Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) ties Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) to President Obama and himself to popular Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) in his new ad.
The ad frames the election in the GOP-leaning state as a
choice between a standard Democrat who's been in Washington, D.C., for years and Mourdock, a Republican who's spent his time in the state.
"This fall, Hoosiers have a choice: Continue down the Washington path of Donnelly and Obama, more government spending, more ObamaCare and more taxes, or follow the Indiana principles that Richard Mourdock and Mitch Daniels fight for," the ad's narrator says.
"Balanced budgets, lower taxes and less government interference," Mourdock chimes in. "This is how we'll create better jobs and more opportunity for all Hoosiers."
This race will be won or lost by whether Donnelly can get enough separation from Obama and his party to win over independents and centrist Republicans unhappy with Mourdock for defeating Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) in the primary, or whether Mourdock can get distance from his previous hard-right statements and positions and turn the race into a choice between an acceptable Republican and a standard Democrat.
Donnelly has already been on the air pushing some of Mourdock's more conservative views.
The ad has $100,000 behind it, a substantial buy in the state, and notably is running in Indianapolis and South Bend, Lugar's and Donnelly's bases, and not in Evansville, where Mourdock hails from.
