INDIANA (WFIE) -
It was the first of three debates Wednesday night for Indiana's three candidates for governor.
Republican Mike Pence defended his attendance record in Congress and said the state ran a deficit during five of the six years when Democrat John Gregg was Speaker of the House.
Rupert Boneham told voters it's time to elect a Libertarian candidate for governor.
In the hour long debate hosted by the Zionsville Schools, Libertarian candidate Rupert Boneham shared his take on Hoosier public education.
"Life is not a multiple choice, life is an essay. We need to teach our children how to think and learn and comprehend. We can untie our teachers hands if we move away from standardized testing and empower the classroom," Boneham said.
All three candidates called for bipartisanship. Democrat John Gregg appealed to Lugar Republicans to vote for him and took aim at his Republican opponent Mike Pence.
"We don't need to be focused on divisive issues. We don't need to be focused on Girl Scouts or license plates. We need to pull Indiana together in a bi-partisan way and take advantage of our opportunity," Gregg said.
"Just talking about bipartisanship is not good enough. It's about having a plan. Road Map for Indiana is about putting fiscal responsibility first. Being willing to make the hard choices and being straightforward with the people about what it will take," Pence said.
"Fiscal responsibility, I want to create that in our government in a tri-partisanship way with Libertarians, Democrats ad Republicans," Boneham said.
The next Indiana Gubernatorial Debate is October 17th at Notre Dame University in South Bend.
The final debate will be October 25th in Fort Wayne.
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