McCain campaign hopes new ads will keep Hoosier state red

A recent bout of television spots featuring Republican presidential nominee John McCain have led some to believe the presidential nominee is starting to pay more attention to Indiana.

With less than five weeks until the election, the Republican National Committee decided to spend $5 million on the ads in six total states, including Indiana. While Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s campaign has poured millions of dollars into this historically conservative state, Republicans had yet to respond until this week.

“I think what it reflects is you’ve got to work hard to earn the vote. Clearly we’ll have a strong push here in the last month,” said Luke Messer, co-chair of the McCain campaign in Indiana. “People need to know that you’re working to show them why you need to be elected.”

Messer said the RNC coordinates the ads and selects the content. He added that adding advertising would simply better help the campaign’s chances of winning Indiana.

Many Democrats and Republicans alike think the recent flurry of ads might reflect apprehension that the race is closer in Indiana than it ever has been in recent elections.

“What it is a sign of is that the McCain campaign and the Republicans feel just as we do: that this is a battleground state,” said Jonathan Swain, communications manager for the Obama campaign in Indiana. “It’s certainly a state where Barack Obama, for all intensive purposes, has made up some ground and leveled this race.”

Students admitted that Obama’s push for Indiana has grown stronger and has given him a better chance than before.

“If (McCain) wasn’t worried he probably wouldn’t put out any ads,” said senior Jacob Benson, who is taking the Elections 2008 class this semester. “They’re usually one-sided either way.”

Benson said he admits advertising money spent isn’t always the best reflection of who is ahead, adding that negative advertising makes him think even less of a candidate.
Senior Claire Dyer said advertising doesn’t affect voters already strong in their views but thought it could be effective in swaying undecided ones.

“I think he realizes Indiana shouldn’t be counted on as a Republican state this year, that it will be a state to fight over,” Dyer said.

IU College Republicans chairwoman Chelsea Kane said advertising dollars alone can’t show how well a candidate is doing in a particular state.

“Just because you don’t make a state part of your electoral strategy, doesn’t mean that you’re not working hard there too,” Kane said of McCain’s decision to spend significantly less money in Indiana.

“It’s not as if we don’t have anything on John McCain here and suddenly we’re seeing him,” Kane said. “For most people in Indiana who think this is just John McCain finally showing his face is just not true at all.”

Justin Hill, chairman of Students for John McCain at IU, said the ads were necessary at a time when Republicans were perhaps “too confident that they’ll win Indiana,” Hill said.

“I do think that Indiana has become more of a battleground state this election even though it shouldn’t be,” he said. “I think they’ve taken it for granted that Indiana was red.”

-The Associated Press contributed to this report.