have a fair way in. The lottery system isn’t really working the way we allow immigrants in now doesn’t allow for enough legal immigrants to come in, so that’s why we see so many illegal immigrants come in.”

On foreign policy, Sceniak said he would rather see the United States advocate peace in both Ukraine and Israel. For Ukraine specifically, he said the United States could apply further economic pressure to Russia to force it to the bargaining table.