Fritz Maurer wants to serve as 44th District state representative

Fritz Maurer wants to serve 44th District as state representative


By FRANK PHILLIPS
frankphi@hotmail.com
A Brazil pharmacist has spent his adult life serving the medical needs of people, now he wants to expand that service by being elected to the Indiana General Assembly.
“I have been a public servant for 33 years, but not a political public servant,” Fritz Maurer said during a campaign visit to The Brazil Times. “I’m going to take another step forward and go into political public service.”
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Putnam County Courthouse Annex, Greencastle, Maurer and other hopefuls will be considered by Republican leaders for a spot on the Nov. 7 ballot vacated by 44th District Rep. Andy Thomas.
Maurer is not new to the inner workings of Indiana politics at the state level.
For nine years Maurer lobbied for patient and healthcare rights at the statehouse. He is the past president and a current board member of Community Pharmacies of Indiana.
There are four points that come to mind when he is asked about that service.
The first bill he lobbied for was to recognize pharmacists as health care providers in the eyes of government.
He also supports the right of patients to obtain medicines at the pharmacy of their choice and the right of patients to purchase a three-month supply of prescription medicine from their local pharmacist. People have been able to buy a three-month supply over the Internet for years. The insurance industry’s rules have often prevented such local purchases, Maurer said.
Fritz has also attended a committee meeting and offered advice in support of a State bill to limit the purchase of over the counter medicines used to make Methamphetamine. He also advised Judge Blaine Akers on the subject.
Maurer is a worship leader and is on the pastor-parish committee of Harmony United Methodist Church.
He doesn’t want to change his values, but realizes a state representative must compromise with other representatives to accomplish good for the state’s residents.
Fritz said pharmacists are in the top three most trusted professions in America and a person has to be honest and honorable to be trusted.
Maurer thinks education and using the Major Moves interest income will be hot topics in coming years.
“I would like to put some common sense back into paperwork for teachers,” he said.
Maurer believes teachers should have more time to teach and that means reducing the burden of paperwork now required.
He would also like to be in a position to hold the state accountable for the money entrusted to legislators. He is particularly interested in getting the most benefit from the money accrued from the Indiana Toll Road lease, better known as Major Moves.
He thinks he knows what is important because, “I’m out there in business every day, working with the folks who are trying to get through life.”
Fritz graduated from Brazil High School in 1968 and from Purdue University in 1973.
In July 2005, he sold his Brazil pharmacy and converted the business into a Wellness Center, concentrating on helping people through natural medicine, a concept, “to work with people’s bodies to get them well instead of working against the body as most prescription medicines do,” he said.
By selling his pharmacy, Maurer has time to run and serve in state government, he said.
In May, 2002, he received certification in Clinical Nutrition and became a Doctor of Natural Medicine in October, 2004, at the Pan-American Institute of BioEnergetic & Naturopathic Medicine, Nevis, West Indies.
He and wife, Judy, have four children, Elisha (Ryan) London, Mitch, Marc and Michael; and a granddaughter, Ella Grace London, 2 months old. The Maurers have been married 30 years.
“I’ve served you as a pharmacist,” he said. “I would like to serve you as a state legislator.”