The Dole Effect?

INDIANAPOLIS: High-level officials in the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Stephen Goldsmith are grumbling that they're running against more than one opponent, TIME Midwest correspondent Julie Grace reports. "The feeling is that Bob Dole is dragging down the whole ticket. Polls show Goldsmith trailing lieutenant Governor Frank O'Bannon, but Goldsmith is very popular and was running six points ahead on August 9," Grace says. The erosion of Goldsmith's lead may be due to hard campaigning from O'Bannon, but it coincides with the growing resignation among Republicans to Dole's defeat. GOP campaign officials say the Indiana race is much closer than polls suggest, and they may step up the already torrid media campaign this weekend. It's one of the most hotly contested races in the Midwest, and may be the most interesting gubernatorial race this year. Goldsmith is the popular mayor of Indianapolis, where voters elected him despite his warning that he planned to run for governor and might be unable to finish his term. His aggressive policy of privatization has angered some, but has been a financial success for the city. He clinched the GOP nomination in May after defeating a candidate backed by the state party apparatus. O'Bannon, on the other hand, rose to statewide fame on the coattails of astoundingly popular Governor Evan Bayh, who has reached the two-term limit. "It would be hard for anyone to emerge from the coattails of Bayh," Grace says, "But the association with Bayh is not necessarily a bad thing." Over in Goldsmith's camp, the sense is that the association with Dole, however remote, just might be a bad thing -- and may decide who becomes the next governor of Indiana. -- Scot Woods