"Hum-drum" governor's race may heat up yet - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

The calmest race in Indiana during this election year may get heated before its all over.

The contest for the Indiana Senate is already hotly-contested and close, but polls show the governor's race is not close. That is leading many to consider it a hum-drum campaign.

We have all seen them, the campaign commercials for governor, but are we getting anything out of it? Eyewitness News decided to ask some Hoosiers what they thought of the John Gregg and Mike Pence campaign commercials.

"Seems like he is for the people," Rosey Kinsley said after watching a Pence ad. "He wants to stop spending so much federal money and get us back on the right track and out of debt."

Hal Daniels says he's seen a particular Gregg campaign commercial "a couple of times."

"Tells me he's a good old boy. Doesn't tell me what he wants to do or his experience, or how much better he is than Mike Pence," Daniels said.

"One of the reasons this election has blown out for Mike Pence is because the advertising strategy for the other side has not been good," said Republican analyst Peter Rusthoven.

"Halloween is still the end of October. There will be something scarier on the air by then, than what you are seeing now. It's coming. It's coming," said Democratic analyst Robin Winston.

It may have already started in the latest Gregg offering that contrasts a hard working pastor in the candidate's hometown of Sandborn with Congressman Pence.

"Mike makes $174,000 a year and misses 86 percent of his committee votes and hasn't passed a single bill," Gregg says in the ad.

"They make me smile. They are negative ads that don't feel negative," said Dr. Kristy Sheeler, who teaches communications studies at IUPUI. "I am a little surprised the ads have not trended away from biography and toward differences between the two candidates."

The candidates have 53 days to work on that.