Gregg ad strategy questioned

WISHTV.COM

Jim Shella

Updated: Oct 1, 2012 6:02 PM

Democrat John Gregg started a new ad in the race for governor Monday and, again, he’s attacking the record of Republican Mike Pence.  It is Gregg’s fifth ad and they are all shot in Sandborn, his southern Indiana hometown.

This time Gregg compares Mike Pence to the local auctioneer, whom he refers to as a “fast talker.”  He criticizes Pence for voting for tax breaks for the wealthy while in Congress.  “I just disagree,” says Gregg in the ad, “and I hope no amount of fast talk will change your mind either.”

It’s a distinctive approach that doesn’t appear to be working.  Ball State Political Scientist Ray Scheele points out that Gregg isn’t giving voters a reason to vote for him, only reasons to vote against Pence.  “He’s going to have to start talking some real issues and where he plans to take Indiana,” says Scheele, “and thus far that hasn’t happened in his television.”

Unless, of course, you factor in the folksy approach.  The Gregg ads have raised his profile and helped voters get to know him, but Mike Pence still hasn’t been forced to respond to any of them and Pence continues to hold a double digit lead.

It’s why you now hear grumbling from Democrats who would like Gregg to take a different approach.

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