INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana has quickly become a major battleground in the race for control of the U.S. Senate, with national Republicans and Democrats forking over more cash this week to tea party favorite Richard Mourdock and Democrat Joe Donnelly.
Republicans, who must gain four seats to take control of the Senate, extended a run of attack ads for Mourdock this week. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, meanwhile, is spending $439,000 in coming days on Donnelly's behalf.
A Democratic source who tracks ad spending confirmed the new buys on background because campaigns will not openly talk about how much they are spending. The Mourdock campaign has spent another $300,000 on Indiana's airwaves, bringing the total spent so far to more than $8 million.
Donnelly's latest spot features him standing in the middle of a country road while an actor playing Mourdock yells at him: "Hey, Donnelly! It's my way or the highway!"
The Mourdock camp hit back with its own country-road spot, featuring a car
being driven by Donnelly taking a hard left at the end of the road before veering through the mud. "Donnelly follows Obama and Pelosi, going the wrong way," the narrator says.
Polls have shown Mourdock and Donnelly statistically tied since the general election began in May, after Mourdock defeated longtime U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar.
While Democratic groups went on the air early in Indiana, Republicans have only recently made it to the state's airwaves as they look to defend what would have been a safe seat had Lugar won the primary.
In both cases, the campaigns stick by their strategies of trying to paint their opponent as too extreme. Democrats have pushed that angle longer, but Mourdock's campaign recently settled on a fairly consistent message.
Crossroads GPS, by far the biggest national spender of any super PAC this cycle, barraged TV viewers in Indiana last week with a $1 million ad buy attacking Donnelly for supporting the new health care law and the $831 billion economic stimulus package.
Super PACs aligned with Democrats and public employee unions returned the favor this week with their own $1 million buy in the state, accusing Mourdock of threatening auto worker jobs when he fought the federal bailout of Chrysler in 2009.
For better or worse, the deluge has boosted Mourdock's name recognition.
"When I walk down Meridian Street, people either give me an 'attaboy' or the finger," Mourdock said of his experiences lately on Indianapolis' main thoroughfare.
