If somebody is saying that I should not compete because I'm a man, I don't know what to say to that. And if somebody is saying that I had it easy, I would invite them to join the military and enter Indiana politics in 2010 as a gay person. See how easy they find it.

We can't look for greatness in the past.

Greatness will come by looking forward - untethered from the politics of the past and anchored by our shared values - and by changing our nation's future.

A Midwestern municipal government isn't the first thing that leaps to mind when you think of innovation, but it ought to be.

There is nothing wrong with becoming more ambitious along the way, but I think what the government has asked the council to do is a perfectly good starting point.

You want to balance the budget in this country? We change the salary structure for Congress and the President. Every year they don't balance the budget, we don't pay them.

No one wants to hear my perspective on politics, but I think honestly as you get older, you get more interested in it.

My father told me about American democracy. And he said you have to be actively engaged in the political process to make our democracy work. So I've been doing that my entire life. Civil rights movement. The peace movement during the Vietnam conflict. The movement to get an apology and redress for Japanese-Americans.