JASPER —

Republican incumbent Mitch Daniels, Democrat Jill Long Thompson and Libertarian Andrew Horning traded barbs back and forth during Tuesday’s hour-long debate in an attempt to woo undecided voters with six weeks to go until Election Day.

In preparation to dispute the records, press representatives from both the Daniels and Long Thompson campaigns distributed information trying to set their records straight before the cameras went live at the Arts Center in Jasper for the second of three debates.

And when the red lights went on, the hits just kept on coming.

Candidates took six questions on topics from heating costs to transportation, but during their rebuttals, Daniels and Long Thompson quickly reverted back to comments made in the Merriville debate about the economy and privatization.

At one point, Horning said they represented both parties well with how they acted.

The first question, about rising heating costs, led to Long Thompson calling on Daniels to suspend the sales tax on gasoline and heating fuel. She said the state is one of seven that charges a sales tax.

“With fuel prices at an all-time high in Indiana, I think Hoosiers need a break,” Long Thompson said.

Daniels, in his rebuttal, said he does not have the authority to suspend the tax, and doing so would leave the state in a budget deficit.

“OK, we’ve been through this before, but we’ll go through this a second time,” Daniels said. “When you have more debts than you have cash on hand, that is the definition of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.”

When questioned about education, Daniels said he is not in favor of closing smaller schools, but is interested in eliminating a lot of the overhead that gives students only 61 cents of every state dollar.

“More money is a starting point,” Daniels said. “We’ve delivered it, and when we get more efficiency, we will deliver more.”

Long Thompson wanted to keep smaller schools in the community because they are center of the whole town.

Privatization, a focal point of the campaign for all three candidates, was also brought up. Long Thompson touched on the subject at nearly every question, from education to township government and transportation. She called Daniel’s privatization programs “madness.”

“Privatize the lottery for education?” Long Thompson said. “(Daniels) is using that as a tease for more privatization.”

The privatization debate included the Indiana Toll Road. Long Thompson said that the road was “undersold” to a foreign consortium. After the debate, when asked how to pay for I-69, Long Thompson said the state should work for federal funding, even with possible economic troubles.

“I think it is possible because different funding can come from different areas,” Long Thompson said. During closing statements, she said with the loss of jobs, Daniels is misleading voters.

“Clearly, Governor Daniels cannot talk honestly that we have been leading the nation in the rate of job loss,” Long Thompson said. “We have lost more jobs since the debate in Merriville.”

Long Thompson continued to jab at Daniels’ record, saying Daniels misrepresents his results as governor. She continued her charge that Daniels used state-funded air travel to go to campaign events and to his vacation home.

Daniels, after the debate, said the charge was too personal, and the plane was also used in conjunction with state functions, something he defended earlier in the campaign.

“One day, we will be able to have an election in this state where personal attacks don’t come into it, but maybe this is not going to be the one,” Daniels said. “Here’s what I’d really like to say: I’d like to assume the best of both of my opponents. I’m prepared to stipulate that they are honorable people with good character and motivations. It would be very nice if she would do the same for me, but that may not be the case.”

Long Thompson, quoting Harry Truman at one point, said she was telling the truth.

“I came here tonight to have an honest discussion, and it is wrong for a governor to use state transportation, paid for by taxpayers, to go to and from a vacation home,” Long Thompson said.

During the debate, Daniels countered Long Thompson’s positions on health care and township government. Long Thompson, when asked about health care, said she favored pooling resources for low-income families. Daniels said the state already has pooling.

“I have a news flash for you ma’am; we already have pooling,” Daniels said. “It doesn’t work, but I am glad it is there.”

Throughout the debate, Horning pointed to the positions of both major party candidates and said the parties are what is wrong with the state. In one of the more memorable lines of the evening, Horning said the government is spending “like a drunken sailor.”

“Are we a nation of laws, or are we a nation of despots?” Horning said. “We are on that teetering point right now.”

There was one local reference made during Tuesday’s debate, when Daniels mentioned the Daviess County hamlet of Cumback. He said after the debate he went to the community in 2003 or 2004.

“Just because I wanted to,” Daniels said during his closing statement. “I went to Cumback, and we are going to come back.”

The next debate is Oct. 14 in Bloomington.