By Marc Emral
Editor
Memral@cherryroad.com
There will be a new 68th district state representative for Dearborn and Ohio counties with Democrat Lisa Barker challenging Republican Garrett Bascom.
They will replace current state rep Randy Lyness, who decided not the run for reelection.
Democrat Barker is challenging for the 68th District Indiana State Representative position on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Barker and here husband live in Aurora. They own and operate a hospitality business, they have a cattle and chicken farm, and own and operate Key Real Estate.
She sits on the Budget and Finance Committee and the Constitution and Bylaws Committee for the Southeastern Indiana Board of Realtors.
Barker said she is running for the protection or property rights, and to support women.
“All too often larger companies bulldoze onto property without permission,” Barker said, “They do not follow the laws or use eminent domain.”
She does not like the law that gives utility companies ability to come onto a property to place communication equipment. “Companies are not following laws … they are taking away the right sof property owners.”
She also is supporting women’s issues. She said there is a steep pay gap for especially older women who don’t make enough to support there lifestyles.
Some of the issues she is backing is to protect the Constitution and to support term limits; small business legislation to help more business to be developed, and to have fair and honest voting including vote centers to be non-partisan.
Barker said she would make a good state representative in that she is running a grass roots campaign and understands the challenges of life in Southeast Indiana. She said her experience as a cattle and chicken farmer, her work in the entertainment and travel industry, and in real estate will make her an effective representative.
Republican Bascom is a lawyer in private practice who is also a public defender. He is a former Dearborn County prosecutor, worked in the Indiana Attorney General’s office.
Garrett serves on the Executive Committee of the Local Coordinating Committee of Citizens Against Substance Abuse (CASA) as part of his commitment to mental health and substance abuse advocacy.arre
He lives in Dillsboro with his wife and three children.
Bascom has had the call to serve since grade school.
“Since a young age I felt called to serve and I would bring experience to this area,” as a state rep, Bascom said.
He was involved in student government while at Mount St. Joseph University, and worked for a year in the Indiana Attorney General’s office. “I think with … my legal experience and Indianapolis experience I can bring something to the table no one else can,” he said.
His top issue is working with criminal justice. He said his personal experience with mental illness (his mother had mental health issues) would help him in taking on the issue.
“We have to provided resources in the jails and more resources” outside the jails to help improve the mental health of Hoosiers, he said. He also wants to make sure this area has a strong voice in the legislature.
Bascom said he brings from his years in the AG office and as deputy prosecutor the “knowledge of how the (Statehouse) system works.” He said he knows many people in Indianapolis so he already has relationships that he can lean on. Attorneys in the state legislature are in a minority, so his experience can be helpful when questions of law come up.
