Sunday, October 25, 2020 11:22 AM
By BRIAN A. HOWEY
SHELBURN, Ind. - At this writing, Indiana reported a record high 2,880 new COVID-19 cases. This comes as Hoosiers are in the midst of deciding whether to rehire Gov. Eric Holcomb, or change course with Democrat and former health commissioner Woody Myers, or Libertarian Donald Rainwater.
Myers entered this race with what appeared to be the perfect resume, having served when AIDS first surfaced. Yet on his final 2019 finance report, he posted just $14,000 while the Democratic caucuses in the General Assembly are tiny, having endured super minority status for the past four years. There are no Libertarians in the legislature, Rainwater has few if any relationships there, and it's hard to see how he would stock a new administration.
In a sign of how strange an election year this is, Rainwater has raised enough money to run statewide TV and radio ads over the final two weeks; Myers was sitting on a mere $80,000 at the end of the third quarter and is radio silent. Political fundraising shouldn't be the prism under which to make a choice, but it is a factor when it comes to choosing a governor who would have the political support and governing components.
Last Saturday, I traveled with Gov. Holcomb on a rare pandemic campaign swing. We both wore face masks the entire time. Nine months ago, he was sitting on an $8 million campaign war chest, a 3.2% jobless rate and a $60 billion road funding plan. And then came the pandemic which forced the governor to impose an unprecedented economic shutdown. The pandemic has since killed 3,831 Hoosiers, forced schools to close, put half a million small businesses on the brink of bankruptcy, and the jobless rate hit 17% by May before declining to 6.2% in September.
Holcomb said that with the shutdown he ordered last March, “We had to get our footing because of the scale and pace this virus was moving, we had to make sure we had that capacity to care for those in need.” On Saturday, there were 36.3% of ICU beds and 79.6% of ventilators available. That had declined to 30% ICU beds available a week later.
Holcomb said that should the surge of infections continue, the state will have the ability to add ICU capacity. “We have a long way to go,” Holcomb said. “We’re detecting more. Our tracing is getting more sophisticated. Ultimately knowing that we’re going to continue to detect cases, it’s how you manage the spread.”