INDIANAPOLIS -- Democrat Jill Long Thompson will begin airing her first general election television ad in weeks today in her campaign to oust Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Long Thompson says in the 30-second spot that Daniels "would have us believe Indiana is doing as well as can be expected," but she thinks the state could do much better.
She said the state can improve its high school graduation rate and avoid losing thousands of jobs, and she criticizes Daniels for outsourcing some Indiana government jobs to other states and countries. She says if she were governor, the state would not do that.
The 30-second spot will be aired on network stations around the state, but will be limited to cable TV in the Chicago market that covers the northwestern corner of Indiana, said Long Thompson spokesman Jeff Harris.
Daniels has run TV commercials continuously since March. Long Thompson aired her first general election commercial in July, but had not run any since Labor Day.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indiana has lost nearly 22,000 jobs this year through the end of August. But the Daniels administration cites BLS statistics as showing that Indiana is still up more than 30,000 jobs since he took office in January 2005.
New BLS numbers for states are due out today, said Gary Abell, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
Daniels campaign spokesman Cam Savage declined to comment on the new Long Thompson ad.
But state GOP Chairman Murray Clark did react.
"Jill Long Thompson had a choice with two weeks left in this campaign," Clark said. "She could have used her last ad to lay out a positive vision for the future of this state, or continue the negative attacks. Obviously, I'm disappointed that she didn't articulate a vision, but I can't say that I'm surprised."
Harris said anytime you run against an incumbent, it's a referendum on that person's record and the challenger's job to highlight differences between the candidates.
"Also, as you know, 30 seconds isn't really enough time to go into great detail about anything including our entire One Indiana Plan," he said. "Jill has laid out a 56-page economic recovery plan and has traveled the state continually touting various portions of it."