Take a closer look at the candidates running for governor

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - We've all seen the political campaigns on TV. Some more than others, but all are trying to do one thing, attract voters.

News 18 spoke with a political expert who said with three candidates running for governor, voters are seeing three very different campaigns.

Gearing up for the debate for the governor's seat all three candidates, Republican Mike Pence, Democrat John Gregg and Libertarian Rupert Boneham, are focusing on their campaigns.

Purdue Political Science Professor and Department Head Rosalee Clawson said while Pence is a polished and professional politician. She said Gregg has a different appeal to voters.

"Gregg is much more folksy," Clawson said. "Now he is also a very polished politician but he is going to come off as very folksy. That's part of his appeal to people I think."

As for Libertarian Rupert Boneham, Clawson said she doesn't know what to expect at the debate.

"He's a Libertarian. He is favoring much smaller government, how we can shrink the size of government. I haven't seen any commercials by him so I don't know how to expect his demeanor to be," Clawson said.

Clawson said while Boneham and Pence haven't changed their campaign much, Gregg seems to be evolving as a candidate. She said in early campaign commercials Gregg was in rural settings and embracing the "folksy" persona, but now the commercials are a little different.

"Now he's moving toward more serious settings and he's wearing a suit and tie and so I think his strategy all along has been to be folksy, appeal to people, get them to pay attention to who he is and now he's going to talk more substantively about the political issues and his background," Clawson said.

Right now Gregg is trailing Pence by 13 points in the polls. Clawson said while campaign commercials may be helping Pence there is another possible reason Pence is in the lead.

"That's driven a lot by the fact that he's the Republican candidate and Indiana tends to be a Republican state and Gregg really needs to try and combat that in his campaigns. In his campaigns he's trying to come off as folksy and independent. He's stressing that he wants people to look beyond party labels," Clawson said.