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The first television ad from Republicans in this year’s Indiana secretary of state race is an all-out attack on Greg Ballard’s time as the Republican mayor of Indianapolis.
By the end of Friday, two other ads had been released — one targeting Democrat Beau Bayh’s voting history and another touting Republican nominee Max Engling.
The 30-second Ballard commercial that started airing Friday doesn’t mention Engling. But the narrator and on-screen text repeatedly denounces “liberal Greg Ballard” and says he failed as the city’s mayor.
Ballard, who is running under the Lincoln Party banner, responded that he is proud of his record in office from 2008 through 2015 and described the ad as “built on fiction.”
“This is a panic move from the Indiana Republican Party,” Ballard said in a statement. “You don’t attack candidates you’re not afraid of. Part of the reason I’m running for this office is to reduce the toxicity and negativity of political campaigns.”
The Ballard campaign also quoted a 2014 statement from then-Indiana Republican Party Chairman Tim Berry on Ballard’s decision not to seek re-election as mayor.
“I would like to thank Mayor Greg Ballard for his tireless work and dedication to public service. He has made Indianapolis financially stronger and more vibrant than when he took over eight years ago,” Berry said. “Ballard fought to protect taxpayers, bolster businesses, expand education opportunities and make Indiana’s largest city, a destination city. His focus was always making Indianapolis a better place and that’s certainly a part of the legacy he will leave behind.”
Republicans started broadcast ads a month after Democratic nominee Bayh’s commercials first hit the airwaves.
The new ads are part of $1 million in media spending announced Thursday by the state GOP and Gov. Mike Braun’s campaign to support Engling’s campaign.
“While liberal Beau Bayh lived in Washington D.C., he voted in Indiana elections 15 times. Does that sound right to you?” the ad says. “We can’t trust liberal Beau Bayh to secure our elections when he voted in a state that he wasn’t even living in.”
Bayh, now 30, moved to D.C. in his childhood when his father was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998. He voted absentee in Indiana while he attended college at Harvard University, Harvard Law School and served in the U.S. Marines. Some of those votes were early, in-person ballots that Indiana labels absentee.
Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun — Bayh’s campaign chairman — said on social media “it’s disappointing that Max Engling is using the 25th anniversary of 9/11 to attack a veteran for voting in his home state while he was serving our country. Awful timing from a group more concerned with politics than problem solving. Hoosiers are tired of corruption and division.”
That GOP announcement described the ad push as “part of a statewide effort to make clear the choice facing Hoosier voters in the secretary of state race and highlight what’s at stake this November.”
The Engling ad includes video of him talking with Hoosiers and several pictures his wife and children.
“Hoosier roots and values. IUPUI graduate who met and married his wife here, Max Engling brings battle tested grit to the fight to secure elections and honest government,” it says. “As secretary of state, Max will stop the meddling and ensure election integrity. Max will deliver the accountable leadership Hoosiers deserve.”
The references to honest government and accountable leadership seem to elude to current officeholder Diego Morales, who Engling defeated at the state convention. Engling hasn’t attacked Morales as much as his opponents, who regularly bring up corruption in the office.
Niki Kelly contributed to this report.
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