RNC buys TV ads for McCain with polls close in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS – The Republican National Committee has started running TV commercials in Indiana supporting John McCain – the most visible GOP response to Democrat Barack Obama’s push to turn this traditionally red state blue.

Democrats said the ads, coming five weeks before the election, are proof that Republicans finally realize Indiana might be up for grabs, as some recent polls suggest.

“They believe John McCain is in trouble in this state,” said Jonathan Swain, Obama’s communications director for Indiana. “This isn’t a state that they feel is solidly in their column right now.”

Republicans have been confident that McCain would win Indiana, but say it was simply time to respond to Obama’s efforts.

“You can’t let millions and millions of dollars of negative ads go unanswered,” said Luke Messer, co-chairman for McCain’s Indiana campaign.

The RNC’s independent expenditure unit started airing the ads Tuesday in all major Indiana television markets except the Louisville, Ky., area, said Brad Todd, a spokesman for the unit.

The ads, titled “Worse,” focus on the country’s economic crisis and are also running in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. The ads will run initially for eight days and will cost $5 million to air in the six states, Todd said.

Obama’s campaign spent about $6 million on TV commercials in Indiana leading up to the May primary and has run at least $1.5 million in television ads since June. Obama has made five stops in the state since mid-July, and the campaign has set up more than 30 offices around the state.

McCain hasn’t visited the state since July 1, and the campaign has no field offices, relying on state- and county-level organizations to build support.

Three polls conducted in September showed either a tight race between Obama and McCain, or McCain slightly ahead.

Swain said Obama is doing something new to many Indiana residents – actively competing for Hoosier votes.

“Barack Obama was committed to Indiana from the beginning,” Swain said. “Meanwhile, Republicans have really taken this state for granted.”

Republicans say Indiana voters’ values are more in line with McCain’s.

“We’re going to work hard and take nothing for granted,” Messer said. “We’ve got to earn the vote of every Hoosier in the state, and that’s what we intend to do.”

The GOP has history on its side. Indiana, which carries 11 electoral votes, last went Democratic in the 1964 Lyndon Johnson landslide. George W. Bush won with 60 percent in 2004 and 57 percent in 2000.