Indiana Senate candidates set to debate

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Monday night, Democrat Joe Donnelly, Republican Richard Mourdock and Libertarian Andrew Horning will face off in their first debate in Indiana's heated Senate race.

"It would be nice to see in one of these debates them tell us what they're going to do instead of how bad the other person is," Indiana voter Todd Dobbels said.

The fight is on and political experts said the Indiana Senate race is about as tight as it comes.

"There has been some polling across the state," Political Science professor Jay McCann said. "A recent poll released by one of the Howey polls late last month showed that for all practical purposes it was a toss-up. What we can expect is whether it's economic issues, social issues, the Supreme Court may even come up because the senate plays a big role in the Supreme Court nominations. All of that will be fair game tonight."

McCann said when it comes to the candidates fighting for a seat in the Senate, the contrast is there in general ideological terms.

"Mourdock for his part contested the Republican primary from the right of Richard Lugar. He's known to be very much a conservative in the tea-party mold," McCann said.

And on the other hand, McCann said Donnelly is known as a centrist Democrat.

"The scores that Donnelly has got over the years suggests that he's kind of in the Evan Bayh tradition of moderate Hoosier democrat," McCann said.

Experts said Indiana's Senate battle is one of about a half-dozen tight races across the country that will decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate.

You can tune into News 18 Monday night at 7 p.m. to watch the debate live.

News 18 will also be streaming the debate live online .