Mike Webster (Indiana congressional candidate)
Mike Webster (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana's 8th Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on June 2, 2020.
Webster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Mike Webster was born in Evansville, Indiana. He earned an undergraduate degree in journalism from Indiana University in May 1985. Webster's professional experience includes working in the publishing industry, as a project manager, in tech support, in purchasing, in systems administration, as a newspaper editor, as a freelance writer, as a photographer, as a computer consultant, and as a website developer.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Indiana's 8th Congressional District election, 2020
Indiana's 8th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 2 Democratic primary)
Indiana's 8th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 2 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Indiana District 8
Incumbent Larry Bucshon defeated Thomasina Marsili and James Rodenberger in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 8 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Larry Bucshon (R) | 66.9 | 214,643 |
 | Thomasina Marsili (D)  | 29.8 | 95,691 | |
| James Rodenberger (L) | 3.2 | 10,283 | ||
| Total votes: 320,617 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 8
Thomasina Marsili defeated Mike Webster and Ron Drake in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 8 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Thomasina Marsili | 36.3 | 15,097 |
 | Mike Webster | 32.6 | 13,550 | |
 | Ron Drake | 31.2 | 12,973 | |
| Total votes: 41,620 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 8
Incumbent Larry Bucshon advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 8 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Larry Bucshon | 100.0 | 51,343 |
| Total votes: 51,343 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 8
James Rodenberger advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 8 on March 7, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | James Rodenberger (L) | |
| ||||
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Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mike Webster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Webster's responses.
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I describe myself as a tough Democrat because all too often the national Democrats have proven to be weak. Over the years they have caved to the Republicans on all the important issues. They enabled Republicans to make health insurance both worthless and ridiculously expensive. They helped Republicans send our jobs oversees, weaken job protections and wages at home, and transfer our country's great wealth from those who work for a living to those who don't, getting money either through investments of inheritance. They helped Republicans make education unaffordable and burden our youth with unbearable student loans. The list goes on.
After 40 years of this, many of our young people are suffering and their futures look dire.
As your elected representative in Congress, I will go on the offensive against the Republicans and champion policies that help people in our District, while fighting those that harm us. I will fight to restore our core American principles as laid out in the Constitution, New Testament, and Declaration of Independence. I will fight for you.- Enough with Trump / Bucshon's incompetence, dishonesty, and indecency. It was bad enough before, but when they brought incompetence, dishonesty, and indecency to the Covid-19 panic, a still untold number of lives are lost and the economy is devastated. Time to fire those losers.
- Social and economic disasters. Terrible health insurance, low paying jobs with no future. Soul sucking student loans. Political insanity. It doesn't have to be like this. It wasn't always like this. It's not like this in other countries. They United States must do better.
- Coronavirus, future pandemics , the impending global warming catastrophes. All the world's top scientists tell us the future is grim. But here in Southwestern Indiana, we have the opportunity to thrive if we embrace new ideas and become a hub of new technology implementation, manufacturing, and research.
I believe that those who follow the rules and work hard should earn a solid middle class existence, and that is simply not the reality these days. The Republicans talk about immigration, some of which I agree with, but they say nothing at all about all the good jobs that have been outsourced to other countries. They say nothing because they are responsible for moving and keeping good jobs oversees. It's not just manufacturing, as you likely know if you have ever called tech support or customer service. And it goes way deeper than that. Human Resources, Payroll, and many good office jobs have been shipped overseas as well.
I will fight to level the playing field. If foreigners can compete and beat us at the same wages, then we need to get better. But if that is not the case, which it usually isn't, and they can only compete by paying extreme poverty level wages, then we need policies that make it cheaper to hire Americans than foreigners.
That said, I think no matter what one thinks of his politics, Barack Obama is an excellent role model. He came from a modest background, worked hard, took advantage of every opportunity, and succeeded professionally as well as anyone possibly can in this world, all the while maintaining high moral standards and a healthy family life. He is a fundamentally decent human being who has worked hard to make the world a better place.
Although I am very critical of how he performed in office and recognize the disasters that we are living through as a result of some of his policies, particularly the Affordable (not) Care Act, and his many failures to put up a fight against the Republicans; I admire his open minded and fact based approach to understanding the issues and formulating solutions. Like Jimmy Carter before him, his fatal flaw was to project his own human decency onto those who have little to none.
I could go on, and on, and on. Like I said above, I read a lot. I read newspapers and magazines and books of fiction and non-fiction. I read writers I agree with and writers I don't. Getting a wide variety of views and ideas is what's most important.
With those foundations, a great elected official needs to have management skills. He or she needs to be able to hire a good staff and manage them effectively to keep on top of every issue and vote affecting the district. They need to be great learners, with great research skills to understand the issues and make the best possible decisions.
Communication skills are important as well, and that goes both ways. Your representative needs to be able to communicate what's happening in Washington to the people of the district, but nearly equally important, he or she needs to be able to communicate to Washington what is happening here.
The core responsibility of your elected representative is to do everything possible to help the people of the district. First, by intervening on individual's behalf when they have problems with the federal government. Second by writing or voting on bills that affect the present and future well-being of the people of the district. Third, by investigating and punishing corruption and government malfeasance.
I read a lot. I read newspapers and magazines and books of fiction and non-fiction. I read writers I agree with and writers I don't.
I don't care about any ideologies. I just want to do what works. I've studied and practiced traditional fact-based journalism and done a lot of business research and have a lot of experience figuring out and implementing the best solution to a problem. Does it work, or not? That is the only question that matters. What some part leader or think tank or lobbyist wants me to think is not something I take much into consideration.
In addition to having learned and practiced high level research and management skills, I've also put a good deal of effort into propaganda studies. I understand how bad actors use hate and fear to change people's minds and get them to think and act against both reality and their own interests. Nowadays propaganda and misinformation comes at us fast and furious and it will be much more so in Congress. It is essential for your Congressperson to be able to recognize and fight it.
You can see that Larry Bucshon is a victim. He often cites Fox News and other extremist sources of propaganda and misinformation. When the Coronavirus first hit the U.S., he drank the kool-aid, and then offered it around to his constituents, rather than get his information from experts in viruses and pandemics. As top doctors were accurately explaining what was going to happen, Bucshon was telling us it was not as bad as the flu and that nobody we knew would be likely to get it. He has failed the people of Southwestern Indiana, and helped kill quite a few of us.
First, if you have a problem with some part of the Federal government, like the VA for example, I would intercede on your behalf.
Second, writing and voting on bills that would benefit the district. I would focus on Agriculture, Business, Community Corrections, and Energy, but every vote on every bill would be scrutinized for how it affects the people of the district.
Third, I believe it is in everyone's interest to weed out and punish corruption in government. If there were any hint of wrongdoing in any agency or organization that mattered to Southwestern Indiana, I would use the powers of the office to make sure everything is right. I believe in the rule of law and am a strong supporter of law enforcement, for everybody.
Fourth, I believe that a member of Congress should be a role model. Once the crisis is passed and it is safe to get close to people again, I would be out in the community getting to know people from different walks of lives, learn more about how they live, what are their dreams and aspirations, what are their challenges, and what I could possibly do to help. One particular area of concentration for me would be go get to know and help at-risk younger people. Especially with the coming economic bad times, young people need to understand that a good life is possible. I would seek to be a role model. They would see me working to get them good jobs and other life enhancing opportunities and hear me talk about ways in which a person can lead a good life, which are many, but hard to fathom when you are young and in a bad situation.
On a personal level, my family is my legacy, but that's not really about me either. I just want them to be healthy and happy and good and live a good, long life. Anything I can do to help with that, I will do.
The most important event that affected me directly was the bombing of the twin towers on 9/11. I was working four blocks from the World Trade Center and witnessed much of what happened. I was in the street two blocks away when the second plane hit. I briefly thought I was going to die as the explosion's impact hit me hard. I saw people falling from the sky. I saw bloodied survivors. I saw people in shock. My first instinct was to go help, but realized it was best to stay out of the way of the professionals. I thought of my daughter in school, and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to pick her up. As we left the school, the towers collapsed and we walked through a toxic cloud for miles until we were close to home. For months afterward, I worked near the site, saw the fires and breathed the toxic smoke.
Seeing so many people die that day changed my life forever. It made me value life, and also the American way of life. The way the city, and particularly the immediate survivors, came together was an incredible lesson in the power of human solidarity; of how we could put aside our differences of opinion and circumstance and come together for the common good in a time of emergency.
It deeply saddens me that Republican leadership has done everything in their power to keep that from happening with the Covid-19 pandemic. They have chosen hatred and divisiveness over solidarity and patriotism. They have chosen death and suffering over life and well-being. They have chosen lies and disinformation over scientific facts and accurate information about what's happening and what should be done.
My first professional job as an adult was as a publication specialist at the General Services Administration in Washington, D.C. I wrote about national telecommunications issues and produced handbooks detailing government policies. After that I held a variety of jobs in tech support and systems administration.
Beginning in 2000 I began working in financial publishing. As the dot com bubble burst and the financial crisis hit and the internet decimated traditional print publishing, I spent 12 years working for companies that were constantly downsizing. I survived far more rounds of layoffs that I can remember. Eventually I was laid off. So I know what it means to have survivor's guilt. It feels horrible when you come in and many of your friends and colleagues are gone.
That wide range of work experience, and the fact that I've worked almost constantly since I was six, give me a unique perspective compared to the typical politician, particularly someone like Larry Bucshon who has led a life cut off from people like us. I know what it's like to work with my hands, and my back. I know what it's like to work with CEO's, corporate lawyers, and middle management.
Now, if there's going to be a struggle, I am going to struggle to ensure that the people in Southwestern Indiana, particularly the young people, have the same or better opportunities to live a good life that I did.
The House is responsible for writing laws, aka bills, which if your Representative is not corrupt (like Larry Bucshon), should be intended to help the people in the district. The House is unique in that the Constitution gives it the sole responsibility of originating bills for raising revenue. You can be sure I will be writing and/or supporting bills to fix the broken tax system.
The House is also unique in that it has the sole responsibility for investigating and impeaching corrupt federal officials. Weak Democrats have let that power slip away, but you can be sure I will fight to restore it.
But although political experience can be important, I think it crucial for a Congressperson to have great management skills and experience. A congressperson is more like a CEO than most elected officials. He or she must hire and manage a staff. The staff must research, understand, write about, and project manage many issues that the congressperson will need to vote on, or will want to write laws to solve. Congresspeople need to communicate with constituents and help them when in need. To be effective, the congressperson must manage the staff effectively. It's not enough to be good at running for office. Being able to manage the office is key.
I have managed large technical projects for leading businesses, and small teams of people to get the projects done on budget and on time. I am trained in the latest project management best practices, and I have experience hiring quality people.
People who worked were paid a good wage. People who were sick went to the doctor. People who went to college could afford it. Tax brackets were designed to make wealthier people pay for what they got, not what they could get away with. We had high expectations for our government and for the most part it delivered. We not only required basic competence in our leadership, we expected excellence. We respected expertise and embraced scientific advancement. Rule of law was the foundation of our justice system. We encouraged democracy, both at home and abroad.
In 1980, Republicans, with the help of weak Democrats, began tearing down those foundations. They made it so people who worked hard and followed the rules could still be dirt poor. They took money from regular working people and gave it to financial pirates and rich kids who never had to work a day in their lives. They made healthcare both worthless and ridiculously expensive. They gutted primary education, denying opportunities for our children. They impoverishing many of our best and our brightest with onerous student loans that harm the economy. They changed the tax system to effectively raise taxes on normal people while cutting them radically for the wealthiest and the largest corporations. They gutted the rule of law, put justice up for sale, and let corruption run rampant in both business and government. They shut out experts, putting incompetent sycophants in charge of all branches of government and punishing those who told the truth. They fight against democracy, making voting as difficult as possible for those who might oppose them.
Republicans, aided by weak Democrats, have failed us miserably.
I would lobby to get on the Energy and Commerce, Agriculture, and Education and Labor committees. I think those are where I could do the most good for Southwestern Indiana, so hopefully would get two out of three.
Gerrymandering and bribery, I mean campaign finance, are the much more serious problems, the real threats to our democracy. No seat in Congress should be safe. It's only because the gerrymandering is so severe, and the money obstacles to getting and staying elected so great, that there is little chance of an opposition candidate winning in the majority of districts across the country, including Indiana's 8th.
That is not to say I wouldn't be a leader, just that I would not be part of the party leadership establishment.
I would lead by example. I would work to become an expert on all the issues facing the district. I would be well-organized and run a tight organization of highly competent staff focused on helping people and businesses in the district. I would work with the party leadership to get business and job opportunities for Southwestern Indiana, and money for social programs and education. I would actively write legislation that benefits people in the district and work to get it enacted.
I don't want to be the leader of the Democrats or for any kind of ideology. I want to work cooperatively with all the businesses and organizations of the district, regardless of their politics, to make Southwestern Indiana a better place.
Of course there is a difference between trying to be somebody and merely learning from them. Once in Congress, I would associate with the most effective of my colleagues and learn everything I can from them. I would find a mentor, or mentors to help guide me, then hopefully someday become a mentor myself. That doesn't preclude from learning from Congresspeople of the past.
The student debt crisis negatively affects us all. Young people who should be getting married, having children, buying and furnishing homes, and participating fully in the economy are giving all their money to banks, which have packaged and sold their loans to investors, who take money out of the economy and stash it offshore, or elsewhere where it is not helpful. That money needs to be put back into the economy to help former students build better lives for themselves and their communities.
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See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 6, 2020
