Peggy Mayfield, a Republican candidate for Indiana House District 60, sits during an interview on Mar. 17 at the Daily Journal in Franklin. The district encompasses the majority of Morgan County along with portions of northeastern Monroe and northwestern Johnson counties.
Editor’s note: Republican incumbent Peggy Mayfield is one of two candidates for Indiana House District 60. The district covers portions of Johnson, Monroe and Morgan counties. A Where They Stand interview with Mayfield’s opponent, Republican Brittany Carroll, was in Thursday’s Daily Journal. The Q&A below includes answers by Mayfield in her own words. It has been edited for length and grammar.
Two candidates are seeking an open seat for Indiana House District 60 in the Republican primary May 3: Brittany Carroll and Peggy Mayfield. Following recent redistricting, the district now covers the majority of Morgan County along with portions of northeastern Monroe and northwestern Johnson counties.
The Daily Journal asked both District 60 candidates questions about their priorities and what voters could expect from them if they are elected. Here are Mayfield’s responses.
» Why are you running for office?
When you look at the state race as opposed to federal, you can really accomplish things here at home and see the results of the work. I thought my views were fairly in line with the districts’ and I had to go out and sell myself to them and they voted me into office. Now that I’ve had a few years to really get a pretty good grasp on a lot of the different topics, it’s (about) furthering policies.
» How are you qualified for this position?
As a business owner, not only am I in a position to make policy, especially regarding regulation and taxation, but I also have to live by it. I’m very aware of what becomes burdensome for an entrepreneur, a small business owner, when we’re talking policy. I’m a mother, a wife, a family person. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom. I was very involved in my kids’ education; they’ve all gone to public school. I think I’ve experienced what the vast majority of my constituents have experienced. I can identify with their concerns.
» What are the top issues facing Indiana?
Health care. Whether it’s physical health or mental health, constantly improving on that. A couple years ago, we started addressing health care costs. Last year, we put $50 million into mental health grants … (and also) chronic health problems.
Fiscal position. We are in a really good fiscal condition in our state — a $5 billion surplus. We are able to give a tax refund to anyone who is filing a tax return of about $125. We are able to cut taxes and not just cut taxes for businesses. We’re cutting taxes for everyone who pays a utility bill (and also the) income tax rate is going down. That’s money that stays in Hoosiers’ pockets.
Post-secondary education. Not just higher education, but what are we doing to prepare for career education, the trades, other opportunities, whether people want to go into opening a business on their own, the military. What are those options for our late teenagers because college isn’t for everybody?
» What are your top priorities and how do you plan to push legislation that addresses them?
Many, many, many of my bills — I actually have a list in my phone — come from people stopping me in the aisles of Kroger or Walmart and saying, “Hey, this happened to my family. I think there ought to be a law that fixes whatever their situation is.” So I’ll investigate it, and many I have been able to pass a law that addresses that very issue, or I find out why it can’t pass, or that we’ve tried it before and it didn’t happen, or whatever the case might be. The vast majority of my bills have come from people on the street. I have found this niche of law enforcement, public safety and veterans affairs that I’ve taken an interest in and passed legislation in those areas. I am typically the primary author or sponsor of pro-life bills in the Indiana General Assembly.
» How do you plan to help your district specifically, and communicate with constituents about what is going on at the Statehouse?
Constituent work is something that is one of our most time-consuming aspects of the job that doesn’t get a lot of outward attention because those topics can be very, very personal and private. I try to help whoever calls in. A big thing right now is the lack of broadband and how it’s very spotty … some places still don’t have any access to broadband. It’s just connecting people and trying to find a solution.
We do outreach with a weekly electronic newsletter … also through our mailings, we keep people updated on what we think they want to hear. In my newsletters, I try to go away from what is being covered in the media and cover some other important things I think people would like to know about. We are just trying to get information out there.
I appear at all the county fairs in the summer. Most of the county events, whether they are community or political events, I try to have a presence. Breaking down that barrier. When I say people come up to me in the aisles of Walmart or Kroger, I think that is fantastic. Because if someone recognizes you and is brave enough to come up and say, “Hey, can you help me with this problem,” the least I can do is give them five minutes for them to explain their issue and look into it for them. I think that does more to rebuild the public’s trust in their elected officials than having some big headline saying a bill passed. They remember being paid attention to more than the headline.
» How would you address, at the state level, the concerns of parents and teachers about what is being taught in classrooms?
I’ve attended school board meetings. I’ve met with parents who were concerned, and these parents have never gotten into the political scene at all before. They thought it (was) important enough that they started going to the school board meetings, and you went from having five people show up … to having a roomful of parents showing up to listen and express their concerns. I think they have some legitimate concerns. Whether or not you’ll say critical race theory is not an adopted curriculum, the content of the assignments are what many parents were concerned about. They shared those assignments with me and I had some concerns as well. I think it’s only fair that it’s really more of a development of the communication between parents and school boards to address those concerns that didn’t seem to be happening (before). I think it was an honest effort at trying to address them (at the Statehouse). We couldn’t quite get there, but the message was very clear. Some schools have already … gotten the message and are starting to look closer at their curriculum and what they’re teaching and the way they’re teaching it. That is, I guess, the ultimate goal.
» This year, state lawmakers cut some of the state’s tax revenues due to a bigger-than-expected surplus. What are your thoughts on possibly cutting both business personal property and/or individual income taxes again next year?
I believe the business personal property tax will come up again within the budget session, and that might be a better time to do it because then we are looking at the structural integrity of our budget. The past bill, I don’t think it was communicated very well because the locals, many of them, didn’t realize the state was back filling anything they were losing for the first several years. The state was going to provide that money. The business owner would be paying the tax, and then the state would reimburse the business owner. So for a while, the locals would not suffer any adjustments and … if there was a decline, it would be farther in the future and it would be gradual. If we want big business … to come to Indiana, they have huge capital investments and to pay a minimum of 30%, or get down to that 30% (floor) and always have to pay that, even when it’s worth less. That becomes part of their decision making.
» Is there a bill that you disagreed with during the 2022 legislative session, and what would you have liked to see passed instead?
When some of those bills didn’t pass, it wasn’t because the concept wasn’t a good thing. A lot of times it’s because … the broad net that is thrown, we can’t quite narrow it down. In that respect, it is not at all unusual for a bill to be reintroduced two or three or four times while you continue to try to hit the target. I was happy to see that wakeboarding at night didn’t pass. That just seemed to be silly that we wanted to regulate the hours of using a wakeboarding boat and the wakeboarding sport.
» Is there anything else you would like to say to the voters?
Input from constituents does shape my views on policy, especially when I find someone who has a background in something I’m not as familiar with. I can’t do that if they won’t become engaged. Become engaged, share your thoughts and do it in a polite way, please. We rely on input from constituents because that helps us gauge and test and take that temperature of, “Are we in line? Is there something else we need to look at?”
The Mayfield file
Name: Peggy Mayfield
Residence: Martinsville
Family: Husband, Dean; four children
Occupation: Corporate officer at Mayfield Insurance
Educational background: North Central High School, Indianapolis; IUPUI — Purdue School of Engineering and Technology
Past political experience: Incumbent, first elected in 2012; Morgan County Clerk from 2006-12
